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I'm excited to talk about my embarrassing past that comes in handy for moments like this. The bulk of this conversation we're going to share our favorite lyrics from Operation Doomsday and give a little dissection of those lyrics. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the album. The episode we released on Operation Doomsday was a one episode summary of the concept with a little dissection.
It felt like we're under serving it. I want to talk a little bit more about it. Before we get to the lyrical dissection portion, Justin, I wanted to start with you. You were coming up age in the late 90s on the East Coast.
You're a big hip hop head. I wanted you to color the conversation of this album by taking us back to that time. Maybe a little bit about your fandom, how you were introduced to Doom. Just take us back to that moment and what you remember.
Cam, what year were you born? I want to know. I'm coming up age in the late 90s. Were you even born yet?
I was born in 1996. I was three. I just wanted to put everything in the proper time context. This was a time when rap was getting more commercialized.
You had big hype Williams videos. You had, of course, it's difficult to bring his name up right now, but like Puff Daddy became a Avatar for a certain brand of just felt like very crashed commercialism and materialism. The shiny suit era, it was this whole thing. There was this counter movement to it that was based on, it really felt like it was based on traditionalist East Coast boom-bap music.
Rockis Records, which is funny because it was funded by one of the Murdoch kids, which we didn't realize at the time that the same guy who owns Fox News was. His son was one of the investors in this. But Rockis Records was really like the big one. And most F was signed to Rockis.
LP's group, LP, of course, have run the Jules fame now, but he was in a group called Company Flow. And then there were so many other artists that were signed to that label. Shabams to Deep comes to mind. I'm going to start rattling off names.
I'm very stupid, very quickly. I start saying names like Alpha. Who cares about Alpha? Whatever the case be.
But Rockis was the big one. And Rockis was the one that ended up getting major distribution deals down the road. And Rockis was a real thing. Probably just a step down was Fondolum Records, which was owned by Babido Garcia, who was co-host of the legendary stretch and Babido radio show that was in New York.
But that was just a legendary show that Big L and Jay Z and Wu Tang and all these people come free-style on. But Babido also had his own independent label on the side. And that was Fondolum Records. And Fondolum was a little more raw than Rockis, which Rockis was very raw compared to the mainstream stuff, but take another level down.
It got to the point where records record labels like Fondolum, you see the label, you just buy it. And I would go and I would just buy these Doom 12 inches at the time. So there weren't really albums for a while. It's kind of funny that we're discussing this album because this was an era that wasn't really grounded in albums.
Company Flow's album came up in 1997. That was From Crusher Plus. But there weren't a ton of albums from like 97 to like 99, 2000 in this genre that really took hold. It was mostly 12 inch shingles, which was two or three songs on a record.
And every week, me personally, I would take whatever money that I had left over from working my job as a dishwasher at a nursing home because I said, got a job you have when you're in high school and I would go to a record store named Skippy Whites here and I'd go up in Providence, Rhode Island and I would just spend $20 to $30 on 12 inches and I would buy for $5 a piece. And pretty much anything with the Fondolum label was an automatic cop. And that includes Doom had dead bent as one of the 12 inches go with the Flow was another one operation in Greenback. All those were great songs and all of those songs would later make it on to Operation Doom Zay in a re-recorded way.
That was a very long way of getting to kind of explaining what the landscape was at the time. It was very raw. It was very based in like this East Coast boom-bap aesthetic, even artists on the West Coast that were in this world, like I think of die-weighted peoples. Their music felt more related to like the East Coast stuff than the stuff that was going on the West Coast at the time, which was coming out of the G-Funk era and kind of trying to find this place.
I'm curious like if you remember what set Doom apart at that time. I don't know if you know like your ear can remember like when you first heard him, but do you have any thoughts or memories about what made his music feel special or sent apart from the others? There was something so unpolished but undeniable about it. The way he was able to string words together.
At some point in this conversation I'm going to talk about some of the lyrics on Hey. And I think Hey is a perfect song and there he was releasing it in like 1997. He was just better at stringing words together. We've had discussions about this goal, but I knew the song The Gas Face by third bass, which was MF Doom's kind of introduction to the world.
Gas Face is still a classic single to this day. I never made the connection that Zevlove X from Gas Face was MF Doom until like honestly probably a couple years because nobody sat me down and was like, this is the same guy. So I mean it's interesting to know there was all this lore behind this person, all this, all this very important history that I think colors a lot of lyrics like you talk about on the first episode of doomsday and you know if question mark comes up in this conversation like there's just so much personal history there. I knew none of that at the time.
It was just solely about this weird guy who was kind of like rhyming very, very raw and almost a drunken style the way he put words together, the way he kind of flow past the margins of the beat. I think like Mad Villain is a very easy album for people to wrap their arms around in a lot of ways because it's just a lot more polished. This music wasn't like this music had to hit you like at the perfect right spot because it's like it's very raw. It's very you know first thought best thought the first draft is what you heard on these on these scales, but they just work.
Yeah, there's a fluidity to his lyricism, especially returning I've been deep into the lyricism on Mad Villain right now currently as we're recording the season and then returning to doomsday there's a little wittiness there's the obvious lyrical gifts but compared to Mad Villain I feel like Operation Doomsday has a whole feels very, very unpolished even lyrically. It's not as dense I would say which is kind of an appeal and I feel like where Mad Villain has a very timeless sound Operation Doomsday feels very of its time and it's more of a time capsule than a Mad Villain which does feel more timeless. But let's get into I'm curious again into the lyrics as we'll talk more about the album as we get into the actual songs. So I have each of us select three of our favorite lyrics on the album.
We're just going to rotate in order. Cam will start with you and we'll just share and dissect a little bit of our favorite lyrics. The first thing I want to talk about is kind of the one that stands out to me as the biggest like stand out line for the whole album to be honest. It's from Rhymes Like Dimes when he says only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self-destruct.
Only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self-destruct. This is some cam. This is some cam of you. I know.
I'm not going to say that. God. Okay. So look, he's like, this is Doom criticizing the American system.
This is where like Zev love X. This is like X of all of us. This is him coming out and saying it even in the concept of MF Doom, which has been a big thing when writing this season is trying to figure out how do we see this stuff peeking through the Doom character, at least from me personally from the writing perspective. This is like he lived it all the stuff that he lived through, the tragedies he lived through.
And like this is there are years that we lost at MF Doom making art where he would have had to have been working or doing whatever it was he could to earn money and like that impact on people. Like every day we wake up and we go to a job and we have to earn money and it's not going to like make us happier in so many ways. So the line six out to me is like timeless almost. Right.
Yeah. Beautiful. I also have a line from that song as my number one, but we'll go with Justin first. Okay.
First of all, this is my first time dissecting lyrics. So I hope I do this right. I just want to say that up top for the audience. I have two from the song, Hey, but I want to focus on one.
Does anyone else have anyone from the song? Hey, yes, I do. Okay. I'm going to hold off on the less important one then.
And see if you touch on it. It comes toward the end of the song when he goes is four lines. It's rhyme of the month, two page long, busting off two gauge with my cape on wrong, son of song, remind me of a Rayquan tape song with a fleet of super bad status Ray Donne Chong. Yeah.
So I almost picked this one. This is so first of all, like let me say, Hey is a perfect rap song. Yeah. What I love about this is there's the character.
There's the rap history of it all a little bit tied into this and also a little bit of foreshadowing for his career. Every month in the source magazine, they would do the hip hop quotable. And that was that was a thing that was a big fucking deal. I remember before I heard Wu Tang clans triumph, the inspected deck verse that opening verse that Obama Tomically Socrates philosophies.
That was the rhyme of the month and like it was before the beta or the album before everyone's like a month before it came out. I remember trying to memorize the lyrics before the song came out before the song. You want to talk about a prehistoric time like I'm reading inspected. That's what like that honor was it was a big thing for that song.
Like everyone was so and for that album and then that came on everyone read those lyrics and it was like, Oh, shit. But this was really a thing like, you know, Nas got it a couple of times J got it a couple of times. It was this anointing of things and it was just like it was it was a thing that people cared about at the time back when magazines mattered back when the source magazine mattered back when this specific column, this specific piece of the source magazine really mattered, busting off two gauges of my cape on Ron. That's just like perfect doom, drunken supervillain, you know, like kind of this cartoonish, like, you know, I love it.
That's great imagery. But then he goes sonnets on remind me of a Rayquan tape song. So he's referencing the Rayquan song. First of all, when I say the purple tape, you guys know what I'm talking about.
The purple tape Rayquan's only built for Cuban links was referred to as the purple tape because the tape was literally purple. Okay. And if you say like among the heads, you don't be like, you know, you could say Cuban links, you could say only built for Cuban links. But like if you said purple tape, you know exactly what you were talking about.
Ghostface Killer says sonnets on the song, Icewater on the purple tape. So sonnets on remind me of the Rayquan tape song. What's interesting to me about there is doom would go on to have this great relationship with Ghostface Killer. You would do a handful of songs of family, do like Chinatown Wars, which I believe was on a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack.
But also he produced a bunch of stuff on Ghostface Fish Gale album and the sequel kind of the companion leftovers album called More Fish. And if I'm boring you guys, you can just hit a buzzer or something like that. But what's funny about that is a lot of those beats that Ghostface ended up using. So I have this theory that Doom made like 100 beats in his life.
And that was it. And then he would just let anybody use them at any purpose. Like some of the beats from food end up in other places. So for the example here is the skit on Operation Doomsday called Back in the Days.
I think it's one of the first skits after it like comes in the first couple of tracks. There's a beat that kind of comes in and out. He would eventually give that beat to Ghostface for a song called Clips of Doom that appears on More Fish. So here he is referencing this Ghostface verse from the Rayquan tape.
And then he'd go on to have this relationship with Ghostface and literally that beat would appear on an goes face on. And then finally the final line of this. Am I doing okay in my dissecting? I was wondering if I was going to make Cole Prox.
I don't know what Cole was expecting. So with a fleet of super bad status Ray Donchong. It's a friend who's having a bunch of really attractive lethal women with him. And as a supervillain.
And Ray Donchong, it's Tommy Chomsky. And she was the star of the movie Beat Street. So here we have this classic like Beat Street, just a classic hip hop movie. Later on my personal favorite MFD album which I tell Cole all the time Victor Vaughn, the villain.
I don't think it's the best. I think Mad Villains the best. I want to get that out of the way before he says it. But my personal favorite is Victor Vaughn.
And he has a song on there called Ray Donch. And there's a line on there, New Drink, named it after Chaun Doder. Triple shot of cognac with a chaser of Bon Water. So I first of all like I just love the way the sounds but on top of that like there's just this history and this character building and also this foreshadowing for where his career will go or things he would do in the future.
All embedded in these four lines. Did I do okay? That I do okay? It's a classic because they say what's that the last line?
He says bad right? The fleet with a super bad status rate on Chaun. And it's a classic doom thing where it's like you expect him to say bad bitches but then he throws in an off the wall reference that serves as the same purpose but in just a classic doom way. Yeah great job.
All right I'm going to go back to Rhymes like Dimes. Okay probably I mean hey is it right up there but Rhymes like Dimes might be my favorite song in the album. Just I mean really good. The beat alone is just really good.
Okay so the three lines I'm going to have to talk about more than the three lines for context but the ones I'm focusing on are a lot of them sound like they're in a talent show so I give them something to remember like the Alamo, Taliho, a high joker like a spades game came back from five years laying in state the same. The Alamo of course was like the when a small group of Texans were slaughtered and what ended up becoming the Texas Mexican War and there's the saying remember the Alamo which is like a battle cry that was in the American Mexican War. Well and also the battle of the Alamo was the 18th century. Alamo is an 18th century expression as well it was a hunting cry so there's parallels in time and both being a battle cry and hunting cry.
Taliho is also a name of a specific brand or a brand of bicycle playing cards or I guess familiar with Taliho playing cards. It's fun fact about me I collect playing cards I got it to like playing card magic over the pandemic. Okay I must have like 50 playing cards anyways so I know I have several Taliho bicycle playing cards which is why he says a high joker like a spades game. Playing the game of spades one version of spades is that the joker is the high card but Taliho is also rolling papers so when he says a high joker it literally means him being the high joker like literally high.
So you got a triple entendre with Taliho which is just classic doom but then the high joker also calls back to the opening line of these lyrics is joking rhymes like is he just happy to see me trick class while slapstick rappers need chapstick. So it calls back to this motif of joking that he starts these bars with which is just like as people will get to know as we dive into the lyrics of season the way that he not only executes these crazy rhyme schemes that you know you sometimes you feel like always he just like putting in words that don't really make sense because he just wants them to rhyme and every fucking time at least in my experience so far they all have to do with something on the subject tying in multiple motifs that are running throughout the verse or the last handful of bars like it all connects and he's able to do that within these really technical rhyme schemes. So that's my first one Cam let's go back to you. Alright so I want to go to dead bent which has a music video that I love and might be one of my maybe my favorite on the album.
This is this comes when there's a little bit of a beat switch but he says I had this style ever since I was a child I got this other style I ain't flipping a while and then the beat sort of changes and he goes it goes pure scientific intelligence with one point of relevance MC's who styles need developments. Do you must have been hypersensitive to like people's breath? I know comes up all the time. He's always talking about like it is his his go to insult or his go to like the point of contention.
The six L magazine asked Doom about this like many years later and he was just talking and he his response I'm not going to read the whole thing because reading a doom quote for magazine takes forever but he says quote I am a fan of science which is just funny to me but then he talks about like he says like it's perceiving the double correlation between things we tend to have more things to compare like he just talks about like he was always thinking about comparing two things to me it speaks to like the song it speaks to the music video which has like the two videos kind of going backwards and forwards which I think is really cool. And I also think it points out like doom being a villain kind of like he has so much intelligence but like his whole thing is like he had a problem like he made MF Doom as a villain to attack things he had problems with we talked about like the shiny suit era like he had a problem with this consumerism he was saying something against that and so like that's his style is that he is attacking MCs who need elements that he's attacking these problematic areas and that's what we're going to see him as a villain because he's like creating through destroying or through criticizing like that's one of his main modes so I just like that little bit of the song. All right Justin number two I'm going to go with a really simple one as an excuse to talk about the rest of the song too. It's on Operation Greenbacks which is one of the first twelve inches he recorded it for the album and by the way before I do this do you guys ever listen to the original versions who were on the 12 inches that you can get on Spotify as yeah I do.
Are there any you prefer to the album version? I think most of them I actually prefer the first version really yeah I think on bed bent I do and I think greenbacks is kind of on the fence for me hey I definitely prefer the album version right but it's the opening lines to Operation Greenbacks that I want to highlight a fly tramp that's what she called me because I don't wear no stets and hats like Paul C. Tramp do you know this on tramp I always read Ian Carla Thomas mm-hmm okay it's a famous like it was a famous B boy anthem at a point it's just a great song from Stax Records it has this dialogue between Carla and Otis open at the beginning and it's basically the whole point is the course of the song is like tramp you can call me that and at the beginning Carla Thomas is saying Otis read very jokingly like you don't wear no cotton on clothes no stets and hats. What you call me tramp?
You don't wear cotton on clothes or stets and hats. A fly tramp is what you call me because I don't wear no stets and hats like Paul C. That's all C. Who can fuck you?
Here's Doom calling himself a fly tramp that's what you call me because I don't wear no stets and hats like Paul C. Do you guys know who Paul C is? He's a legendary hip-hop producer who was actually so he is most famous for working with Eric B. and Rock him and Ultra Magnetic MCs which is cool keys first group he also did a lot of recording and engineering Questlove called him at one point the Jay Dilla of his day he was very innovative when it came to sampling he was like a large professor in Pete Rock I think cribbed a lot of him.
What's interesting here is Paul C. was shot and killed at age of 25 so it's kind of this thing that kind of runs through this album where I know in the last episode Cole you talked a lot about the KRS1 Boogie Down production Scott Larock connection and it's just these artists who have experienced tragedy similar to what Doom experienced with his brother just come up time and time again throughout the album. I love that line Paul C. wore stets and hats that's where it comes from so it's like a reference to this on tramp and also like an homage to this legendary producer who never really got his due.
There's a lot more I can talk about with Greenback's everything like and I guess the only other thing I want to say here and without fully dissecting at all is this is the song we can introduce the King Gidra personality and King Gidra is a three headed monster and that theme comes up throughout this verse again and again where you know it's like who wants to battle on the real choose your weapon microphone beats or wheels of steel I want to crown in all three forgetting down. There are a bunch of things that pop up like threes and threes and threes and the funniest one is it's like a blizzard seems like I'm home from ATL looked into my baby's face my boo was like well I know your type client tell I don't want to just like nine lines here but basically he tells the story of like this very brief story about wanting to have sex with each member of TLC and then immediately when he gets done goes probably run up in all three King Gidra. I love it in the one little like dissecty thing I want to call out in there is it looked into my baby's face. Babyface was one of the owners of the face records which was TLC label one of the people who put TLC on the map.
Right. Anyways that was a little like bonus there I just wanted to discuss that in that song but anyways two for the price of one on operation Greenback. That's great. Okay.
Well I'm going to do two for the price of one on Hey because I talk about this line the opening line I only play games that I went at and stay the same with more rhymes and there's way the skin cats matter of fact let me rephrase with more rhymes than there's ways to fillet felines these days. I only play the games that I went at and stay the same with real rhymes and it's way to skin cats matter of fact let me rephrase the more rhymes and ways to fillet felines these days. This was the other line I'll tell you that I was going to discuss. Okay cool.
Again we got multi-syllabic rhyme schemes play stay game say when when at skin cats fact and then rephrase ways these days just great. I think he also says right after watch the path of the black one super villain which ties into the cat thing but this is he does this a couple of times throughout his life. Discography where he'll obviously a lot of his lyrics stem from like flipping common idioms which is what he's doing here more ways more ways than one to skin cat which means there's more more ways to do a thing than just one way and then he gives you a literal example of the idiom that he's flipping in the actual bars by giving us two ways to say the same thing which is the idiom itself which is just like and the second one is like there's the ways to fillet felines these days just in terms of like the eufani which is just the sound of the words together fillet felines these days is just beautiful like poetic alliteration right it has everything and I mean fillet also ties into the idea of skinning cats because fillets like a thin slice and so that ties in but typically with the skinning of the cats I don't know what games he's playing that's something I was like what are those games is it just lyrical rhyme games and then of course ties into cat with the black cat he's the black cat super villain perfect Justin I mean you picked that one so do I miss anything you did not okay it's just it's one of my favorite things doom does and I was gonna say this when you brought up the tally ho is he just takes these idioms or these old phrases and he just you know he's made some sound cool yeah and that this is like a perfect example of that such a great way into a song and the fact that he immediately turns around and flips it in the other way that was all I was gonna say you actually went a step or two beyond what I was originally thinking so and he's doing this all pre-internet for the most part which is just like all these references are just in his head all this history is in his head it's crazy the other thing I wanted to call out and just because I'm a sucker for this stuff but he said the very last line to all my brothers he's doing unsettling bids you could have got away with it if it was not for them meddling kids. He's talking about his friends doing jail time but then flips it to reference the sample so hey probably most people know samples the Scooby-Doo theme song from the cartoon show and at the end of every Scooby-Doo episode during this era they would unmask the villain of the show every villain wore a mask in the show they would unmask it and they would say you could have gotten away with it or they the villain would say could have got away with it for one for these meddling kids which are the Scooby-Doo kids so just a perfect punctuation of the song calling out the sample that he's using just perfect.
Perfect song I will say that again and again and again perfect. Alright Cam last one. Oh yeah my last one also comes from Dead Bent it speaks to like the way that Operation Doomsday gives us a peek into Daniel Dumelay a little bit at least I might get on an M.F.D. record that's when he says to fund these experiments is where I went obviously Dead Bent and spent every red cent to rule you and still drop more jewels than schools do or even TV news that's designed to fool you.
Like it's such a good bar it's just bars the idea that he's like trying to circumnavigate bigger media to communicate directly to the listener obviously creates this like endearing relationship that I think has fostered so much of why M.F. Doomfans are so rabid for lack of a better word like this is part of why it's such a deep connection the fact that like I really like the title for Dead Bent I feel like that being like hell bent on doing something like you're obviously going to try to do something like this is something like certainty and what he's going for and as a teacher I like it when they say that they can do better than schools that just speaks to me a little this is speaks to me okay all right Justin last time back to me okay or when I took your third one so do you have no idea no I did I didn't want to do two from the same song I texted you last night asking you said that's fine I'm like I actually I have to do better the calls calls asking come on and I have to do better than just just once on okay this one is going to turn into a slight production dissection okay it's off go with the flow and it's keep tracks that make an air out thief clap with no hands I chop these drums off truly yours G-RAP keep tracks make an air out thief clap with no hands I'm from the truth of your G-RAP this was okay this was my third one too by the way excellent fantastic okay great right we're on the same wavelength go after we're the people need to know but we were we were getting a little heated about about a Kanye West verse yesterday I'm glad that we're locked in we're back yeah so the first part is you know I keep tracks keep tracks that make an air out thief clap with no with with no hands I chopped but the rest aside for now his songs make even you know the old thing where thieves in the Middle East would get their hands cut off yeah for stealing it he's saying his songs are so good that it make even people with no hands clap perfect great you know their hands get chopped off I chop which chopping is like a phrase I guess brought up and sampling a lot of times so I chopped these drums off of Julie truly yours G-RAP he's referencing the cool G-RAP song truly yours which is where he took the drums but also the here we go just go with the flow that's actually just a loop straight from the song yeah so I love this and I mean you know the first line the keep tracks making a red leaf clap with no hands great that's a great punch line in any world but now to then go and say chop these drums off a truly yours G-RAP okay one thing he does throughout operation doomsday is he samples drums or other elements from classic hip hop records in a way that you know puffed out of the trackmasters they were just taking old hip hop songs and re-flipping them I think of the trackmasters taking Houdini's friends and flipping it for nazas if I if I ruled the world like it's just a pretty much a straight jack of the beat that's kind of like slowed down every master maybe they add a couple flourishes over it but that's pretty much it that's not what MF Doom is doing here he's taking these elements from these classic songs including truly yours by DJ Polo and G-RAP and cool G-RAP in this song and he's turning into his own but in a way that feels like so much different than what I was just describing that they did with like if I ruled the world or any of those other records this came in an era when crate digging was about who could have the most obscure things who could like dig the deepest and here Doom was out here taking you know Steely Dan samples on gas trolls or Shadde samples on the song doomsday and he's mixing them with very obvious samples from rap songs so here you have the drums from Truly Yours by Cool G-RAP he did it on on the mic is just it's the drums from Eric B. and Rock Hymn's microphone that even includes the sample of Rock Hymn saying the mic but the best example of this is to loop back to Dead Ben which might be my favorite song on the album I think outside of Hey I mean I'm on the record I'm a Hey lover but Dead Ben uses the drums from Boogie Down Productions which is Caris Scott the Rock's old group Super Ho and it was the song the song Super Ho is the chorus is Scott the Rock Hadamall he is a Super Ho now Cole in the last episode you talked a lot about that connection and the Scott the Rock of it all you actually had a quote that I went back into your old script and found the quote but it was Doom talking about Caris one after Scott the Rock was killed and he said he could have quit we didn't know what he was gonna do then he came with the album so it showed us that what to do in that situation you persevere you keep going you strive and you do it and for him to take the these classic hip-hop drums and also by the way he kept the super in there right so it's like he's now turning this into like super villain but it's also the so much to this this slain rap legend that he viewed kind of in the same situation as him and his brother and the way he was able to flip this all and bring this together actually feels very beautiful in a way yeah my last one was the same one and you covered everything I would say the only thing that I would highlight is the rap the scheme which is he does this a lot which I don't find like a lot of at least in my studies where he does on beat one he establishes the rhyme scheme usually the rhyme scheme falls on beat four and it's n rhyme n rhyme n rhyme this one which he does a lot key tracks is the first thing he says and it's also the scheme which he then rhymes with arab thief clap and g-wrap and then the next line is actual fact relax so it's just he just kind of hits you over the head constantly not just paying off the n rhyme but all these internal rhymes establishing rhymes on different beats that you're used to I also like I don't know if I'm looking too far into it but I like the way that with no hands so the first line is key tracks that make it arab thief clap with no hands that falls on the second line the next measure which is like a spillover but also works as the first part of the next line with no hands I chop these drums so there's like is that in jam it cam doesn't jam it indeed yes good job I learned that from the English teacher so just cool stuff like and all very subtle none of it feels like showy that's another thing about his rhymes in general is just he's doing all this kind of acrobatics but it just it feels so natural and organic it doesn't feel like he's just trying to show off so beautiful I love that we we agreed on that one Justin and that was it that was all nine and I should have said we were excluding doomsday since we did a full dissection of that song last question how do you guys feel like this album is aged Justin what do you think I think it's great when he doesn't let his friends rap I think I think that it still feels very vital and enjoyable when it's not one of the guests on the album when they pop up it's like you know one all due respect to the many great indie hip hop rappers of Long Island but um doing was just kind of like years ahead of all of them besides maybe MF Grimm but like you know I like a couple of the records that Grimm put out over the years but I don't know I think the record feels very amateurish when it's like the posse cut stuff right I agree but it's a great great album overall though yeah can't what do you think those posse cuts that's what makes me think of like the word like local like this is like a little bit of community theater and like there's nothing wrong with that it's a good thing but there's a little aspect of that which I mean it's time goes on that gets maybe that's makes it a little special which I do which I do like um I do think the title track is probably gonna be one of those things that is around forever yeah yeah yeah I think that's what's gonna stand like the real test of time it's still his most stream song on at least on Spotify does that count them I don't think so yeah yeah it does yeah huh yeah that's doomsday's the song is aged incredibly well and I love that it's like it's such a great song for to be maybe his most timeless or his most popular song because it does it does this balancing act of introducing the MF Doom character but the chorus is all about his real life and so there's like this intersection of the character and the inspiration behind it is such a beautiful way to introduce the character to the world all right I think that's it thanks Justin thanks Cam for joining us we are going to cut to the second half of the episode after the break dissecting the second and third verses of doomsday and we're gonna return next week starting our dissection of mad villain all right so last episode we left our analysis of doomsday after its iconic chorus which encompasses the full span of life from the womb to the tomb as we discuss this chorus is a touching memorial for doom's brother subrock while also expressing doom's determination to carry on with the plans the two of them made together doomsday then continues with its second verse which begins with Daniel telling us exactly where he wrote it I wrote this one to be cdc's the old section if you don't believe me go get back and check then so number 17 I'm under the top one I say this not to be me was about love a five-jock pop the trouble she's had a one-way won't last great clap a bit if they know it's hate blame I'll have tape definition some of my villain I'll kill her love children one who was well she'll do destruction as well build it plus it do opens the second verse rapping I wrote this one in bc dc o section if you don't believe me go get bagged and checked in cell number 17 up under the top bunk bc dc refers to the Baltimore County Detention Center where Daniel doom elay did in back spend time in 1998 a year before the release of operation doomsday according to no use reporting for pitchfork doom elay was arrested in may of 98 for multiple criminal counts related to controlled substances including possession of narcotics with intent to distribute he was held there for two days and the charges were dismissed a month later days after that dismissal he was charged as a fugitive from justice and those charges were dropped within two weeks doom elay's explanation to cbp was quote I was on a bus traveling and the controlled substance was on the bus and nobody claimed it and I guess I was sitting the closest I'm quote this opening to the verse also begins what would become a tradition in doom's music where he rhymes about the location where he's currently riding from it's a practice that honors writing a sacred a process meant to be preserved by citing the art doom offers a window into the history and lore behind what we're enjoying which in turn entices listeners to research and learn more there's an inviting nature to the creation of legend further emphasized by doom literally telling the audience if you don't believe me go get bagged and checked in as in go get arrested in Baltimore County and check the jail the writing should be under the top bunk and sell number 17 true to his cartoon influences doom gave us a twisted treasure map folding his incarceration into his villain's origin story doom turns the struggle he has gone through into art melding the reality of his life with the fantasy of the literature he's crafting this is one of the most potent clear examples we have in the life of Daniel doom elay inspiring and molding the creation and narrative of emf doom lying in that jail cell chewed up by the system what did daniel doom elay do to keep going he wrote he created art doom then continues the verse pop the trunk on seaside for punk leave him left scraped god forbid if there ain't no escape blame emf tape seaside for punk appears to be the code for cop in the supreme alphabet of the five percent nation doom elay also used the phrase previously as zevel of x on the song get you now from the black bastards album pop the trunk and pop the trunk on seaside for punk means to take out a weapon and attack the cop the next line god forbid if there ain't no escape blame emf tape seemingly plays on the idea of actual tape keeping the person stuck and unable to escape the crime scene emf tape here is a triple entendre referring first to the actual double-sided tape called emf tape where emf stands for meltfuse second because this tape is preventing escape from the cops the tape is cursed as motherfucking tape out of exasperation finally doom is referring to himself as in blame emf tape or music blame his villainous influence this latter idea leads to the next line definition super villain a killer who loves children one who is well scaled in destruction as well as building the definition of the emf doom character is rooted in duality a duality that might seem like a contradiction to traditional wisdom it's an aspect that was emphasized a lot in doom's early character development in his very first music video for the song deadbint two videos play side by side in one emf doom wakes up leaves his apartment robs fruit from a store and runs away in the other emf doom walks up to a store with some fruit puts them back and goes home to his apartment simultaneously forwards and backwards stealing and returning emf doom is both villain and hero a killer who loves children well-skilled in both destruction and creation daniel elaborated on doom's multifaceted persona with lsd magazine in 1999 saying quote when i made this character i wanted it to be a motherfucker that really really don't give a fuck he's taking it to the extreme i'm not giving a fuck but at the same time he's the most caring motherfucker you could really get to know you know as far as children and dropping a jewel here and there but he's just so angry that it might seem like he's on some flip shit and some negative shit but in actuality he's flipping on everything that's negative already he's trying to turn the whole shit around he's the villains to the villain doom continues the second verse rapping while sydney sheldon teaches the trifed to be trifer i'm trading science fiction with my man the live lifer sydney sheldon was a writer of novels and television he created i dream of genie wrote master of the game and most relevant operation doomsday authored the thriller novel the doomsday conspiracy when asked about the literary influences and his lyrics doom told hip-hop dx quote in the case of operation doomsday at that time i was reading the sydney sheldon novel the doomsday conspiracy just by reading science fiction and these kinds of things they get my mind in a creative mode if i see the story took a strange direction it gets me to thinking wow i can take a twist there i just think it kind of broadens things i always read a book when i'm doing a record i quote a direct excerpt of the doomsday conspiracy can actually be heard at the very beginning of operation doomsday selections from the first page of the book are voiced through a speaking spell an early computer module with a voice synthesizer doom continues the verse rapping a piper hauler a rhyme a dollar and a dime do his thing ring around the white collar crime the legend of the piper began in the middle ages a story of a rat catcher who led rats into traps by luring them with the sound of his pipe in the legend he was promised payment for removing a rat infestation but after completing his work the town refused to pay him and he retaliated by using his music to lure away the town's people's children never to be seen again knowing the way daniel was betrayed by the music industry this folktale works well with the legend of doom especially since the piper wasn't always evil he was done wrong and his deeds after the fact are a retaliatory act there's also the natural synergy between the two as musicians who produce influential music specifically for children continuing the motif established with a killer who loves children this motif then continues with ring around the white colored crime which plays off the common childhood song ring around the rosy doom here is also not into an old commercial for whisk laundry detergent whose catchphrase was ring around the collar doom connects this phrase to white colored crime crime usually perpetrated in the business world such as tax evasion or insider trading mf doom's crime ring is a little grimeier than this dirty enough to be a ring around the white collar doom then wraps get out my face asking about my case need toothpaste fresher mint monkey style n-words get meta-dint doom this is opposition by telling them that their breath stinks like a monkey's impressively rhyming fresher mint with meta-dint and now this continued brand of toothpaste the villain then turns to dissing snitches again rapping dope fiends still in their teens shook n-words turn witness real men's mind their own business that's the difference between sissy pissy rappers that's double dutch how come i hold a microphone double clutch notably doom's fixation on snitches or rats connects with the pied piper reference doom's enemies are teens addicted to drugs who had buckle under pressure and turn into witnesses for the state sustaining the adolescence motif he compares them to children with sissy pissy and double dutch jump rope which is commonly done while singing simple childhood rhymes which aren't on the level of doom's complex schemes thus doom holds the mic tight double clutch so that these rats can't speak out against him doom finishes the verse by rapping cos make rounds never have ox found on shakedown lockdown wet dreams of fox brown cos are correctional officers who are unable to find an ox prison slang for a knife or box cutter we observe here how doom is bringing the verse full circle starting and ending with references to jail his wet dreams of fox brown could be a reference to the 90s rapper foxy brown or to pam career who played foxy brown in the 1974 film these fantasies make sense in the jailhouse scenario with doom only finding sexual gratification in his dreams given the proximity to holding the phallic microphone double clutch doom could also be making a masturbation based innuendo now after a standard repetition of the chorus doomsday breaks down and doom performs a more plain spoken version of the hook which segues straight into his third and final verse doom begins the third verse with a slight revision of the hook then wraps past the mic like past the peas like they used to say to doom rhyming on the mic is as essential to his health as vegetables the line is also a reference to an older song 1972's past the peas by the jb's james brown span doom continues to interpolate older songs in the next line some amareffers don't like how sally walk which flips the lyric from dyke in the blazer song let a woman be a woman and a man be a man the reference to the female sally extends into the next lines known amongst hoes for the bang bang known amongst foes for flow with no talking orangutans only gin and tang duzzled out of a rusty tin can me and this mic is like yin and yang again he shows off his prowess and rap and sex through one of their common elements flow the talking orangutans might be a callback to the bad breath monkey-style flows doom referenced in the second verse but the line also nods to an obscure 90s tv advertisement for a local furniture store in doom's hometown of long island in the ad assails man inexplicably mentions no talking orangutans which seems to me no bs or false promises car net open seven days a week i kept my promise no talking orangutans come celebrate with us and see why everyone's talking about car net with this context it appears known amongst foes for flow with no talking orangutans no bullshit or filler he's spinning nothing but the truth cleverly doom extends this reference to no talking orangutans by nodding to another old commercial that actually did feature talking orangutans tang a powdered drink company aimed at kids tang it's a kick in the glass whoa and in a paddle tang baby of course doom makes this as tang with gin and drinks it out of a rusty tin can continuing doom's grimy ring around the collar image associating a kid's drink with alcohol extends the duality of a killer who loves children which leads to the following line me and this mic is like yin and yang doom positions this artistry as creating the harmony of the universe referencing the yin yang philosophy of opposite but interconnected forces this duality will characterize much of doom's work as he exemplifies the reality of multiple sides and perspectives coexisting like a gin and tang cocktail like a killer who loves children like someone well-skilled in both destruction and building playing carnto pay listen to this like me holding up the line at the chess and blue i took up back to the truck she was uncool spitting all out the sun wolf who amiss a turn but this is how the sexy voice sounds like jazzy joys so i turned it off faster than a speeding night strong enough to lose a wife able to drop today's path in the 48 keys of life cut the crap far's wrapped custom mike to get the same thing that a rabbit do to you for stealing with the devil he's on another level no one named mf the supervillain off the yin and yang doom ops for the rhyming comic book on him on a pia clang likely a nod to the sound of his rusty tin can filled with gin and tang he then wraps crime no pay listen youth it's like me holding up the line at the kissing booth doom gives a psa of sorts telling children not to do crime the analogy of holding up a kissing booth line is a beble entendre as holding up could mean robbing those waiting in line but also that he's holding up or stalling the line because he's doing more than just kissing in the booth this sexual scenario extends into the next line i took her back to the truck she was uncouth spitting all out of the sunroof through her but then she has a sexy voice sound like jazzy joys perhaps the kissing booth was at a carnival as missing teeth are cliche of carnival workers the villain drunk off his gin and tang doesn't seem to mind and even finds her voice sexy like that of jazzy joys a dj from the bronx who worked at hot nine seven radio stations he then wraps so i turned it up faster than a speeding knife here turned it up as both the radio in response to the nice voice of a dj and doom's pelvic thrusts going faster than a speeding knife seems to be a play on classic superhero phrases like flashes faster than the speed of light with the knife's phallic imagery standing in for the villain's the comic book description of the supervillain doom then continues strong enough to please a wife able to drop today's mass in the 48 keys of life the phrasing here plays on the classic description of superman doom's abilities are on a superman level specifically today's math is a part of supreme mathematics or the teachings of the five percent nation meanwhile the 48 keys of life references robert green's best-selling book the 48 laws of power which distills the history of powerful leaders into 48 key philosophies likewise doom distills the teachings of the five percent nation into his rhymes providing his listeners with a guiding life philosophy doom then wields the a-formation knife rapping cut the crap far as rap touch the mic get the same thing and a-rab will do to you for stealing it's a clever line in that doom subverts our expectation of him riving far as rap touch the mic and get slapped opting instead to cite hammer-robbies code a babylonian legal text in which stealing is met with punishments of death or a hand being cut off doom then concludes the verse what the devil he's on another level it's a word no a name mf the supervillain it's of course the continuation of the superman motif a playoff the iconic phrase it's a bird no a plane it's superman doom begins his version voicing the shock of an onlooker who proclaims what the devil he's on another level the association with the devil is appropriate for the villain and on another level plays on his superior rhyming ability but also refers to dante's inferno and the nine levels or circles of hell naturally doom replaces it's a bird with it's a word because his word plays on another level equally clever is the replacement of it's a plane with it's a name which sets up the following declaration of his new moniker mf the supervillain it's quite literally a defining moment the perfect punctuation for the closing verse of its debut albums first song in this way doomsday functions as the villain's public proclamation a literal theme song the effort displays a dynamic range of humor wit sincerity bravado and relentless wordplay all the things we've come to love about the supervillain mf doom