Praise The Lord (Da Shine) (feat. Skepta)

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" is a multifaceted anthem that celebrates success, resilience, and the complex duality of the artists' lives. At its core, the song is a victory lap for both A$AP Rocky and Skepta, reflecting on their journeys from hustling to achieving global recognition. The central theme is a blend of gratitude and transgression, encapsulated in the hook: "I came, I saw, I praise the Lord, then break the law." This line re-contextualizes the famous quote from Julius Caesar, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered), to fit their reality, where faith and illicit activities are intertwined paths to success and survival. It speaks to a moral ambiguity, acknowledging a higher power while simultaneously operating by a different set of rules to get ahead.

The song also explores the theme of transatlantic connection and cultural exchange. The collaboration itself, uniting a Harlem rapper with a London grime MC, is significant. The music video visually reinforces this by using a split screen to show parallel scenes in New York and London, which eventually merge. This highlights their shared experiences and ambitions despite their different origins.

Another key meaning is the idea of reaping the rewards of hard work, or "Da Shine." Both artists flex their wealth, status, and influence, from Rocky's Dior shades and velour pants to the general tone of confidence. However, this shine is not without its shadows. Rocky has explained that the line "It rains, it pours" is a double entendre. While it signifies an abundance of blessings and money, it also alludes to the personal tragedies and losses of loved ones (his father, A$AP Yams, his sister) that have coincided with his album releases. This adds a layer of poignant reflection to the celebratory track, suggesting that great success often comes with great pain.

The song chronicles a journey of ambition, success, and the inherent dualities of life, as told through the perspectives of American rapper A$AP Rocky and British MC Skepta. It opens with A$AP Rocky establishing a tone of untouchable success and self-assurance. He boasts about his elevated status, where he can ignore unknown callers and effortlessly flex his wealth and influence. He gives credit to his crew, acknowledging both their strategic plans for success and their necessary 'escape plans,' hinting at the precarious nature of their lifestyle. The imagery of 'twenty bands, rain dance' and 'pockets loaded, rocket loaded' paints a picture of immense wealth and a constant readiness for action. There's a reference to the film 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,' which reinforces a theme of clever, high-stakes maneuvering. Rocky also touches on the discipline required to maintain his position, noting that he sometimes stops smoking to focus. His verse concludes with an assertion of his creative power and ambition: 'Create, explore, expand, conquer'.

The chorus, delivered by Skepta, becomes the song's central mantra. It's a powerful declaration of arriving, achieving, and then bending the rules to acquire even more. The phrase 'I came, I saw, I praise the Lord, then break the law' is a modern, street-wise twist on Caesar's 'Veni, vidi, vici'. It encapsulates a complex morality, where gratitude and faith coexist with illicit activities. The line 'It rains, it pours' serves as a double entendre, signifying both the abundance of success and blessings, and as A$AP Rocky later explained, the personal tragedies he often faces around his album releases. This recurring motif highlights the constant interplay of fortune and misfortune in their lives.

Skepta's verse shifts the geographical and narrative focus to his own experiences, likely rooted in London. He reminisces about his past, 'I sold the pack, the loose, the hard,' grounding his current success in a history of hustling. He pays homage to his influences, mentioning he 'listened to X' (widely interpreted as DMX) and learned from his raw lyrical style. Skepta offers a cautionary note, 'The game's a trap, protect your heart,' acknowledging the dangers and betrayals inherent in their world. His verse builds with a crescendo of determination, repeating 'to shine' as a personal mission statement. He asserts his dominance with lines like 'I hustle, I flex, the world is mine' and 'I make the devil go weak [at] the knees,' a metaphor for overcoming immense obstacles. His delivery is sharp and direct, emphasizing a 'don't speak, we squeeze' philosophy of action over words.

The song's outro sees A$AP Rocky return with a final flourish of bravado and style. He references his sexual prowess ('She came, I came, now what's my name?') and his signature fashion sense ('My chain, my pants, my pants with the chain'). The closing lines, 'Give thanks, get fresh, praise the Lord then finesse, bless,' neatly summarize the song's core themes. It's a cyclical process: being grateful for what you have, maintaining your image, acknowledging a higher power, and then skillfully maneuvering through life to secure your position. The track as a whole is a celebration of transatlantic success, a testament to the artists' resilience, and a complex portrait of a life lived on the edge, balancing faith, ambition, and the laws of the street.

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" was released on June 26, 2018, as the second single from A$AP Rocky's third studio album, Testing. The song is a significant collaboration between A$AP Rocky and British grime artist Skepta, who not only features on the track but also produced it. This track marked their third official collaboration, building on a creative relationship established on earlier projects.

The creation of the song is famously rooted in a psychedelic experience. In an interview with Genius, A$AP Rocky revealed that the entire song was written and conceived in London while he and Skepta were under the influence of LSD. Rocky described having a "psychedelic professor" who studied LSD come to the studio to monitor them during the creative process. He stated they "did the rhymes tripping balls," an experience he found creatively profound, saying, "I never saw colors like that before. Music never sounded that good before." This experimental and mind-bending atmosphere is reflected in the psychedelic texture of the album Testing as a whole.

The song's distinctive flute-like melody is a sample from "Andean Stroll Panpipe 02," found in the 'Jam Pack: World Music' add-on for Apple's GarageBand software, demonstrating Skepta's creative and unconventional approach to production. The music video, directed by Dexter Navy, was released on June 5, 2018, and further cemented the song's themes by visually merging the worlds of New York and London.

The rhyme and rhythm of "Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" are fundamental to its hypnotic and compelling structure, reflecting a blend of classic hip-hop techniques with a modern trap cadence.

Rhyme Scheme:

The song generally employs a free verse structure within the verses, focusing more on flow and internal rhymes than a strict, end-rhyme scheme. However, both artists make extensive use of rhyming couplets and multi-syllabic rhymes. For example, A$AP Rocky's verse contains couplets like "I don't know the number / every bone and muscle" and "shout out to my n*ggas with a game plan / shout outs all my n*ggas with escape plans." Skepta's verse is particularly noted for its intricate wordplay and internal rhymes: "I sold the pack, the loose, the hard / I listened to X, I peeped the bars / The snakes, the rats, the cats, the dogs / The game's a trap, protect your heart." This creates a dense, percussive lyrical texture. The chorus itself follows a simple AABB rhyme scheme (saw/law, more/pours), making it incredibly memorable and chant-like.

Rhythm and Flow:

The song's rhythm is driven by a mid-tempo trap beat produced by Skepta, characterized by booming 808s and rapid, skittering hi-hats. The overall tempo is steady, creating a trance-like groove. The lyrical rhythm plays dynamically against the musical rhythm. A$AP Rocky's flow is characteristically relaxed and slightly behind the beat, giving his verse a sense of effortless cool and swagger. In contrast, Skepta's delivery is more on-beat and aggressive, reflecting his grime roots and lending an intensity to his verse. The rhythmic interplay between the two distinct flows is a key feature of the track, highlighting the transatlantic collaboration. The hypnotic pan-flute sample provides a continuous melodic rhythm that weaves through the entire song, anchoring the vocal performances.

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" employs a range of stylistic techniques, both musically and lyrically, to create its distinct, hypnotic effect.

Musical Techniques:

• Instrumentation and Sampling: The song's most notable musical feature is its primary melodic hook, a pan flute melody sampled from Apple's GarageBand library ("Andean Stroll Panpipe 02"). This unconventional choice for a hip-hop track creates a unique, slightly ethereal, and highly memorable sound that contrasts with the hard-hitting trap drums.
• Production: Skepta's production is minimalist yet effective. It relies on a foundation of heavy 808s, crisp snares, and repetitive hi-hats, characteristic of the trap genre. The beat's hypnotic, looping nature complements the psychedelic origins of the song's creation.
• Vocal Delivery: Both artists use their distinct vocal styles to represent their origins. A$AP Rocky employs his signature laid-back, charismatic flow, while Skepta brings a sharper, more urgent delivery rooted in UK grime. The interplay between the American and British cadences is a key stylistic element.

Literary Techniques:

• Allusion: The song is peppered with allusions, most notably to the Julius Caesar quote "Veni, vidi, vici" and the Guy Ritchie film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." These references add layers of meaning and cultural context.
• Antithesis: The core of the chorus, "praise the Lord, then break the law," is a powerful use of antithesis, placing two opposing ideas side-by-side to highlight the moral complexity and duality of the artists' lives.
• Repetition: The chorus and the phrase "it rains, it pours" are repeated throughout, functioning as a mantra or motif that reinforces the song's central themes and enhances its catchy, chant-like quality. Skepta's repetition of "to shine" in his verse similarly emphasizes his driving ambition.
• Slang and Colloquialism: The lyrics are rich with slang from both American and British street culture (e.g., "finesse," "greaze"), which lends authenticity to the artists' narratives and grounds the song in their respective environments.

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" has had a significant cultural impact since its release, becoming one of A$AP Rocky's most recognizable and commercially successful songs. It achieved widespread popularity, peaking at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the UK Official Singles Chart, demonstrating its strong appeal on both sides of the Atlantic. The song has been certified double platinum by the RIAA in the United States, signifying massive sales and streaming figures.

The track is celebrated as a landmark collaboration between American hip-hop and UK grime, solidifying the growing creative bond between the two scenes. Skepta himself noted the song's power came from the authentic story of him taking grime to America and meeting Rocky in that cultural space. The music video, directed by Dexter Navy, became iconic for its split-screen portrayal of New York and London, visually cementing this transatlantic bridge and has amassed over 640 million views on YouTube as of late 2024.

The song's unique pan-flute beat, produced by Skepta, became instantly recognizable and has been influential in showcasing the creative possibilities of using unconventional samples in trap music. Its success bolstered the experimental direction of Rocky's album Testing and is often cited as a standout track from that project. The song's ubiquity has seen it featured in numerous contexts, and it remains a staple in both artists' live performances, often played to massive festival crowds.

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" is rich with symbolism and metaphors that deepen its themes of success, struggle, and spirituality.

• "I came, I saw, I praise the Lord, then break the law": This is the song's central and most powerful metaphor. It's a modern twist on Julius Caesar's declaration, "I came, I saw, I conquered." By replacing "conquered" with a two-part process of praising God and breaking the law, the artists create a complex statement about their path to power. It symbolizes a life of duality, where they navigate both spiritual faith and the often-illicit realities of the street to achieve their goals.
• "It rains, it pours": This phrase acts as a double-edged metaphor. On one hand, it symbolizes overwhelming success and blessings, as in the saying "when it rains, it pours." On the other hand, A$AP Rocky has imbued it with a darker, personal meaning, symbolizing the recurring tragedies and loss of loved ones that have plagued him during the release periods of his albums. It represents the unavoidable link between triumph and pain in his life.
• "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels": This is a direct cultural reference to Guy Ritchie's 1998 British crime film. Symbolically, it aligns Rocky's hustle with the film's narrative of clever, high-stakes, and often chaotic criminal endeavors, grounding his American bravado in a classic piece of London grit.
• "I make the devil go weak [at] the knees": A metaphor used by Skepta to illustrate his power and resilience. It's a boast that his strength, determination, or perhaps his faith is so formidable that it can overcome the most significant evil or adversity imaginable.
• "The game's a trap, protect your heart": This is a direct metaphor for the music industry and the street life. Skepta warns that this world is deceptive and dangerous, and that emotional vulnerability can be a liability. It symbolizes the need for guardedness and wisdom to survive.

"Praise The Lord (Da Shine)" is built around several powerful recurring phrases and motifs that anchor its meaning and structure.

• "I came, I saw, I praise the Lord, then break the law": This is the song's primary lyrical motif and its most memorable hook. Repeated multiple times by Skepta in the chorus, it functions as the track's central thesis. Its significance lies in its encapsulation of the song's core duality: the coexistence of faith and illicit action, of gratitude and ambition. The repetition transforms it into a powerful, defiant mantra that defines the artists' worldview.
• "It rains, it pours": This phrase is repeated at the end of each half of the chorus. It serves as a crucial motif with a dual meaning. Primarily, it suggests an overwhelming abundance of success and wealth. However, it also carries a more somber, personal significance for A$AP Rocky, symbolizing the recurring personal tragedies he has faced. Its repetition reinforces the idea that immense good and bad fortune are inextricably linked in their lives.
• "To shine": In Skepta's verse, the phrase "to shine" is repeated five times in quick succession. This repetition acts as a motif for ambition, determination, and the ultimate goal of their hustle. It's the driving force behind their actions, the reason they navigate the treacherous "game." Its relentless repetition mirrors a single-minded focus on achieving success and recognition.
• The Act of Praising/Giving Thanks: The motif of gratitude and spirituality appears at key moments. The chorus explicitly mentions "praise the Lord," and the outro concludes with "Give thanks, get fresh, praise the Lord then finesse, bless." This recurring theme provides a moral counterbalance to the mentions of "breaking the law" and hustling, suggesting a foundational belief system that underpins their actions.