I noticed a pretty consistent appearance of references to cars and driving across all but two of the tracks on the album. I think this through line is setup on Darkseid with the opening sound of a cassette popping into a player, most likely in a car (whose engine you can hear shutting off at the end of the song):

“Yeah, whatever gon' keep your nose dry, my n, I'm with it I know it got you froze, my n, I feel it Some n’s be runnin' away from life, some n’s cut off the legs If I was you, I'd be dead Whatever gon' keep your mind blown, my n, maintain the wheel”

He’s talking about however fucked up your life situation is, find that thing that’s going to keep you from crashing as you drive on through.

It sounds to me like the cassette motif is used to offer up music from zay’s past that is maybe one of the things helping him maintain the wheel. I imagine the cassette as being the source of the different samples that show up on the album like the Nobody Knows intro to From The Garden and the Cheese and Dope loop on RIP Young, Ridin N Da Chevy on Lay Wit Ya, etc. They always seem to sound thinner than the original music written for the album, like they’re coming from car speakers while these scenes and situations from the songs play out.

The two songs whose lyrics don’t include any references to cars or driving are True Story and Don’t Shoot. Not sure if there’s anything connecting those tracks, but before Don’t Shoot starts, at the end of Wat You Said you hear a car wooshing by and the cassette popping in again (flipping over), so maybe that’s like another hint that the music on Don’t Shoot is another balm to help you maintain even in the southside environment.

The last we hear from the cassette is at the end of the first half of HB2U outside with the wind blowing and the lawnmower. Maybe coincidentally, but maybe not, the production on the second half of HB2U, where we’re reminded that we are now human beings, is noticeably lofi - like it’s coming from the car speakers playing that cassette again.

fwiw