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I'm trying to understand what "Got to own your own, you have to got to own your own" means, it could interpreted as something you can use like a motivational phrase or is translated literally like "you have to be on command of yourself"?

This is from the lyrics of the song of Yazmin Lacey - Own Your Own

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  • It's not a common idiom, and song lyrics are often deliberately vague to resonate as broadly as possible…. I don't see it as a "Be your own boss" motivational, rather a warning to nurture and protect a safe retreat within yourself. "Own your own" suggest multiple interpretations: discovering education and knowledge to 'live free', preserving cultural history and truth however painful or oppressive, surviving the 'grind' of life, and especially protecting your personal mental health.
    – wetcircuit
    Commented Jun 22, 2021 at 3:49
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    Does this answer your question? Im trying to figure out what this verse means — if your original question has not received enough traffic, you can edit it (as I requested) to include more information, which will bring it to the top of the question queue, or (when you have enough reputation) assign a bounty to it. You should not post a new question asking the same thing.
    – randomhead
    Commented Jun 22, 2021 at 11:55

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There are multiple meanings of the word 'own'. It can be a verb, a pronoun, and a determiner, so it isn't surprising it could be used more than once in a statement. For example, it is fairly common to say "I own my own home", in which the first use of the word is a verb for ownership, and the second instance works as a determiner to indicate whose home it is (obviously, it is quite common to own a property that somebody else lives in, and to live in a property that you do not own).

Without the full lyrics of your song I can't be overly specific about the meaning but it's pretty clear your quotation is using the word firstly as a verb meaning to take ownership of, and then as a pronoun referring to what is yours. "Own", in the sense of ownership, has a common modern usage which means to gain control of something, particularly with reference to your life. My assumption, without further context, would be that "got to own your own" means you should take control of what is already yours - perhaps your life.

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