Chance the Rapper’s Tree Lyrics Meaning: Family Hustle, Indie Soul Roots & A Mixtape Verse for the Books

Star Line, India.Arie Echoes, and a Long-Awaited Revival

Tree is not just another summer drop. It is Chance the Rapper playing three-dimensional chess with his own comeback story.

Released on July 3, 2025, Tree stands as the first single tied to Star Line Gallery, the album he has been teasing for nearly half a decade.

This time, though, he does not just ride the bounce. Listen close and you catch how parts of Tree tap into the spirit of India.Arie’s Video.

It is subtle but that soulful anchor lines up with how Chance always builds music that feels warm, rooted, and self-aware.

India.Arie’s message about realness, self-worth, and not letting image define you floats just beneath the surface, giving Tree an extra bit of heart that keeps it from being just another weed song.

For context, Chance’s last full-length, The Big Day (2019), was the confetti cannon that fizzled out.

Fans were left wondering if the mixtape king had traded honesty for wedding cake bars.

Six years later, Tree is a laid-back but loaded reset. He brings in Smino, his trusted creative foil, and Lil Wayne, whose feature lands like proof that he still knows when to switch into hungry mode.

The sound is built by Groove and DexLvL, whose warm, hazy production drifts back to the block-party spirit that made Acid Rap feel like an open invite.

A Look at the Visual: A Nursery, a Plug, and A Grown-Up Metaphor

Chance directed the video himself. Instead of a glossy hype clip, the setting is a casual hangout inside a marijuana nursery and shop.

The visual does more than show rolling and smoking. The tree is both literal and symbolic — the weed, the family incense, the small hustle that holds the house together.

By showing it all, Chance links the conversation to the same message India.Arie was singing decades ago: look past the surface, protect your roots, stay real.

Line by Line: “Tree” as a Working-Class Family Album

Stop at the hook and Tree could pass for a standard smoke anthem.

Listen closer and you hear lines that loop back to family, survival, and the everyday spiritual lessons that sit at the heart of India.Arie’s Video.

“My mama used to always keep a lil’ bit of ‘dro / The incense in the window while she foldin’ our clothes”

These first lines set up the entire metaphor. Weed is not a flex here.

It is part of the home, the same way incense masks the smoke while the real work keeps going.

“She told me, ‘Son, don’t worry, don’t you have no shame / There’s gonna be frustration in this white man’s game.’”

That motherly line hits like a verse out of “Video.” It is a reminder that self-worth and protection do not come from what is sold to you.

The system might profit from the tree now but the game stays rigged.

“I roll up for pretty girls that’s on their grind, gettin’ paid… I roll up for any my brothers that’s stuck in that jam.”

Chance widens the circle. “Roll up” becomes about solidarity. It is for the women juggling bills, for the families broken up over what is now sold legally, for anyone who kept going even when the law said they could not.

He flips the image again with “The blunt like I rolled up a rug in my hand.” Survival is hidden in plain sight.

Wayne’s Verse: Mixtape Spirit Still Breathes

Lil Wayne does not waste his moment. His lines snap like they belong on a Dedication tape:
“God forgive me, holy smokes like religion / I be smokin’ like an engine, can’t play poker like syringes.”

The “holy smokes” line turns the blunt into a sacrament. It is wild, messy, and deeply Wayne.

His wordplay keeps weaving back to that bigger point: the contradictions of smoking the same plant people were locked up for.

Smino’s Hook and Bridge: The Glue That Holds It Down

Smino does not drop a solo verse but his hook and bridge are the calm that holds the edges together.

It lifts the lines without crowding them. The soulfulness in his voice matches the India.Arie undertone too — simple, honest, no unnecessary gloss.

Production and Sonic Feel: Groove and DexLvL Keep It Rooted

Groove and DexLvL lay down a beat that drifts like smoke through an open window.

The warm keys and subtle bassline feel closer to Coloring Book’s soft side but do not lean too far back.

The India.Arie echo adds another layer. Some listeners even caught a faint electric guitar line in the background and wondered if Wayne himself played it, though that detail is just fan talk with no official credit.

The production floats without showing off, letting Chance’s incense memories and Wayne’s punchlines breathe.

Video Notes: Self-Directed and Clear on Its Roots

By directing it himself, Chance keeps the story personal. The dispensary setting ties the past hustle to the new legal market.

It asks whether the same people who built community around the tree really get to profit once the state steps in.

It is the same question India.Arie asked in her own way. What happens when the world tries to repackage what made you real?

Is This Just Smoke or Real Growth?

Forget the easy “weed song” label. Tree feels like a signpost. Wayne’s feature hits hard enough to remind anyone that he still knows how to bend a beat.

For Chance, this is not just filler. It feels like the first time in years he is trusting his own roots again.

You can hear the mixtape spirit, the indie soul nods, the quiet statement that he does not need to do too much if the story feels true.

One Last Puff: Where Does “Tree” Land for You

At the end of the day, Tree is not really about weed. It is about family, the hustle that does not make the headlines, the incense in the window, and the roots that grow where nobody is looking.

It is about how the same thing that held people up got twisted into a product for someone else to sell back.

It is also a reminder that realness — the kind India.Arie sang about on Video — never goes out of season.

Play it back. Look for the small lines you missed. And decide if this is Chance waking up or just rolling through.

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Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne & Smino Tree Lyrics

Intro: Chance the Rapper
Igh
Uh, uh

Chorus: Chance the Rapper
My mama used to always keep a lil’ bit of ‘dro
The incense in the window while she foldin’ our clothes (Huh)
And though life will have its issues, there would never be a problem with the weed
She told me “Son, don’t worry, don’t you have no shame (Huh)
There’s gonna be frustration in this white man’s game
And they’re gonna have us tied up once it’s legalized (Igh)
Because it is a tree” (Ooh, yup)

Verse 1: Chance the Rapper
My mama had to work (Igh, huh)
My mama had to birth (Two kids)
My mama drove to church and ironed shirts and kept a smirk (Yeah, yeah)
And I think my mama must’ve workеd that saltine at the factor’, why?
She camе home cryin’, said, “I’m tired of these crackers” (Igh)
I roll up for pretty girls that’s on their grind, gettin’ paid (Huh)
I roll up for women who life wasn’t no crystal staircase (Igh, huh)
And I roll up for any my niggas that’s stuck in that jam
Torn from their family, hustlin’ grams
We love you, we smokin’ on big Uncle Sam
Dispensary weed is a government scam
My cousin my weed man, the plug is my mans
My whole life look like I been rubbin’ a lamp (Skrrt)
The blunt like I rolled up a rug in my hand
Stop, look, duck in my hand (Hm)
If it ain’t a buck in my hand
Fist full of bullets, I’m flippin’ a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a don’t-give-a-fuck in my hand (Brrt)
If we roll up, we flame up (Huh)
Yes, we flame up
If we pull up, ain’t no change up
Don’t play with our money, it’s dangerous
Ain’t no more sharecroppin’, this for my mama, I promise I’m fuckin’ the game up (Huh)
This for my ladies that’s makin’ it happen, you ready? I’m ready to flame up

Chorus: Chance the Rapper
My mama used to always keep a lil’ bit of ‘dro
The incense in the window while she foldin’ our clothes
And though life will have its issues, there would never be a problem with the weed
She told me “Son, don’t worry, don’t you have no shame
There’s gonna be frustration in this white man’s game
And they’re gonna have us tied up once it’s legalized because it is a tree”

Bridge: Smino
Like my girls like weed, homegrown
Angie get stoned, Cheech Ch-chong
All the casa negros gone
Fuck it, get stoned
Craig & Smokey
(Ee) Angie get stoned
(Ee) Angie get stoned
(Ee) Angie get stoned
(Ee) Angie get stoned

Verse 2: Lil Wayne
Uh, my mama had to work, yeah, my step-daddy had the work
Don’t expect me to pass the purp’, ’cause Pastor Purp ain’t at this church
So God forgive me, God forgive me, holy smokes like religion
I be smokin’ like an engine, can’t play poker like syringes
Blow a pound like I’m Jenny Craig, I’m cold as Winnipeg
When me and Chance smokin’ them plants, we turn to Bill and Ted
All my weed be strictly meds, my blunt be thick as legs
Yellow Percocets, white Percocets, look like grits and eggs
Smoke a blunt for Chi’raq, catch a contact
I don’t know where my eyes at, they on her thigh tat’
I’m sorry, I got side-tracked, but I’ma hit you with a side bar
You could pull up in a fly car, I’ma pull off in a flyin’ car
That’s cap if they say we cap, I crack they freakin’ knee-caps
And Chance gave me a three cap, to cover up all these naps
A dreadlock Rasta, bandana red like pasta
I steal a nigga bitch, like a Mazda

Chorus: Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne
My mama used to always keep a lil’ bit of ‘dro (Lil’ bit of ‘dro)
The incense in the window while she foldin’ our clothes (Foldin’ our clothes)
And though life will have its issues, there would never be a problem with the weed (A problem with the weed)
She told me “Son, don’t worry, don’t you have no shame
There’s gonna be frustration in this white man’s game
And they’re gonna have us tied up once it’s legalized because it is a tree”

Outro: Smino
Like my girls like weed, homegrown
Angie get stoned, Cheech Ch-chong
All the casa negros, gone
Fuck it, get stoned
Craig and Smokey