Jack the Ripper vs Hannibal Lecter/Rap Meanings

Jack the Ripper:
Oi mate, pass the liquor, it's Jack the Ripper,

(Jack the Ripper makes his introduction, beginning with a stereotypical Cockney phrase "Oi, mate!" and asks for a drink, "Jack the Ripper", a cocktail named after himself.)

Jack the rapper, following you way before the dawn of Twitter!

("Jack the Rapper" is a play on the name "Jack the Ripper". When you follow someone on Twitter, you'll get updates when they post a new tweet, so Jack the Ripper compares this to how he followed his victims before killing them. Twitter, obviously, was not around in the 19th century but Jack is saying that he was following people before it became a normalized thing on the internet.)

I'm a human trigger warning, through the night until the morning.

(Trigger warnings are warnings that are given before a traumatic memory occurs. In this case, Jack says that when you see him, his figure will warn you that something very extreme, much like his killings, is about to happen. Jack notoriously killed his victims at night, so he's also saying that he'll trigger you throughout the night until you aren't able to be triggered anymore, meaning, once you're dead.)

When the light shines upon my crimes, you find it sick, appalling!

(Jack the Ripper kills his victims at night, ergo, the gruesome corpses of his victims would be discovered by morning or "When the light shines". According to Jack, it would be so gruesome that Hannibal, a person who eats other people, would find it disgusting. Jack can even be heard retching, or about to vomit, in this line.)

An infamous, notorious delinquent,

(Jack is gloating that he is a delinquent, or a criminal, that has gained a lot of fame and notoriety for his crimes.)

There's little more gory a thing than living in Victorian England.

(During the Victorian era, it was quite the scary time with Jack terrorizing the streets. In this line he is gloating that nothing could compare with his serial killing style.)

This is horrorcore, beware if you're a common whore,

(Horrorcore is a genre of music that is meant to be rather eerie and use sharp and echoey sounds to enhance the sense of horror. Many of Jack's victims were prostitutes, and so, could be labelled as 'whores', so not only does he call Lecter a slut, but...)

Or at late night you may find me knocking on your door!

(...he is also threatening to pay Lecter a visit and kill him. Jack was believed to strike brothels in the overnight hours, where he may have knocked on doors to draw his victims out.)

Not keen to leave until I'm knee deep in blood and gore.

(Jack the Ripper used to tear apart his victims bodies, thus his name, and in this process he would create blood and gore. He claims he won't depart from the scene of his crime until his victim had been mutilated a sufficient amount.)

Your grieving family on their knees, weeping, scrubbing floors.

(Continuing the last line, Jack describes the actions of the families of those he killed where they are crying while cleaning the floor of all of the mess left by the gruesome murder.)

'''The police need a lead. They dunno what they're looking for!'''

(Whilst Jack the Ripper was at large, many police tried to track his identity, but failed, leaving his identity unknown. This is also a reference to Silence of the Lambs; in an opening scene, Lecter is interrogated to find out information about the serial killer Buffalo Bill. Jack is insulting Lecter for helping the police, as well as for getting caught in the first place.)

My raps are like the way I eat my meat, bloody raw!

(The "From Hell" letter was received by George Lusk, leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, came with a small box, in which Lusk discovered a half of a human kidney. The writer, presumably Jack The Ripper, claimed to have fried and eaten the other half.)

Hannibal Lecter:
Jack, you're a classic megalomaniac,

(Megalomania is a mental condition in which one has delusions of grandeur, power, wealth, etc. Hannibal is pointing out Jack is a typical case of this condition and that he is too proud of himself when it came to his works.)

You haven't mentioned me once in your entire battle rap!

(Jack the Ripper's first verse didn't mention Hannibal even once, which he is pointing out here.)

Pity your verse wasn't worth the trip in the jacket,

(In order to keep him restrained, Hannibal Lecter is forced to wear a straitjacket and muzzle when being moved. Here, Hannibal is saying that Jack the Ripper's verse was so bad it wasn't worth coming to the battle ground, which he did in the straitjacket.)

Quit jacking off on the track and put the lotion in the basket!

(In the film The Silence of the Lambs serial killer Buffalo Bill would trap his victims in a hole and give them lotion to rub on their body to make their skin loose in preparation for him to cut it off of them. Once they were done he would tell them, "put the lotion in the basket" which is how he would retrieve it. Jacking off, or in other words, masturbating, is to pleasure oneself, and is here used to refer Jack's name. As Hannibal stated in his second line, Jack has appeared to ignored Hannibal and only bragged about himself, seemingly making himself happy, or pleasuring himself. Lotion is often used during masturbation.)

And catch what the iller serial killer can deliver.

(Lecter is saying that Jack can't comprehend the raps that Hannibal is delivering since he is the iller or more evil serial killer.)

Rhymes finer than the chianti I would pair with your liver.

(In The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter says when talking about a census taker, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti". Chianti is a fine wine he would normally drink alongside consuming his victims. After he says this line, he makes his iconic slurping sound which references the scene in The Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal says that he ate the liver with fava beans and chianti.)

But the thought of your putrid flesh makes me want to shiver,

(Contrary to his prior statement, Hannibal remarks he would rather not eat Jack, as he is most likely dirty and unsanitary. The thought of eating him disgusts Lecter.)

'Cause your British body's covered in more piss than kitty litter!

(Domesticated house cats go to the bathroom in trays of cat litter, so naturally, there is often a lot of urine involved. Lecter is saying that during Victorian times people were dirty due to lack of toilets and proper showers, so Jack is covered in the urine that is thrown in the dirty streets of 19th century England.)

You stabbed women when they wouldn't give you attention,

(Jack more than likely killed the prostitutes because he didn't like what they did, however, Hannibal is making his own reasoning for Jack's murders, stating that he is too ugly to enjoy them and he only killed them because they refused to allow him services.)

Like a Penny Dreadful version of OJ Simpson!

(Reference to the OJ Simpson murder case, as well as the fact that OJ Simpson played for the Buffalo Bills, which share their name with the serial killer Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, for a period of time. Penny Dreadful is a television series that takes place in Victorian England which dives into the origin of famous killers and monsters.)

But these days your nickname is all that's even known,

(These days, almost nothing is known about Jack the Ripper besides this nickname given to him.)

And you didn't even come up with that shit on your own!

(The nickname "Jack the Ripper" was first used in a letter, which came to be known as the "Dear Boss" letter, written by who claimed to be the murderer. However, the letter is widely believed to have not been written by the murderer, but instead by a journalist who wanted to gather more interest in the story. Hannibal claims that this is the case, and that the nickname was thought of by a journalist and not by Jack himself.)

Jack the Ripper:
I'm real, you'll find me making vacancies in brothels,

(Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes, which means that there would be less of them in brothels, or whore houses.)

While you only exist inside the pages of a novel!

(Hannibal Lecter comes from the Thomas Harris' 'Hannibal' series which consists of Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising.)

You were kept for ages in a hovel,

(A hovel is a small, unclean dwelling. Jack talks about the squalor that Hannibal was kept in while in police custody.)

Contained within a cage behind a locked door while I never got caught!

(After capture, Dr. Lecter was kept in a cell for life before he escaped while Jack was never caught nor identified.)

So who's the superior serial killer, Doctor Lecter?

(The fact that Jack was never caught, but Lecter was, should stand to reason that Jack is the superior serial killer, and as a result of this, Jack questions Lecter, as to him, it should be obvious who's superior.)

I'm still wanted, you're forgotten, people these days are watching Dexter.

(Even now, scientists and researchers are still trying to unravel the identity of Jack the Ripper. Jack claims that the public doesn't care about Hannibal Lecter anymore because the public has moved on to watching a more modern serial killer, such as Dexter Morgan from the popular television series "Dexter".)

So God protect ya from the Hell I've spread upon us.

(Reference to Jack the Ripper's "From Hell" letter.)

I'm terrorizing London, fuck the 7/7 bombers!

(During the time, the Jack the Ripper murders shocked all of London due to their  brutal nature. The 7 July (or 7/7) 2005 London bombings were a series of suicidal attacks in central London. Jack the Ripper says he terrorized London more than a series of suicidal bombings ever did. As he says this, Jack also holds up the "V-sign" or the "Two-Fingered Salute," which is the UK equivalent of giving someone the middle finger. This can be interpreted as an insult to Hannibal and/or to the 7/7 bombers themselves.)

Hannibal Lecter:
No, no, Jack, you were doing fine,

(This references when Hannibal tells Det. Clarice Starling that she was doing fine talking to him politely until she rushed into asking him a question about Buffalo Bill. Hannibal is saying that Jack was doing fine with his raps and that there wasn't a problem, until...)

Before your ham-fisted attempt at a terrorist line!

(Carrying on from the previous line, Hannibal is saying Jack ruined his rapping by adding in a terrorist line, which Hannibal felt Jack presented really poorly in an attempt to seem edgy.)

How typical of Jack the Ripper to chase a headline!

(Jack the Ripper's murders were widely covered within British Newspapers. Hannibal is suggesting that Jack only commits the murders in order to get into the papers and is therefore chasing (trying) headlines (trying to get headlines written about his crimes) and also accusing him of simply using the massive headline of the 7/7 bombings to be controversial.)

Pick Ray Liotta's brain and ask him how I get mine.

(In the film for Hannibal, Ray Liotta plays a Justice Department official whom Dr. Lecter captures and scalps, proceeding to sauté his brain. Picking someone's brain means to ask someone for information, making a pun on how Hannibal picked at Ray Liotta's brain and that Jack should ask the now dead Ray Liotta how Lecter gets his headlines, basically telling Jack that it is obvious he gets coverage in the news because he is such a notorious serial killer.)

I'm the bon vivant of violence, a licensed psychiatrist,

(Hannibal Lecter has a degree in psychology and the culinary arts, where he used the psychology degree to practice as a psychologist before he was captured. Bon vivant describes someone who is a 'good liver', or good at living. This is possibly a play on words because Hannibal consumes human liver.)

Who dines on highest society to the sound of violins.

(Hannibal Lecter before capture was a wealthy and upper class gentleman who would host formal parties and feed his victims to the party goers without their knowledge.)

Don't get me wrong, I'd roast both your balls on my hibachi,

(A Hibachi is a traditional Japanese heating device or grill used for cooking fish. Hannibal uses this expensive equipment to roast victim's body parts into fancy cuisines.)

But for a serial killer you're as tasteless as a bowl of Kashi!

(Kashi is a company that makes healthy granola-like cereal, which is bland and tasteless in comparison to the fancy dinners Hannibal usually has. It may also be a play on words, the word CEREAL (which Kashi sells) has the same pronunciation of SERIAL (Jack is a serial killer). Hannibal is calling Jack boring, dull and nothing special. He is also saying Jack's killing is tasteless since he only kills prostitutes.)

You prey on a prostitute and play with her body,

(Jack the Ripper was known for the killings and mutilations of at least five prostitutes. He also raped these bodies after he killed them.)

I don't mind that you're naughty, Jack, I hate that you're sloppy!

(These mutilations were often gruesome; for one, the abdomen was usually slashed open with organs removed. Jack often left marks on the victims, leaving behind traces of himself, which isn't what a serial killer should necessarily do. Therefore, Lecter finds Jack's murders sloppy. Additionally, in Red Dragon, Hannibal gets annoyed when a orchestra member at a concert he's attending misses most of the notes, which could be interpreted as sloppy.)

Barney, take me back to solitary confinement,

(Barney Matthews was the head Orderly at the Baltimore State Mental Hospital, where Hannibal was being held in solitary confinement. As Barney is the one who brought Hannibal from his cell to battle Jack, Hannibal tells Barney to bring him back to his cell, the reason for which he explains in the next line.)

'Cause this little dirty lamb has just been silenced.

(Arguably, Hannibal Lecter's most popular movie is The Silence of the Lambs, in which one subplot involves Detective Starling confiding in Dr. Lecter about her dreams of lambs screaming. In the final scene, after the Buffalo Bill case is solved, Dr. Lecter asks her if the lambs have stopped screaming.)