Airplanes, Pt. 2
Featuring
Producer
Airplanes, Pt. 2 Lyrics
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
Are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
Are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now
[Post-Chorus: B.o.B & Hayley Williams]
Dreaming (Oh, oh-oh)
Of fallin' (Mmm, mmm)
Dreamin' (Oh, oh-oh, ah)
Of fallin', yeah (Ah)
[Verse 1: B.o.B]
Let's pretend like it's '98 ('98)
Like I'm eatin' lunch off of Styrofoam trays (Yeah)
Tryna be the next rapper comin' out the A (A-Town)
Hopin' for a record deal to ignore my pain, yeah
Now let's pretend like I'm on the stage (Check)
And when my beat drops, everybody goes insane (Woo)
Okay, and everybody know my name (Bob)
And everywhere I go, people wanna hear me sang (Come on)
Oh, yeah, and I just dropped my new album
On the first week, I did five-hunnid-thousand (Yes)
Gold in the spring, and diamond in the fall (Okay)
And then a world tour just to top it all off (Ah)
And let's pretend like they call me the greatest (Yup)
Sellin' out arenas with big-ass stages (Ow)
And everybody loved me, and no one ever hated (Hm)
Just try to use imagination
Can we pretend that
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? (Shooting stars) I could really use a
Wish right now (Wish right now,) wish right now (Wish right now)
Wish right now (Wish right now,) can we pretend that
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? (Shooting stars) I could really use a
Wish right now (Wish right now,) wish right now (Wish right now)
Wish right now (Wish right now)
[Verse 2: B.o.B]
Okay
Let's pretend like this never happened (Never)
Like I never had dreams of bein' a rapper (Rapper)
Like I didn't write raps up in all of my classes (Classes)
Like I never used to run away into the blackness, now (Yeah)
Let's pretend like it was all good (Good)
Like I didn't live starin' in a notebook (Notebook)
Like I did the things that I probably knew I should (Should)
But I ain't have neighbors, that's why they call it hood (Hood)
Yeah, now let's pretend like I ain't got a name (No)
Before they ever called me B.o.B or a.k.a. Bobby Ray
I'm talkin' back before the mixtapes (Cloud 9)
Before the videos and the deals and the fame (Yeah)
Before they ever once compared me to André (3 Stacks)
Before I ever got on MySpace (Yeah)
Before they ever noticed my face (Yeah), so let's just pretend
And make wishes outta airplanes
Can we pretend that
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? (Shooting stars) I could really use a
Wish right now (Wish right now,) wish right now (Wish right now)
Wish right now (Wish right now,) can we pretend that
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? (Shooting stars) I could really use a
Wish right now (Wish right now,) wish right now (Wish right now)
Wish right now (Wish right now)
[Bridge: B.o.B., Hayley Williams, Eminem, B.o.B & Eminem]
And it seems like
Yesterday it was just a dream
But those days are gone
They're just memories
(Oh) And it seems like
Yesterday it was just a dream
But those days are gone
All right
[Verse 3: Eminem]
Let's pretend Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen
Let's pretend things woulda been no different
Pretend he procrastinated, had no motivation
Pretend he just made excuses that were so paper thin
They could blow 'way with the wind, "Marshall, you're never gonna make it
Makes no sense to play the game, there ain't no way that you'll win"
Pretend he just stayed outside all day and played with his friends
Pretend he even had a friend to say was his friend
And it wasn't time to move and schools weren't changin' again
He wasn't socially awkward and just strange as a kid
He had a father and his mother wasn't crazy as shit
And he never dreamed he could rip stadiums and just lazy as shit
"Fuck a talent show in the gymnasium, bitch"
"You won't amount to shit—quit daydreamin', kid"
"You need to get your cranium checked." "You're thinkin' like an alien
It just ain't realistic." Now pretend
They ain't just make him angry with this shit
And there was no one he could even aim when he's pissed at
And his alarm went off to wake him, but he didn't make it
To the Rap Olympics, slept through his plane and he missed it
He's gon' have a hard time explainin' to Hailie and Lainey
These food stamps and this WIC shit, ‘cause he never risked shit
He hoped, and he wished it, but it didn't fall in his lap
So he ain't even here, he pretends that—
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? I could really use a
Wish right now, wish right now
Wish right now, can we pretend that
Airplanes in the night sky are like
Shooting stars? I could really use a
Wish right now, wish right now
Wish right now
[Outro: Hayley Williams]
Oh, oh, oh, ooh
Mm
Ah
Oh, oh, oh, ooh
Mm
About
In this collaboration, B.o.B and Eminem dream big and ask us to imagine what would have happened if they had never become rappers
The beat, made by Alex da Kid, is slightly different from Part I. The differences are probably due to Eminem and associate Luis Resto also having production credits on Part II
The chorus and some elements of the music were written by Kinetics & One Love and sold to B.o.B’s record label.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
B.o.B told idolator about wanting to stop the “rap politics” plaguing the music industry and how he mentions it in this song:
Rap politics is not being able to work with another artist because somebody is mad in between them. Or, somebody just doesn’t want that. Basically, it’s just when something is a part of an agenda and usually it’s all political. It could be something as simple as signing an autograph for somebody’s daughter who has a high position or something. Let’s say if you didn’t sign that autograph… you pissed somebody off. It’s all political. People’s egos get in the way of what it’s really about.
First off, Paramore is the shit, I’ve always been a Hayley fan, and to work with her, that’s another thing I didn’t think would happen to me as soon as it did.
I went to [a Paramore] concert in Atlanta. Have you seen them? I love Hayley.
[Eminem’s manager] Paul Rosenberg played him a bunch of my music until eventually, he got to the point where he wanted to work with me. So, he flew us up to Detroit and we got in the studio. What’s crazier than working with Eminem is how smooth that whole thing happened
I was given the track a while ago while we were on tour. The guys and I all loved it. They told me I was crazy if I passed it up, I liked the part too much anyways, so of course, I was down.
I only found out about Eminem getting on the track like a month ago, as if the song couldn’t get any better. He just slays me, he’s such a genius. And I’m a big B.o.B fan. Got everything of his that I’ve been able to get my hands on.
Whether our fans know or not, I’m not sure, but [Paramore bassist ] Jeremy [Davis] and I have always been really into hip-hop. It means a lot that I got to collaborate with a hip-hop artist who is from Atlanta. Not far from home. We Southern gals love us some Southern gentlemen