Song Analysis: Novacane

Norberto Escalante
Martin del Campo
English 1302
9 March 2014
Novacane
Many musical artists write or compose songs that have a double meaning. The type of song that you have to pay real close attention to the lyrics in this case, Dwayne Carter, also known as Lil Wayne, rapper from New Orleans wrote a song called “Novacane” this drug stabilizes your neural membrane and helps the prevention of nerve impulses causing no feeling acting as an anesthesia. This particular drug makes you hallucinate, more confident, and not giving you a sense of pain in your body similar to the drug cocaine. There are no major differences between the drugs both are white powdery substance inhaled through the nose. But the difference is that Novacane is far more addictive

than regular cocaine. And that Love can also be as addictive, make you feel emotions and do actions you normally wouldn’t do. Him not comparing but giving us similarities on his drug, and love life. He uses symbolism in this poem to give the song a double meaning.
As young as I am growing up was a challenge and as life passed I ran into a girl that I once thought she was the one, perfect in every way possible. Many would complement on how beautiful my girlfriend was. I could in fact say I was in love it was an addiction. I would always be thinking about her and would do stuff I normally wouldn’t do around public. One day my friend told me she was cheating on me. I told myself it was a lie I kept on playing with her games because It did felt that I actually need her until my friends confronted me and told me to leave her alone that I wasn’t the same person as before. And I had to change leaving her was the hardest decisions I’ve made and till this day I don’t regret leaving her. Knowing if I would of stayed with her I might be a totally different person.
In the first verse, Lil Wayne describes the power the drug has on him showing his weak struggle towards the drug. “Good lord almighty, I’m in love with a whitey I call her Aphrodite, I call her when I need her And she give me good love til’ my nose start bleeding.” A white girl is referred in this quote but as stated before this synthetic drug is a white powder also giving same specific description of a girl in his life. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the Goddess of love, which in the verse, means that he loves the so called whitey. In the part, “as she give me good love,” refers to the girl giving him pleasure as well as the drug making him feel high. The last part of the verse, he states that the girl’s pleasure gives him a nose bleed.
In the second verse of his song, “Novacane,” Lil’ Wayne uses the line, “You used to make me feel so good like I was on top of the world.” Under the influence of this drug numbness is the only feeling you get making him feel invincible and on top of the world.

Every man should meet that special someone that will make you feel like the most the luckiest man in the world which is what he tells the girl later in the verse. “And I see her in the streets but I can’t bring her home,” Lil’ Wayne again refers to the same two things. Since cocaine is illegal, there are many people who deal drugs on the streets. When he says that he sees her in the streets, he means that he can see people dealing cocaine in the streets making deals, and since he’s writing this farewell song, he can’t have any of the cocaine he’s being tempted by. The literary element found here is conflict can be found for he is expressing a resistance towards the drug. As the same goes, he sees the girl walking in the streets and wants to make her come, over but women don’t all work that easy. But he denies the sight of the drug, as well as the girl, when he says, “But I can’t bring her home.” The line after that, he states, “I was on her line all day, no phone Hah. No Arms & Hammer in my Tony Montana.” When Lil’ Wayne says that he was on her line all day, he is talking about when an addict does cocaine, he has to cut it into lines and snort it. This can also mean that he was in love with the girl for a long time and she never paid attention to him, kind of like being in the friend zone. In the movie “Scarface,” Tony Montana is the most popular cocaine dealer and he added this metaphor to show how big of a cocaine user he was. Many look up to him because of his brutal killings and being a big time cocaine

dealer.
Synthetic drugs and love are not common topics to be compared with each other but in this song where a broken heart and drug abuse are both causes of explicable behavior they make a double meaning out of these verses. Having these similar traits should be a problem medically and emotionally. Although we make love sound so nice and sweet, love does carry its bad side as Lil Wayne just compared its bad sides to a highly addictive drug.