Released: 2021 • Features: Gunna
“REPEAT IT” features Gunna is an intoxicating fusion of Lil Tecca and Gunna’s style underpinned by a theme of flaunting their status, reflecting on past struggles, dealing with fame, and their experiences with relationships. In essence, this track paints a lush picture of their pursuit of success, their current lifestyle, blending past hardships with present splendor.
The song opens with Lil Tecca asserting his control on the scene by “telling them to cut all the lights out”. This could be interpreted as his demand for attention and recognition. He additionally reinforcements his status in lines such as “I’m in New York, where it be cold, Look at my neck, ’cause it’s iced out,” ‘Iced out’ being a colloquial term for wearing expensive diamond jewelry, symbolizing his affluence and success in the industry.
Additionally, his reference to New York as being ‘cold’ is a clever double entendre – referring to both the literal weather as well as the tough, competitive nature of the city, a hotbed for hip-hop culture.
Tecca then adopts a defiant attitude in lyrics such as “You want a problem? You better think about it” illustrating his readiness to confront adversaries, and alluding to the potential consequences they’d face. He also touch upon his romantic relations, indicating a past love interest ‘playing games’ with his emotions.
The line “If I look through these Cartier frames, I don’t even see love” demonstrates emotional detachment, using Cartier frames as a metaphor for his hardened perspective on love and relationships.
In contrast, Gunna’s verse presents a more retrospective view, reminiscing about the times when he used to “sleep in the trap house.” Here, the ‘trap house’ refers to a place where illicit drugs were sold, indicating Gunna’s past involvement in such activities before rising to fame.
He also speaks about his opulent lifestyle, shopping in New York and Miami, and gambling in Vegas. His line “Gunna taught you how to dress, nigga, say less, dripping the hardest” asserts his influence on style and fashion in the community, where ‘dripping’ is a popular slang for having a strong sense of fashion.
The song’s chorus and repeated lines like “stayin’ up, I get no rest” and “fuck with the gang and you dead” reflects their dedication to their craft, the perils of living in the fast lane, and the serious consequences of crossing paths with them – an ode to the ‘ride or die’ culture ingrained deeply in the hip-hop ethos.
In sum, “REPEAT IT (with Gunna)” is a revolving door of Lil Tecca and Gunna’s life experiences, a testimony of their ascent from the trenches to the peaks of success, echoing their resilience and determination while illuminating their indulgent, high-living lifestyle, draped in diamonds and designer clothing.
