Dissect - Dissecting Operation Doomsday's Best Bars

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

S12 co-writer Camden Ostrander and The Ringer's Justin Sayles joins the show to nominate and dissect our favorite lines from MF DOOM's Operation Doomsday (0:50). Then we share our line by line analysis of the second and third verses of "Doomsday" that was cut from our last episode (40:51). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, the host of the Ringer podcast, plain English. Look, a lot of news these days is kind of nonsense. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I'm just trying to ask the questions that matter from people who know more than I do about about everything I'm curious about. And that's most things. Recession fears, AI hyperbole, psychology, productivity, China, war, streaming, movies, sports, you name it. The world without jargon.

The news without bias. Plain English with Derek. Eric Thompson. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome everyone to a special episode, Dissect. I'm your host Cole Kushna. On the second half of today's episode, I'm going to dissect the second and third verses of MF Doom song, Doomsday, which we had to cut from the last episode for time purposes. But before we get to that, I thought we can use the first half of this episode to talk a little bit more about Doom's debut album Operation Doomsday. And to do that, I am joined by this season's

co-writer, longtime partner of the show. show, Mr. Camden Ostrander. Hello, Camden. How are you doing? Hey, guys. How are you? The obligatory awkward podcast intro. Hello. Oh, yes. Yeah. We also have the ringers music lead, Justin Sales, who you've heard on episodes of Last Song Standing. He was on our favorite music of 2023 episode. He has also been our resident East Coast hip-hop consultant for this season. How's it going, Justin? I love that description. It's going great. Cool. Thank you for having me here. I'm excited to talk about my, I think, very embarrassing past that comes in very handy for in moments like this.

Awesome. Yeah. The bulk of this conversation, we're going to share our favorite lyrics from Operation Doomsday and give little dissections of those lyrics just to kind of an excuse to talk a little bit more about the album, you know, the episode that we just released on Operation Doomsday was a one episode, kind of summary of the concept with a little bit of dissection, which just felt like a little bit like we're underserving it. So I want to talk a little bit more about it.

But before we get to the lyrical dissection portion, Justin, I wanted to start with you. Just you were coming of age in the late 90s on the East Coast. You're a big hip-hop head. So I wanted you to kind of color the conversation of this album by kind of 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 in what you remember. Cam, what year were you born? I want to know. I'm coming of age in the late 90s. Were you even born yet? I was born in 1996. I was three? Okay. Just wanted to put everything in the proper time context. This was a time when rap was getting more commercialized. You know, you had big Hype Williams videos. You had, of course, it's kind of difficult to bring his name.

up right now, but like Puff Daddy kind of became the avatar for like a certain brand of just felt like very crash commercialism and materialism. Right. The shiny suit era. You know, it was this whole thing. And 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. and Raucus 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 Raucus Records was really like the big one. And most deaf was signed to Raucas. L.P.'s group, LP, of course, of run the Jewel's 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, like Shabam Sadiq comes to mind. I'm going to start rattling off names. They're going to sound very stupid, very

quickly. If I start saying names like L. Fudge, it's like, who cares about L. Fudge? Whatever the case be. But Raucus was like the big one. Raucus was the one that ended up getting like major major distribution deals down the road. And Raucus was a real thing. Probably just a step down was Fondolum Records, which was owned by Bobbedo Garcia, who was co-host of the legendary Stretching Bob radio show that was in New York, but that was just like a legendary show that like Big L and JZ and Wu-Tang and all these people who come freestyle on, but Bob Bito also had his own independent label on the side. And that was Fondolam Records. And Fondulam was a little more raw than Raucas, which Raucus was very raw compared to like the mainstream stuff, but like

take another level down. It got to the point where if record labels like Fondolam, 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 Flo's album came up in 1997. That was Front 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 that's the kind of job you have when you're in high school. And I would go to a record store named Skippy White's here when I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and I would just spend $20 to $30 on 12 inches that I would buy for $5 a piece. And pretty much anything with the fondulum 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 Greenback. All those were great songs. all of those songs would later make it on to Operation Dunezay 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 boombap aesthetic. Even artists on the West Coast that were in this world like I think of dilated peoples, their music felt more related to like the East Coast stuff than the stuff that was going

on in the West Coast of the time, which was coming out of the G-Funk era and kind of trying to find his place. I'm curious if you remember what set Doom apart at that time. I don't know if you know or can remember when you first heard him, but do you have any thoughts or memories about what made his music feel special or set him 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 Hay. And I think. I think Hay 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 Cole, but I knew the song, The Gas Face by third base, which was MF Doom's kind of introduction to the world. GasFace is still a classic single to this day. I never made the connection that Zevla of X from GasFace was MFace. Doom until like honestly probably a couple years because nobody sat me down and was like this is this is the same guy so i mean it's it's interesting to know there was all this lore behind this person all this like all this very important history that i think colors a lot of the lyrics like you you talk about on the first episode of doomsday and you know if question mark comes up in this

conversation like there's just there's so much personal history there but 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'd kind of flow past the margins of the beat. Yeah. 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, at a 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 singles. 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 the wittiness, there's the obvious lyrical gifts, but compared to Mad Villain, I feel like Operation Doomstay as 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 is more of a time capsule than a mad villain, which does feel more timeless. But let's get in, I'm curious to get 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 an order. Cam, we'll start with you. And we'll just share and dissect a little bit of our favorite lyrics. The first like I want to talk about is kind of the one that stands out to me as the

biggest like standout line for the whole album, to be honest. And 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-destruck. This is so cam. This is so calm of you. I know. I'm 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 evolves. 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 for 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 of MF Doom making. art where he would have had to been working or doing whatever it was he could to earn money. Right. 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 sticks out to me as like timeless almost. Right. Yeah. 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 for me and see if you touch on it. It comes toward the end of the song when he goes, it's four lines.

It's rhyme of the month, two page long, busting off two gauge with my cape on wrong. Sonnet Sonnet song, remind me of a Rayquan tape song with a fleet of Super Bad status Ray Don Chong. I almost picked this one. This is so, first of all, like, let me say, Hay 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. Rhyma in the month Two Pays long Bussing off two gauges With my cape horn wrong I remember me

Of a ray corn tape song With a fleet of super bads And status rate on charm Every month in the source magazine They would do the hip hop quotable And that was a thing That was a big fucking deal

I remember before I heard Wutang Clan's triumph The Inspector Deck verse The opening verse The Obama Atomatically Socrates's philosophies That was the rhyme of the month and like it was before the

they had heard the album before everyone it was like a month before it came out. And I remember trying to memorize the lyrics. Before the song came out? Before the song came out. You want to talk about a prehistoric time. Like I'm reading Inspector Derrick.

That's what. But like that honor was it was a big thing for that song. Like everyone was so amped for that album and then that came out. Everyone read those lyrics and it's like, holy shit. But this was really a thing.

Like, you know, Nas got it a couple times. Jay got it a couple times. It was this anointing of things. And it was just like 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 wrong. That's just like perfect doom, drunken super villain, you know, like kind of this cartoonish like, you know. I love it.

That's great imagery. But then he goes, son-its-on remind me of a Rayquan tape song. So he's referencing the Rayquan song. First of all, when I say the purple tape, do you guys know what I'm talking about? The purple tape, Rayquans only built for Cuban links was referred to as the purple tape because the tape was literally purple. And if you say among the heads, you don't be like, you know, you can say Cuban links, You can say only vote for Cuban links, but like if you said purple tape, you knew exactly

what, what you were talking about. Ghostface Killer says Sonnet's on, the song Ice Water on the purple tape. So Sonas 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. He would do a handful of songs of him. He did like Chinatown Wars, which I believe was on a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack. But also he would go.

He produced a bunch of stuff on Ghostface Fish Scale album. And the sequel, well, kind of the companion leftover's album called More Fish. And if I'm boring, you guys, you can just hit a buzzer or something. 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, like, comes in the first couple 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 a Ghostface song. And then finally, the final line of this, am I doing okay? Am I dissecting? Beautiful.

Okay. Okay. I just want to make Cole pro because I don't know what Cole was expecting. So with a fleet of super bad status Ray Don Chong, he's referring to having a bunch of like, really, really attractive lethal women with him and as a super villain. And Ray Don Chong is Tommy Chong's kid And she was the star of the movie Beat Street

So here we have this classic Like Beat Street is just a classic hip hop movie Later on my personal favorite MF Doom album Which I tell Cole all the time Victor Vaughn, the Vortaville villain I don't think it's the best I think Mad Villain is the best I want to get that out of the way

Before anyone says it But my personal favorite is Victor Vaughn And he has a song on there called Ray Dawn And there's a line on there New Drink named it after Chang Dora Triple shot of cognac With a chaser of bong water So

So I first of all Like I just love the way the I love the way this sounds But on top of that Like there's just There's this history And this character building And also this foreshadowing

For where his career would go Or things he would do in the future All embedded in these four lines Did I do okay? That I do okay That was beautiful really good Did I sick It's a classic

Because doesn't you say What's that The last line He says bad right Super With a fleet of super bad Status Ray Dong Chong And it's a classic doom thing

Where it's like you expect him To say bad bitches But then he throws in Yeah Yeah An off-to-wall reference That serves as the same purpose But in just a classic doom way

Yeah great job All right I'm gonna go to I gotta go back to rhymes like dimes Okay Probably I mean hey is it Right up there

but rhymes like the items 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, Tallyho, a high joker, like a Spades game, came back from five years laying and stayed the same. A lot of them sound like they in a talent show, so I give them something to remember like the Alamo.

Tallyho, a hot joker like space game, came back for five years, laying the state the same same. The Alamo, of course, was like when a small group of Texans were slaughtered in 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. And also the Battle of the Alamo was the 18th century. Tally-ho 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. Tallyho is also a name of a specific brand or, yeah, brand of bicycle playing cards. Are you guys familiar with Tallyho playing cards? Fun fact about me, I collect playing cards.

I got it to like playing card magic over the pandemic. Okay. I have, I must have like 50 playing card anyways. So I know I have several Tallyho. 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 tally-ho 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 tally-ho, which is just classic doom. But then the high-joker also calls back to the opening line of these. of these lyrics is joking rhymes like is you just happy to see me trick classical slapstick rappers need chapstick so he 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 this season the way that he not only executes these crazy rhyme schemes that you know you sometimes that you feel like oh is he just like putting in words that don't really make sense because he just wants him 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. All right, sweet.

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. MCs whose styles need developments. Doom must have been hypersensitive to like people's breath. I know. It comes up all of time.

He's always talking about it. Like it is his go-to insult or his go-to point of contention. XXL 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 a 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 emcees who need vellaments, that he's attacking these problematic areas. And that's why 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 12 inches. And you re-recorded it for the album. And by the way, before I do this, do you guys ever listen to the original versions that 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 dead 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 call me, because I don't wear no Stetson hats like Paul C. Tramp. Do you know the song Tramp by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas? Okay. It's a famous, like, it was a famous B-Boy anthem at a point. It's just, it's a great song from Stax Records. It has this dialogue between Carla and Otis spoken at the beginning. And it's basically, the whole point is, the chorus of the song is like, Tramp, you can call me that. And at the beginning, Carla Thomas is saying to Otis Redding very jokingly, like, you know, wear no condo clothes, no stets and hats. Tramp, Stets and hats. A fly tramp

That's what she called me Because I don't wear no stets and hats like Paul C As y'all see Here's doom calling himself a fly tramp That's what she called me Because I don't wear no stets and hats like Paul C Do you guys know who Paul C is? Legendary hip-hop producer

Who was actually So he is most famous for working With like Eric B and Rock Kim And Ultramagnetic MCs Which was Cool Keys Cool Keith's first group He also did a lot of recording and engineering. Questlove called him at one point the J. Dilla of his day. He was very innovative

when it came to sampling. He was like Lodge Professor and Pete Rock, I think, cribbed a lot off 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, you know, I know in the last episode, Cole, you talked a lot about the K-R-S-1, Boogie Down production, Scott La Rock 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 the song, Tramp and also like an homage to this legendary producer who never really fully got his due. There's a lot more I can talk about with greenbacks that I really like. And I guess the only other thing I want to say here, and like without fully dissecting at all is this is the song where he introduced 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 own a crown in all three for getting down. There are a bunch of things that pop up like threes and three. and threes, but the funniest one is, it's like a blizzard, as soon as I got home from ATL, looked into my baby's face, my boo was like, well, I know your type clientele. I don't want to, I, there's like nine lines here.

But basically, he tells this 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 Gidre. And I love it in the one little like dissecting. thing I want to call out in there. It said, looked into my baby's face. Baby face was one of the owners of the face records, which was TLC's label, one of the people who put TLC on the map. 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 Greensback. That's great. Okay. Well, I'm going to do two

for the price and one on Hay. Because got to talk about this line, the opening line, I only play games that I win at and stay the same with more rhymes and there's a way to skin cats. As a matter of fact, let me rephrase with more rhymes than there's ways to fillet felines these days. This matter of fact, let me rephrase with more rhymes than there's ways to skin cats. As a matter of fact, let me rephrase with more rhymes and ways to fillet felines of these days. This was the other line off hay that I was going to discuss. Okay, cool. Again, we have multisyllabic rhyme schemes.

Play, stay, games, say, win at skin cats, fact. and then rephrase ways these days, just great. And then 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 discography,

where he'll talk, 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 a cat, which means there's more, more ways to do a thing than just one way. And then he gives you a little,

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. And the second one is like, there's the ways to fillet felines these days, just in terms of the euphony, which is just the sound of the words together, filet felines these days is just beautiful, like poetic, alliteration, right, has everything. And, I mean, Filet also ties into the idea of skinning cats because filet is 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 these games?

Is it just lyrical rhyme games? And then of course ties in the cat with the black cat. He's the black cat super villain. Perfect. Justin, you picked that one. So did I miss anything? You did not. Okay.

It's just, it's one of my favorite things Doom does, and I was going to say this when you brought up the tallyho, is he just takes these idioms or these old phrases and he just, you know, he just makes them 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 going to say. You actually went a step or two beyond what I was originally thinking. And he's, something I've been thinking about a lot this season, 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 just because I'm a sucker for this stuff, but he said the very last line to all my brothers

who's doing unsettling bids, you could have got away with it if it was not for them meddling kids. To all my brothers who is doing unsettling bids, you could have got away if it was not for them meddling kids. Obviously he's talking about it 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 the villain would say could have got away with it for these meddling kids, which are the Scooby-Doo kids. So just a perfect punctuation of the song, calling out the sample that is using just perfect. Love Hay. Perfect song. I will say that again and again and again. Perfect song. Yeah, it's really good. All right, Cam, last one? Oh, yeah. My last one also comes from dead bent. It speaks to like the way that Operation Doomsay gives us a peek into Daniel Dumalay a little bit,

at least the most that we might get on an MF Doom 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. The idea of these experiments is where I went obviously dead bank 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 MF Doom fans are so rabid for lack of 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 for like that being like hell bent on doing something like you're obviously going to try to do something like this is he's talking about like certainty and what he's going for. And as a as a teacher I like it when they say

that they can do better than schools. That just speaks to. me a little this just speaks to me a little bit okay all right Justin last one back to me okay or when I took your third one so do you have an no I did no I didn't want to do two from the same song I texted you last night asking you said that's fine and I'm like I actually I have to do better that Cole's asking you to come on and dissect things I have to do better than just just one song um okay this one is going to turn into a slight production dissection okay sweet so if go with the flow and it's keep tracks that make an A-Rab thief clap with no hands.

I chop these drums off a truly yours G-Rap. This is, okay, this was my third one too, by the way. Excellent. Fantastic. Okay. Great. We're on the same wavelength, Cole. I don't know if the people need to know, but we were getting a little heated

about a Kanye Westverse yesterday. And I'm glad that we're locked in. We're back. Yeah, we're back. So the first part is, you know, I keep tracks. Keep tracks that make an Arab thief clap with no hands. I chopped. Put 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, yeah. He's saying his songs are so good. to make even people with no hands clap. Perfect. Great. Their hands get chopped off.

I chop, which chopping is like a phrase I guess brought up in sampling a lot of times. So I chopped these drums off of 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, I keep tracks and make an A-Rab thief clap with no hands. That's a great punchline in any world.

But now to then go and say, chop these drums off for 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, Puff Daddy and the trackmasters, They were just taking old hip-hop songs and re-flipping them. I think of the trackmaster's taking Houdini's friends and flipping it for Naz's if I ruled the world. Like it's just pretty much a straight jack of the beat that's kind of like slowed down

and remastered and 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 J-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 dance samples on gas draws or Chadei samples on the song Doom's Day.

And he's mixing them with very, very obvious samples from rap songs. So here you have the drums from Truly Yours by Cool G Rap. He did it on the mic is just the drums from Eric B. and

Ra Kim's microphone theme. That even includes the sample of Rock Kim saying the mic. But the best example of this is to loop back to Dead Bent which might be my favorite song on the album I think outside of Hay. I mean, I'm on the record. I'm a hay lover. But Dead Bent uses the drums from Boogie Down Productions, which is

Karras and Scott La Rock's old group, Super Ho. And it was the song, the song Super Ho is the chorus is Scott La Rock had them all. He is a super ho. Now, Cole, in the last episode, you talked a lot about that connection and the Scott La 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 KERS 1 after Scott LaRocque was killed. And he said he could have quit. We didn't know what he was going to 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 these classic hip hop drums. And also, by the way, he kept the super in there, right? So he's now turning this into like super villain. in. But it's also this homage 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 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 and rhyme and rhyme this one which he does a lot keep tracks is the first thing he says and it's also the scheme which he then rhymes with arab thief clap and grap 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 keep tracks that make it Arab deep 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 jabment, Cam? Does enjimate indeed. Okay. 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 feels so natural and organic. It doesn't feel like he's just trying to show off. So beautiful. I love that we agreed on that one, Justin.

And that was it. That was all nine. And I should have said we are discluding doomsday since we did a full dissection of that song. Last question. How do you guys feel like this album has aged? Justin, what do you think? I think it's great when he doesn't let his friends rap. 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 Doom was just kind of light years ahead of all of them besides maybe MF Grimm, but like, you know, I like a couple of the records that Grim 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 album overall, though. Kim, 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, as time goes on, that gets maybe that makes it a little special, which I do, which I do like. I do think the title track is probably going to be one of those things that is around forever. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what's going to stand like the real test of time. It still is most stream song on, at least on Spotify. Does that

count the Madville and stuff? I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Doom's Day's, the song has aged incredibly well. And I love that it's like a, 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 going to return next week, starting our dissection of Mad Villainty. 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 discussed, 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. Doom's Day then continues with its second verse, which begins with Daniel telling us exactly where he wrote it. I wrote this one in B, C, D.C. O section. If you don't believe me, go get bagged and check then. Sun number 17 up under the top bunk.

I say this not to be mean was bad luck a pop junk. Pop the trunk on C-cypropunk, leave them left scraped. Law forbid. If ain't no escape, blame him left tape. Definition super villain. A killer who love children, one who is well skilled, and destruction is well building. Doom opens the second verse rapping. I wrote this one in BCDCO section.

If you don't believe me, go get bagged and checked then. Sal number 17, up under the top bunk. BCDC refers to the Baltimore County Detention Center, where Daniel Dumalay did in fact spend time in 1998, a year before the release of Operation Doomsday. According to Noah used reporting for pitchfork, Dumalay 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. Dumalay'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, unquote. This opening to the verse also begins what would become a traditional,

in Doom's music, where he rhymes about the location where he's currently writing from. It's a practice that honors writing as sacred, a process meant to be preserved. By citing the origin of 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. pop bunk in cell 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 of the life of Daniel Dumalay, inspiring and molding the creation and narrative of MF Doom. Lying in that jail cell, chewed up by the system, what did Daniel Dumillet do to keep going? He wrote, He created art. Doom then continues the verse, Pop the trunk on C-Cypher Punk,

leave him left scraped. God forbid, if there ain't no escape, blame MF tape. Cipher Punk appears to be the code for cop in the supreme alphabet of the 5% nation. Dumolay also used the phrase previously as Zevlov X on the song Get You Now from the Black Bastards album.

Pop the Trunk in Pop the Trunk on C-Cyfer Punk means to take out a weapon and attack the cop. The next line, God forbid, if there ain't no escape, blame MF tape, seemingly plays on the idea of actual tape keeping the person stuck and unable to escape the crime scene. MF tape here is a triple entendre, referring first to the actual double-sided tape called MF tape, where MF stands for melt fuse. 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 MF's tape or music, blame his villainous influence. This latter idea leads to the next line. Definition Supervillain, a killer who loves children,

one who is well skilled in destruction as well as building. The definition of the MF 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 Deadbent, two videos play side by side. In one, MF Doom wakes up, leaves his apartment, robs fruit from a store, and runs away. In the other, M.F. 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, MF 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 of 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. the white collar crime. Get out my face. Askin' by my case, Steve toothpaste. Refrescent, monkey-style nigga to death of death. And dope fiends, still in their teens. Shook niggers turn witness.

Real men's mind their own business. That's the difference between sissy-pissy rappers is double-dutch. How come I hold a microphone double clutch? C-Os make rounds. Never have ox found on shake-down. Lockdown. Wet dreams of Fox Brown. Doom continues the second verse rapping.

While Sidney Sheldon teaches the Trife to be Trifer, I'm trading science fiction with my man the live lifer. Sidney Sheldon was a writer of novels and television. He created I Dream of Jeannie, wrote Master of the Game, and most relevant to Operation Doomsday, author the thriller novel, The Doomsday Conspiracy. When asked about the literary influences and his lyrics, Doom told hip-hop D-X, quote, In the case of Operation Doomsday, at that time, I was reading the Sidney 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, unquote. 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 speak and spell, an early computer module with a voice synthesizer. Doom continues the verse wrapping, a point of my age of me. Doom continues the verse wrapping, a pied piper holler a rhyme, a dollar and a dime, do his thing, ring around the white-collar crime. The legend of the pied 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 townspeople's children, never to be seen again. Knowing the way Daniel was betrayed by the music industry, this folk works well with the legend of Doom, especially since the Pied 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 Collared Crime,

which plays off the common childhood song Ring Around the Rosie. Doom here is also nodding to an old commercial for whisk laundry detergent, whose catchphrase was ring around the collar. Doom connects this phrase to white-collar crime. Crime usually perpetrated in the business world, such as tax evasion or insider trading. M.F. Doom's crime ring is a little grimyer 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 medodent. Doom disses his opposition by telling them that their breath stinks like a monkey's, impressively rhyming fresher mint with mentadent, a now discontiative.

continued branded toothpaste. The villain then turns to dissing snitches again, rapping, dope fiends still in their teens, shook N-words turned witness, real men's mind their own business. That's the difference between sissy-pissy rappers that's double-dutch. How can I hold the 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 would 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. C-Os are correctional officers who are unable to find an ox, prison-slaying for a knife or box-cutter. We observe here how Doom is bringing the verse full source. 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 Greer, 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, Doom's Day breaks down and Doom performs a more plain-spoken version of the hook, which segues straight into its third and final verse. Doomsday, ever since the womb till I'm back to the essence, read it off the tune, either engraved or unmarked grave, who's to say? Pass the mic like, past the P's like they used to say. Some M or Fasas don't like how Sally walk. I'll tell y'all fools is hell of cool, her ladies who callit talk.

Never let it interfere with the Yeti kettle slang. Nicknames off nipple and tipple nipple's metal fang. Known amongst holes for the bang bang. Known amongst foes for flow without, no talking around. Doom begins, Only gin and tang guzzle out a rusty tin can. Me in this mic is like gin and yang.

Doom begins a third verse with a slight revision of the hook, then raps, Pass the mic like Pass 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 Pass the Peas by the JB's, James Brown's band. Doom continues to interpolate older songs in the next line. Some M or Fers don't like how S

Sally Walk, which flips the lyric from Dyke and the Blazers 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 Ho's for the Bang Bang, known amongst foes for Flo with no talking orangutans, only gin and tang. Guzzled out of a rusty tin can, me and this mic is like yin and yang.

Again, he shows off his prow and rap and sex through one of their common elements, flow. The talking orangutans might be a callback to the bad breath monkey-style foes 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, a salesman inexplicably mentions no talking orangutans, which seems to mean no BS or false promises. Coronet open seven days a week. I kept my promise no talking orangutans. Come celebrate with us and see why everyone's talking about coronet. With this context, it appears known amongst foes for flow with no talking orangutans

means his rhymes contain 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 a glass. Whoa! And in a pouch. Dang, baby!

Of course, Doom mixes his his 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 Mike is like Yin and Yang. Doom positions his 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. Clang, crime don't pay, listen to you. It's like me holding up the line at the kissing booth. I took her back to the truck, she was uncooled, spitting all out the sunroof, through her missing tooth. But then she has a sexy voice sound like Jazzy Joyce, so I turns it up faster than a speeding knife. Strong enough to please a wife, able to drop today's math in the 48 keys of life. Cut the crap far as rap.

Touch the mic and get the same thing. rap but due to you for stealing. What the devil, he's on another level, it's a word, know a name, MF, the super villain. Off the yin and yang, Doom opts for the rhyming comic book, Alamonapia, Klaying, likely a nod to the sound of his rusty tin can filled with gin and tang. He then wraps, crime don't 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 double 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 sunrooth, through her missing tooth, but then she has a sexy voice, sound like jazzy Joyce. Perhaps a kissing booth was at a carnival, as missing teeth are a cliche of carnival workers.

The villain, drunk off as gin and tang, doesn't seem to mind, and even finds her voice sexy, like that of Jazzy Joyce, a DJ from the Bronx who worked at Hot 97 radio station. He then raps, so I turned it up faster than a speeding knife. Here, turned it up is 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 sexual tool. The comic book description of the supervillain Doom then continues, strong enough to please a wife, able to drop today's math in the 48 keys of life. The phrasing here plays on the classic description

of Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. Doom's abilities are on a Superman level. Specifically, today's math is a part of supreme mathematics, or the teachings of the the 5% 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 5% Nation into his rhymes, providing his listeners with a guiding life philosophy. Doom then wields the aforementioned knife, rapping, cut the crap, far as rap, touch the mic, get the same thing an A-RAB will do to you for stealing.

It's a clever line in that Doom subverts our expectation of him. rhyming far as rap, touch the mic, and get slapped, opting instead to cite Hammarabi's 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, M.F, the supervillain. It's of course a 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 wordplay is on another level. Equally clever is the replacement of It's a Plain with It's a Name, which sets up the following declaration of his new moniker, MF, the supervillain. It's quite literally a defining mode. moment, the perfect punctuation for the closing verse of his debut album's first song.

In this way, Doomsday functions as the villain's public proclamation, a literal theme song that effortlessly displays a dynamic range of humor, wit, sincerity, bravado, and relentless wordplay. All the things we've come to love about the supervillain M.F. Doom.