Dissect - S12E4 - Meat Grinder by Madvillain

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Our season long dissection of MF DOOM and Madlib's Madvillainy continues with its third track "Meat Grinder" - a complex lyrical odyssey accompanied by an equally impressive beat. Dissect S12 merchandise is now available here. Follow @dissectpodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Host/Writer/EP: Cole Cuchna Co-Writer: Camden Ostrander Additional Production: Justin Sayles Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Birocratic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify and the Ringer, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode four of our season-long dissection of MF Doom. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. In interviews throughout his decades-long career, Daniel Dumalay often made it a point to distinguish himself not as a rapper, not as a musician, but a writer. In 2005, he told The Wire, quote, I'm an author. It just so happens that what I write is in rhythmic form and it's over music, unquote. four years later in 2009, Dumalay told hip-hop DX, quote, "'Riders are born, and we're not doing it like, yeah, I think I'll be a writer today.

We can't help it. If I had another job, if I was a gardener or a city worker, I would still be writing rhymes,' unquote. As we noted earlier this season, Daniel's innate love for the written word can be traced all the way back to the third grade, when he carried a notebook dedicated to putting words together for fun. That youthful fascination with language would sustain his entire life, manifesting at a macro and micro level, with both Dumalay's authorship of a multi-character musical universe with interacting narrative-driven albums, and the anomalous poetic lyricism of his intricately composed verses, where each line is rich with literary devices like alliteration, sinecanechy,

enjabment, and of course high-density multisyllabic rhyme. And there's perhaps no better example of Daniel Dumillet's relentless line-after-line display of linguistic mastery than Mad Villanee's third track, the subject of our episode today, Meat Grindr. According to Stone's throw the beat kinder, dripping off the meat grinder, heat-niner, pimping, stripping, soft, sweet minor. China was a neat sign of trouble with the scripted, it's double-diff, bubble it's subtle-it, midget.

Bordiali. According to Stones' throes art director Jeff Jank, Meat Grinder, was the first song Doom and Madlib composed for Mad Villany after meeting up in LA. Madlib begins the track with an excerpt of the 1969 song, Sleeping in a Jar by the mothers of invention, a band led by the legendary musician Frank Zappa. Madlib pitches this sample up and executes a repeating half-measure stutter before letting the sample play at length. The Mothers of Invention were an acclaimed experimental group that incorporated a wide spectrum of musical genres, including orchestral symphonies, free jazz, blues, doo-op, and rock and roll.

Sleeping in a jar is exemplary of their often bizarre lyrical imagery, as the track's sparse text reads as follows, it's the middle of the night and your mommy and your daddy are sleeping, sleeping in a jar. The jar is under the bed. Between the group's genre fluidity and their quirky, surreal take on horror imagery, the mothers of invention slots perfectly into Mad Villainee's musical universe, which takes a similar, whimsical, bizarre approach to its own brand of villainous horror. After a quick fade down, the sleeping-in-a-jar excerpt is immediately juxtaposed

with a new sample taken from an obscure record called Hula Rock by Lou Howard and the All-Stars. Madlib also pitches this sample up, alternating between a four-measure loop and an extended six-measure loop. We're also going to hear this sound every once in a while, which is sampled from the end of the Sleeping in the Jarre song. Like we heard in the harmonically sound loop of the previous track accordion, Madloup's ear once again identified a loop with inherent musical integrity. Specifically, it's the harmonic minor baseline that shines here. It contains a total of four two-note phrases.

The first two ascend, they get higher and higher. The second two descent, they get lower and lower. So overall we have a really nice melodic arc. It climbs up, hits a peak, and then climbs back down. Now what's cool is that the peak of this arc, that jump to a high B-flat, occurs at the exact halfway point of the loop. A nice symmetrical detail that adds to the sound structure of this two-bar bass line. Now these details on their own aren't particularly virtuosic. However, like our accordion beat analysis, what I'm trying to draw your attention to is Madlib's talent for identifying small, interesting, musically sound excerpts. It's because these excerpts are so musically

sound that we actually enjoy hearing them looped over and over. This to me is Madlib's true superpower. He's widely considered one of the best sample-based producers of all time, and not because he's the most technically proficient. I mean, the basis for Meat Grinder is simply the loop from Hula Rock. From what I can tell, he doesn't add any additional instruments to the original excerpt. But that's because he didn't have to. He found a sample that was self-contained and didn't feel pressure to overproduce it. Because his true gift is his ear, his ability to hear potential and what others ignore, to mine gold from obscure, forgotten records otherwise lost to history, like a grave digger lifting jewels from the decomposing bodies of the dead.

Before beginning his verse, we first hear Doom inhale deeply. It's a bit of theatrics that pairs with his opening line, tripping off the beat, kinda. In other words, this beat is dope, and Doom is inhaling it as if you were hitting a pipe, finding lyrical inspiration in his musical trip. He could also be acknowledging the song's surreal, psychedelic intro, the abstraction of sleeping in the jar, the trippy voice that announces the jar is under the bed, and the perpetual grind and swirl of the hypnotic baseline. There's also secondary wordplay in off the beat, a phrase used when a musician isn't playing in time. In this reading, tripping would mean physically stumbling, a play on someone falling off beat.

Since Doom is the one tripping here, it seems he's referring to himself, to his own opening line. This interpretation would explain the displacement of the final word, kinda. Traditionally, the adverb kinda is placed before the adjective, as in I'm Kinda hungry. So technically, Doom's Kinda is semantically off the beat, and he also says the word on the actual musical offbeat. In fact, the word beat falls directly on beat. while kinda is said offbeat. Thus, the wonky phrasing and delivery of tripping off the beat kinda is the direct result of the very trip he's speaking of.

Trippy, right? The trip extends into the following line, dripping off the meat grinder, which is a perfect seven-syllable rhyme with tripping off the beat kinda. This is known as a hollow rhyme, where every syllable in one line rhymes with every other syllable and another. Initially, dripping off the meat grinder appears to be doomed claiming his rhymes are fresh,

as if they've been just processed through a meat grinder. As we'll see shortly, the verse to come does spew out an abstracted, jumbled, mashed form, much like meat spewing out a meat grinder. Between the reference to Madlip's beat in line one and now his own lyrics in line two, it appears that together the couplet is referencing the couple or duo mad villain. But it's likely that Doom is also directly referencing the initial sample source, as the song Sleeping in a Jar comes off an album called Uncle Meat, which Doom seems to use as inspiration for the track's opening line.

The villain then begins twisting syllabic meat out of his lyrical grinder, rapping, heat-niner, pimping, stripping, soft, sweet minor. China was a neat signer. The beat kinda meat grinder scheme is sustained in heat-niner, sweet minor, china, and neat signer, while soft rhymes with the previous off. Doom also interjects a new rhyme in pimping and stripping. Impressively, all 22 words in the verse so far have rhymed. Now, if we're to attempt a summary of these lines,

Doom, the villain, carries a 9mm gun or heat-niner, and serves as a pimp to an underage stripper named China, who signs for him. Considering the contextual criminality, it's likely that this courtesan helps Doom for its checks or prescription pills. We should also recognize how a stripper gives a secondary meaning to the title Meat Grinder, evoking the grind of a lap dance on a patron's meat. Doom's description of China then gets increasingly absurd as he wraps, trouble with the script digits, double-dipped, bubble-lipped, subtle lisp, midget.

Once again, every syllable rhymes. The dominant rhyme is the new three-syllable trouble with, which continues into the rapid-fire double-dipped bubble-lipped, bubble-lipped, subtle lisp, while digits and midget complete the standard N- rhyme. Its possible trouble with the script digits denotes a handicap or deformity of her fingers or digits, while bubble-lip subtle-lisp describes her voluptuous lips. Along with evoking a bubble's round shape, its possible bubble is shorthand for bubblegum, in which case Doom would most likely be alluding to bubblegum pink lips, or her vagina. Given that China is a sex worker, double-diff might allude to her being with multiple partners in quick succession. While the term midget is now considered offensive, we acknowledge

that being perfectly PC isn't likely the villain's highest priority. However, what I think is most fascinating about this increasingly psychedelic description of China is the way in which the constraints of form give rise to these unusual, almost spontaneous descriptors. Doom clearly is prioritizing rhyme over all else in this verse, and this restriction, this aim of rhyming every syllable, forces him to be imaginative, leading him to discover new creative territories he himself likely couldn't have planned out or predicted. I mean, did Doom really set out to write about pimping a disfigured little person with a lisp named China? Or is it more likely the scenario was born out of the rhyme scheme itself, from Doom's openness and letting his imagination take the reins

regardless of where it led him? In the hands of a great artist, a creative restriction becomes a tool for innovation. Like a magician escaping a straight jacket, where witnessing doom take on the lyrical challenge of rhyming every syllable while staying on topic, even if that topic is admittedly and purposely absurd. The description of China continues with borderline schizo, a five-syllable phrase that rhymes completely with the next five-syllable phrase, sort of fine tits, though. Despite her erratic behavior and odd features, she's still attractive. Thus we get, pour the wine, whore to grind, quarter to nine, a rapid internal rhyme that's punctuated by completing the standard N-rime, let's go, which rhymes

with the previous schizzo and tits though. The next line, ever since 1011, glad she made a brethren, suggests that Doom has known her since she was 10 or 11 years old, and that she actually considers Doom a big brother. This seems to allude to Stockholm syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which the abused develop positive feelings toward their abusers over time. We also acknowledge the line was likely inspired first by wordplay, as 1011 continues the upward count that began with nine in the previous line quarter to nine. The counting motif continues subtly in the next line, then it's last down, seven Alligator 7. The surface play is, on flag football, where last down refers to the fourth and final down, and seven Alligator

7 plays on the common counting method in which alligator, like Mississippi, is used to ensure defenders are counting full seconds before they rush the quarterback. But in Doom's previous count, 9, 10, 11, the next number would be 12, the equivalent of midnight, which is commonly used to denote time running out, like Cinderella's magic expiring at the stroke of midnight. Motivocally, this aligns with the idea of a fourth down, a last chance before you, for your opportunity to score or advance expires. Thus, we get to the heart of this devil metaphor. Doom is trying to score with China, and his time is running out to do so. This leads to the following line, at the gates of heaven, knocking, no answer. There's a few things going on here. First,

Doom formalizes a subtle religious motif that began with his use of brethren, the term for fellow Christians, and continued with the number seven, which is heavily related to God in the Bible. The line also nods to Bob Dylan's hit song, knocking at Heaven's Door. But given the scenario of Doom's sexual advances on China, Heaven's door is clearly being used as a euphemism for sex or China's vagina. And since Doom admits there's no answer to his knocks or advances, it appears he's been rejected. This leads us to Slow Dancer, Hopeless Romancer. Recall that China was initially described as a stripper, so Slow Dancer likely describes as strip tease, with Tees being the important descriptor here, furthering Doom's feelings of rejection. This would explain Hopeless,

Romancer, which comes as a bit of a twist in this narrative. Turns out Doom might have actually had feelings for China, while China saw Doom as a brother or brethren. The self-descriptor Hopeless Romancer is used as a pivot point, as the verse will now shift away from the China narrative to Doom boasting about his lyrical ability, a turn perhaps inspired by the ego bruise of China's rejection. Incredibly, he rhymes all five syllables of Hopeless Romancer with dopist flow stanzas, an inventive way to flex his lyrical skills, which he directly compares to poetry, as stanza is traditionally used when describing poetic structure. Now we have to call out the fact that the verse's hard pivot from China to boasting occurs precisely

at the song's halfway point, a minute and five seconds into the two minute and ten second song. We should also just keep track of the rhyme density of the verse as we go. At this point, 118 out of 121 syllables rhyme. That's an astonishing 98%. Dofest flow stanzas, yes no, villain, metal face dextro, guess so, still incredible in escrow, Just say ho, I'll test the yayo, wild west, I'll flesh, y'all best to lay low, Hey, bro, day glow, set the bed pay dough before the cheddar get away best to get meiko. The worst hated, guarded garb and perpetrated odd favors, demonstrated in the perforated rod lavers, and all quad flavors, large savers, still back in the game.

is turned into a true or false question as he wraps, yes, no, villain, metal face to Destro. As if to answer his own question, he calls himself out by name and then places himself in a lineage of villainy, from Metal Face Doom to Destro, a villain from G.I. Joe who also wears a mask. He was forced to wear a mask over his face for the rest of his life. Doom's next line, Guess So, Still Incredible and Eskro,

has some interesting history behind it. In the original recording of Meat Grindr, Doom wrapped Still Incredible How Cess Grow. Recall that part of Mad Villain leaked in late 2002, causing a year-plus-long delay in its official release. With Eskro denoting an interim period in which money or property is withheld, it would seem that Doom changed this lyric to refer to the Mad Villainty album itself. He's flexing that he's still the most incredible MC, even when the album was in an escrow period, perhaps since the leak only added hype and anticipation for the official release. It's a scarce brand of self-reference only made possible by the album's

unique circumstances. That one, it leaked. Two, Doom decided to re-record his vocals, and three, Doom is clever enough to execute this subtle wink to his most loyal listeners who had noticed this small alteration. Now, along with this meta-reference, this couple might contain my personal favorite rhyme in the entire song, where Doom unthinkably rhymes metal villain with Still Incredible. Notice how he merges the word still with the first syllable and Incredible to get stillin to rhyme with villain. Meanwhile, the remaining syllables, credible, are rhymed with metal.

So not only is Doom rhyming nearly every syllable across entire lines, he's now splicing syllables from one word and fusing them with another to complete his rhymes. Doom here is putting on a master class of penmanship. The lyrical assault continues, Just Say Ho, I'll test the Yeo. Wild West Style Fest, Y'all Best to Lay Low. This appears to depict a live show setting where it's commonplace that the audience is commanded to say hey and ho. Because Doom has the dopest flow stanzas, he has no problem quality

controlling the dope or Yeo. Wild West Style Fest likely refers to Madlib's West Coast affiliation in a location of Los Angeles where they made the album. Meanwhile, Y'all Best to Lay Low plays off the gunfights of the actual Wild West, as Doom cautions the crowd lest they catch astray from as rapid fire rhyming assault. He continues, Hebrough, Dayglow, set the bet, pay-do. Before the cheddar get away, best to get Mako. Here we have to acknowledge the mileage he's gotten out of the two-syllable rhyme that began with yes-no, which Dumas now rhymed ten times. Destro, Gesso, Escro, Sejo, Yeo, Leilo, He-Bro, Dei-Daglo, Paedo, and Mako. Meanwhile, the secondary rhyme, Al-Test, has now been rhymed five times. Wild West, Stylefest, Y'all Best, Set,

the bet best to get. The lines in question continued the Wild West motif with a bet and collection scenario gone awry, with Doom suggesting Mako, the auto body repair and paint shop to imply the getaway car better be in top shape to ensure a clean escape. Doom then slows his flow to deliver an impressive four-syllable scheme, the worst hated God who perpetrated odd favors. He describes himself as the despised deity, aka a villain, who commits crimes insinuated by the use of perpetrated, a term most commonly used to describe criminal acts or odd favors. The multisyllabic rhyme extends into demonstrated in the perforated rod lavers in all quad flavors. This is a reference to Doom's shoes, the Adidas Rod Laver signature tennis shoe,

which feature perforated leather midsoles. Now, this isn't a reference that just happened to fit the rhyme scheme. In the photo shoot for Mad Villany, Doom can actually be seen wearing this exact model of shoe in the white and navy blue color way, though it appears he owns all quad flavors, or four colorways of these kicks. After another brief pause, doom punctuates the current rhyme scheme with Lord Save Us, pronouncing Lord and the colloquial Laud and stretching it into two syllables so the phrase fits the four-syllable scheme. Notice how Lord here ties into the previous worst-hated God and also calls back to the Brethren Heaven religious motif present in the China narrative.

Because Laud comes directly after flavors, its likely Doom is also using it as a homophone for lard, fat use for cooking. Thus we now recognize yet another motif running through the past handful of lines, as cheddar, dough, flavors, and lard all relate to cuisine. So not only is Doom rhyming nearly every single syllable of every word, not only is he staying on topic, he's doing so while maintaining multiple motifs, adding more and more juggling balls to this impressive display of virtuastic lyricism. Now the more slowed, relaxed delivery of this section

functions as a welcome respite from the onslaught of rapid rhymes and gives Meat Grinders single extended verse a natural break. We'll take a break too and dissect the rest of the verse when we come back. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we reached a natural rest in Meat Grinders' extended verse. However, this break doesn't last long, as Doom quickly picks up right where he left off. Still back in the game like Jack Lorain, think you know the name. Don't rack your brain on a fast track to half.

Zane either in a slow beat or that to speed or at the cane. Latter, pain. Thorn songs lit in the booth. with the best host, throwing wrong hits on the roof in the West Coast. He's at it again. Doom plays on the fact that he took a brief pause, rhyming, still back in the game like Jack Lillane. Think you know the name, don't rack your brain.

Jack Lelaine was a famous weightlifter who sold a branded juicer into his 90s, like Doom or Daniel Dumelais. He's been in the game for a long time. But don't rack your brain attempting to remember Doom's former alias or government name. Just know he's been and will be around a long time like Lillane. With Lelaine being a weightlifter, Rack becomes a double entendre, referring to thinking hard, but also to racking weights. Finally, these lines pay homage to the 1994 track Sweat and Bullets by Brand Nubian,

which also name checks Lelaine and rhymes it with Rack Your Brain. The subtle nod to an older hip-hop track extends into a blatant nod to another, Rath of Kane by Big Daddy Kane. Doom raps on a fast track. to half insane, either in a slow beat or that the speed of wrath of Kane. He's boasting that he can rap at any speed, either slow or fast, using Kane's track as an example of up-tempo rapping. I flame of praying they decay, I blow away and thaway's a doorway, because I don't play.

Attacking like a psychopath, breaking rappers in half, so I feel the wrath of Kane. Aside from Wrath of Kane, serving to exemplify fast rapping, it also extends the ongoing religious motif we discussed, as Kane is an important character in the Old Testament whose wrath was felt when he murdered his brother Abel. Now Doom continues the verse with one of my personal favorite couplets on Mad Villany. Hoctoeing songs lit in the booth with the best hosts, doing bong hits on the roof in the West Coast. It's another hollow rhyme where every syllable rhymes and describes as Stones Throw House in Los Angeles, the West Coast, where the album was created. Hawktoeing songs lit is a remarkably ingenious phrase, as Doom converts an Anamana Pee,

for spit, Haktu, into a present participle verb by adding an I&G. Meanwhile, lit implies what Doom spitting is fire lyrics in the booth, igniting the best host Madlib's gasoline-soaked beats into flames. This implied spark or fire creates a throughline to the bong hits on the roof, as fire is required to light the bong. The roof patio on the Los Angeles house is where Doom wrote his lyrics for Mad villain, and among the mad villainy album photos, there's a shot of this roof where you can actually see the bong on the patio table.

In another shot, Doom's notebook is captured on the same table, and it's turned to the page that contains a draft of this very lyrical couplet. But instead of hock-toeing songs lit in the booth, it says doing songs slash hits in the booth. In this early version, Doom was primarily playing on the double use of hits, a bong hit and a song that's a hit, the idea being that mad villain were doing both simultaneously. However, compared to the extremely clever hawk-toeing songs lit, doing song hits is somewhat plain, and this small window into Doom's creative process reveals that he wasn't just writing a verse and recording it immediately. He sought to improve his rhymes with revision.

Doom then acknowledges his penmanship in the next lines, which present yet another near hollow rhyme. He's added again, mad at the pen, glad that we win a tad fat in a bad hat for men. Grind a cinnamon, Manhattan war mongas, you can find the villain in satin. The van screeches, the old man preaches by the gold sand beaches. The cold hand reaches for the old hand reaches for the old. fan elie. Doom continues, he's added again, Mad at the Pen. Notice how Mad here doubles as a callback to the previous Half Insane, yet another motif woven into Meat Grinders complex lyrical fabric. He then rhymes, glad that we win, a tad fat, and a bad hat for men. After boasting mad villain's

successful partnership, Doom describes himself as slightly overweight and wearing an unfashionable hat, which he often did perhaps in part to cover his balding head. Doom once joked about the actual reason he wore a mask, saying, quote, The real reason is, I'm so ugly. I don't want to distract the crowd when I go out on stage. I don't know if I'd even get a song done. Motherfuckers would be thrown tomatoes, unquote. Next, Doom pivots to a puzzling line, Grind the Cinnamon, Manhattan Warmongers.

Given that Doom grew up around Manhattan, it seems he's the warmonger, someone who encourages aggression and violence, which seems fitting for a villain. Grind the cinnamon is a little less clear. When considering it's paired with the warmonger phrase, it's perhaps being used as an image of violence, as cinnamon sticks or ground to a powder, just like Doom smashes his competition into dust. Grind also calls back to the song title and the opening line of the verse, which feels appropriate here near its end.

The next line, you can find the villain in satin, congas, makes a little more sense with the knowledge that when he performed it live, Doom usually said, you can find the villain in satin playing congas. It's a riff on drum circles, where players often wear satin garments. Among the aims of a drum circle are spiritual growth, which seems to play into the next sequence of lines. The van screeches, the old man preaches about the gold sand beaches.

The cold hand reaches for the old tan elices. When asked about these lines specifically, Doom explained how they related to the idea of personal improvement, about striving to find inner peace, with the classic Gold Sand Beach and his personal grail tan-alise sneakers representing an idyllic state of mind. quote, it's almost like reaching that vacation place, where we're all at total peace. But then the cold hand reaches for the old tan leases. That's almost like saying, oh, that's where I want to be at, but where I'm at is cold, and I'm somewhere, probably in the city, at a sneaker store, and I'm looking for these kicks.

I look at it like any metropolis is the lowest you can be. To me, that's like a hell. But Elise had the butter all beige sneakers at one time. They look like Stan Smiths almost, only in tan. I was young and broke at the time when they came out. Now I have the paper to get them. I'm trying to find them, and I can't get them nowhere, man. It's almost reaching for that gold sand beach, you know what I mean?

But the fact that you're always trying to get there is good in itself. That's how I be. The struggle's almost the answer in itself, unquote. By the way, Doom was serious about his search for those tan leases. In live performances of Meat Grinder, after reciting this final line, he would often tell the crowd to look out for a pair in size 10 and a half. Now we ought to observe the subtle structural detail of this final line referencing an Elise's tennis shoe. Recall that Meat Griner's extended verse contain a brief pause after Doom rhymed,

demonstrated in the perforated rod lavers and all quad flavors, Lord Save Us. Now here at the end of the verse, Doom cites another tennis sneaker, creating subtle symmetry between the verses and in its middle break. And similar to Lord Save Us, Doom caps off Meat Grinder by saying Jesus after a brief pause following Elises. We've been tracking the religious motif running throughout the song ever since the China narrative. So along with the old man preaches, this final Jesus is an incredible punctuation of this motif. It also voices our own amazement at the end of this phenomenal display of masterful lyricism, where a grand total of 318 out of the verses 350 syllables rhyme. That's a ridiculous 91%. As we heard throughout our analysis,

Doom's exercise and high-density rhyme birthed a number of unlikely idiosyncratic phrases. phrases like dopest flow stanzas, sort of fine tits though, or hawk-toeing songs lit. As we discovered, these unusual phrases aren't just random combinations of words forced together to fulfill a complex rhyme scheme. Even in the song's most abstract moments, we uncovered an intended or at least possible meaning. And more often than not, they were part of a larger motif or subject being developed. However, what we didn't talk so much about today is the pure oral aesthetic value of the verse, the almost primal, brain-tingling pleasure of hearing these relentless, well-crafted rhyming rhythms. In linguistics, this is what's known as

euphony, which generally refers to the pleasing, harmonious arrangements of sounds in a text. While this aspect is a little hard to formally analyze, so much of our enjoyment of Meat Grindr, and really dooms lyricism as a whole, lies in his extraordinary ability to create these long chains of words that just sound good together. Thus, our experience of Doom's lyricism is often like viewing an abstract painting, where the primary aim isn't necessarily to identify a subject, but rather have an immersive, visceral, emotional experience

of color and shape and texture and scale. A similar analogy might be a jazz solo, or we're not concerned with the meaning of the notes. Rather, our primary enjoyment lies in experiencing the soloist command of their instrument and their ability to manipulate tone and rhythm, stringing together long-collarine, combinations of riffs and scales that interact with the harmony and rhythm of the instrumental accompaniment.

Likewise, Doom's lyricism is often best enjoyed immersively and allowing the rhapsodic, rhyme-guided stream of consciousness to cascade of rust and all of its euphony-filled glory. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the debut grand opening of Mad Villain Beastrope, Bed and Breakfast, Ball Grill, Cafe Louns on the water. where we offer you the finest to the finer thing. Having settled into the world of mad villainy with the illus villains, accordion, and meat grinder, the album continues with a theatrical interlude titled Bistro, where our Master of Ceremonies, MF Doom, formally introduces the duo as performers at a fictional club with a name that rolls right off the tongue, the mad villain Bistro Bed and Breakfast Bar and Grill Cafe Lounge on the Water.

In terms of production, Bistro's Sultry Beat is a loop extracted from 1983's second. to none by Atlantic Star. Also heard in Bistro as a brief exchange sampled from an episode of McMillan and Wife, an NBC police procedural show from the 70s. Roger Stambler, Lloyd's of London. How do you do? How do you do? I've actually been waiting. How do you do? How do you do? Live on the beats. We have the one and only mad love. How do you do?

We also have King Gidre on the mix. Yesterday's new Quintetitin Teddy. here, Victor Vaughn. Cleverly, the How Do You Do sample is singled out as Doom introduces Madlib, as if Madlib is saying hello to the audience through the sample. Doom goes on to list the duo's other aliases as performers on the night's bill, including King Ghidara, Dumalay's character based on the Japanese three-headed monster, and Victor Vaughn, the young time-traveling street hustler whose name stems from Victor von Doom, the birth name of Marvel's Doctor Doom. Meanwhile,

Quasimodo refers to Madlib's rapping alter ego with a pitched up voice, and yesterday's new quintet is Madlib's jazz group in which all five fictional members are played by Madlib himself. Impressively, each of the aliases in this list had put out a full-length album by the time of Mad villain's release, that Madlib and Doom's union in the form of Mad villain represents a marvel-like merging of these two musical universes. Bistro is a great bit of winking world-building that doesn't take itself too seriously, even ending with an inside joke, as Doom dedicates their next song to a few oddly named fellows in the audience. So according to Jeff Jank, the art director at Stones Throw who created the mad villainy cover art,

he and Doom had made an arrangement during the album's recording. Jank told Ego Trip magazine, quote, I had this side hustle with Doom where we did a trade. I made him a painting in exchange for him placing a few challenging key words in his lyrics. Those words shall remain a secret, but I'm happy to say that he gave a shout out to a couple of my cartoon characters, Hookey and Baba, and the Lounge Track Bistro. In another interview, Jank also claimed this comic was exclusively sold at San Francisco area laundromats, which explains Doomsang Big Huki and Baba from the laundromat. Bistro seamlessly bridges into Mad Villene's next number, an appropriately jazzy piece that slots perfectly into the piano lounge-like atmosphere,

as if the duo were performing it live from the Bistro itself. Whole heat and preach nonviolence. He about stop speech. Come on, silence. On once every night. This is, of course, Mad Villanee's next track, Raid. A song will examine note by note, line by line,

next time on Dysect. Today's episode of Dysect was written by Camden Ostrander and me, Cole Kushner. If you enjoyed the episode, please tell a friend about the new season or share on social media tagging at Dysect podcast. It really helps. Additional production assistance by Justin Sales.

Audio editing by Kevin Pooler. Theme music by Be Replic. All right, thanks, everyone. Talk to you next week.