The masked mc MF DOOM is considered by many in the hip-hop community to be one of the best lyricists to release rap music. Someone who could put some of the densest rhymes together while still telling a story. While there is no denying his lyrical genius, it is also true that he is really hard to listen to. Sitting down and pulling up one of his albums, you may be intimidated by how hard it is to follow what he is saying. He goes at a lightning-fast pace and takes more turns than a Grey’s Anatomy season finale. Part of his appeal is the fact that you can never tell where he will go next, but every turn he takes makes sense when you look back on it.
I have two songs of MF DOOM that I just absolutely adore, and I will link them below, but one is All Outta Ale from his The Prof Meets the Supervillain album and the other is Raid from his Madvillainy album, generally considered to be the best underground hip hop album ever.
The reason I hold All Outta Ale so close to my heart is due to the beginning of the second verse.
“One for the money, two for the better green
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
Told the knock-kneed, ghetto queen, get the head fiend
Tell him it’s from Medellin and use oxyacetylene”
So in the song All Outta Ale, there is a theme of drug use. The song title mentions alcohol, and in this section, he mentions weed as the better green, the chemical name for MDMA (AKA ecstasy), and the Columbian city of Medellin, where there is a thriving cocaine trade and also where Pablo Escobar’s cartel is from (the Medellin cartel). Oxyacetylene is a flammable gas used in welding to cut things, so the reference here is selling cut drugs to a junkie.
The other song, Raid
“How DOOM hold heat and preach non-violence?
Shhh, he about to start the speech, c’mon, silence
On one starry night, I saw the light
Heard a voice that sound like Barry White, said “Sure you’re right”
Don’t let me find out who tried to bite
They better off going to fly a kite in a firefight”
There are quite a few layers to how the song starts. He is telling the story of meeting his music producer, Madlib. Since Madlib has a very deep voice, he was also nicknamed ‘Barry White’. The real Barry White has a song called Sho’ You Right. Other interpretations thrown around can represent the Van Gogh painting The Starry Night or the idea of ‘coming to the light’ as a metaphor for having a profound realization, in this case with MF DOOM finding an amazing music producer, but my interpretation, while not correct in any way, is still how I see the line: a modern retelling of Walt Whitman’s When I Had Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, my favorite poem.
Good writing and organization! I appreciate that you linked the songs at the end, but feel free to include pictures or embed the videos directly into the post. OVerall, great job! – VP
I like the way this post is structured by giving a little background to MF Doom and then breaking down a couple of lyrics from his songs. I like your use of verbs as well. Perhaps in the first paragraph when you say “use” referring to the artist’s use of rhymes you could possibly use a stronger verb such as “employ” or “utilize” to spice up the sentence. Great work!
Awesome job! I really enjoyed reading this; I’ve never actually listened to MF DOOM. I love your comparisons, in the beginning, to explain just how complex his writing is. It makes me curious to listen to. I also really enjoyed your lyrical analysis. They made me appreciate it way more! Looking forward to more!