M.I.A.

Steppin' Up

6 Meanings

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Steppin' Up Lyrics

Steppin' up in the club
All tooled up like a thug
rub-a-dub-dub, rub-a-rub-a-dub-dub (x4)

I light up like a genie and I blow up on this song
Aladdin; no kiddin', boy I need a rub
Me and my speakers speak in sub, sub, sub
You know who I am, I run this fuckin' club
dub-a-dub-a-dub-a-dub, club-a-club-a-love-a-love

Basslines and ass anything fast
Humpin' on my leg
Yo, I'm the fuckin' best
Making your money last
Hide it in the back
Sound of a bomb blast throw it in the bag

Basslines and cars anything fast
Know who I am, run this fuckin' club
Speaker speakin' sub
Throwin' fire like a mob
Flash, bang, thunder
demolition job

M-I-A, You know who I am (x2)

CHORUS

I can nail a sound and that shit will make you jump
I can smash a beat so that track will make you run
I'm tooled up to the tee, I tie up just for fun
Get ready for the steady of stream weights by the ton

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Writer

Maya Arulpragasam, Christopher Mercer, Dave Taylor

Duration

4:01

Producer

Rusko

Release date

Jul 09, 2010

Sentiment

Positive

Submitted by

brandon123 On Jun 26, 2010

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brandon123

Submitter

2010-06-26 03:10:03

6 Meanings

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by meyay

16y ago

she's a little arrogant, but she's got the goods to back it up. Or she's making fun of other rappers who say stuff like this.

this song remains me of Missy Elliot

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by retron23

15y ago

This song is all gangster drug dealer club culture. It's kind of an industrial-dancehall answer to 50 Cent's 'In Da Club'. Weights by the ton for the party to enjoy...

Pretty sure the line is

Basslines and ass anything 's fast Humpin' on my leg Yo I'm on my fucking glass

which I took to mean she's high on her own amphetamine supply. "I'm tooled up to the tee" can have a double meaning: packing weapons but also blitzed on drugs. "I tie up just for fun" could be bragging that she's so hardcore she injects speed (or whatever) for the hell of it. There was a huge amount of amphetamine use in the London club scene back in the day, so there might be some nostalgia here. Obviously it's all just gangsta style and not meant to be taken as seriously as M.I.A.'s super political stuff. The chainsaw at the beginning reminded me of the ultraviolent scene in Scarface.

On the back of the disk: “They can rewrite history, but we can re rewrite it faster. We have speed in our hands, amphetamines in our system, and the system is corrupt.”