Dissect - S12E5 - Raid / Curls by Madvillain

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Our dissection of MF DOOM and Madlib's Madvillainy continues with the songs "Raid" and "Curls." S12 Merch is available for a limited time 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

Wake up, babe. Bansplaine is back. That's right, your favorite extremely long music podcast has returned. And this season, we're talking grunge. As usual, there's Goss, there's tea. There's an excessive amount of facts and info. And you know what? There's nine hours on a band that rhymes with Schmirlsmam, plus much, much more. Listen to new episodes of Bansplane with me, Yossi Solek, every Thursday. From Spotify and The Ringer, this is Dysect. Long-form musical analysis broken into short, digestible episodes. This is episode five of our season-long dissection of MF Doom. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Last time on Dissect, we analyzed the literary achievement of Mad Villene's Meat Grinder, where MF Doom puts on a lyrical masterclass over Madlib's quirky, quirky, psychedelic production. Meat Grinder was then followed by Bistro, an interlude that frames the Mad Villany album as a live performance at a jazz lounge, where Doom and Madlib offer us the finest of the finer things. Mad villain, bistro, bed and breakfast, ball, grill, cafe nows on the water.

Now, as Madliny continues, Doom and Madlib extend the conceptual framework of Bistro by subtly emphasizing live performance in their next number. The subject of the first half of our episode today, Raid. Raid's introduction we just heard is an excerpt of jazz pianist Bill Evans' 1968 rendition of the tune Nardis, originally written by Miles Davis. Now cleverly, the Bill Evans recording is a live performance from the Montre Jazz Festival, and so it seems that Madlib and Doom have intentionally used a live jazz sample to seamlessly transition from their own live jazz lounge setting in Bistro. The Bill Evans

sample isn't altered for Raid's intro, but the way Madlib transitions from this sample into the track's main beat is pretty ingenious. Let's hear that transition, then we'll discuss exactly why it works so well. Now, the primary sample used to create this beat comes from the 1972 song, America Latina, by Osmar Milito and the Quartet Forma. As you can hear, Osmar Milito is a Brazilian artist, and his record Silva de Pedra is one of dozens Madlib picked up on his now infamous trip to Brazil in 2002, the same trip in which an early version of Mad villainy was stolen and leaked to the internet.

While his friends were out partying, Madlib camped out in his hotel room, filling a handful of 60-minute cassette tapes with new beats made from Brazilian records he found at local markets. Madlib told Scratch magazine, quote, cuts like Raid I did in my hotel room in Brazil on a portable turntable, my boss SP303, and a little tape deck. I recorded it on cassette tape, came back here, put it on CD, and Doom made a song out of it. N-words be sleeping, thinking they need all this gear, unquote. To create the beat for Rade, Madlib splices out America Latina's introductory chord progression. Now the only problem with using this chord progression verbatim is that it's in 3-4 time, meaning it has 3-4-note beats per measure.

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Hip-hop songs are very rarely in 3-4 time. They are almost always in 4-4-time, which have not 3, but 4-note beats per measure. So Madlib had to get creative. To convert this passage from 3-4 to 4-4, he first chopped up each of the 4 chords in the progression, and assign them to individual pads on a sampler. You can think about pads on a sampler like keys on a computer keyboard,

but instead of pressing a key to make a letter, you press a pad to trigger a sound, any sound you assigned to that particular pad. And so what Madlib did was give each of the chords in the progression their own pad so that he can play each chord individually. So now he can press one pad and it plays one chord like this. He presses another pad and it plays another chord. and so on for all four chords.

Now there are different ways you can trigger a sound on a sampler once it's assigned to a pad. The basic setting allows you to tap the pad to start the sample and tap it again to stop it. You can also set it to where hitting the pad once starts the sample, but instead of stopping the sample when you hit the pad again, it starts the sample over from the beginning. And this is the setting Madlib creatively uses to convert the chord progression from three, four times, to 4-4 time. Each chord in the original recording is played for 3 quarter notes, so to add the extra chord note needed in 4-4 time, Madlib triggers the chord on the sampler and allows it to play for 1 quarter note. Then he hits the pad again to start the sample over,

and this time lets it play for the full 3-quarter notes. The end result is a chord played for a total of 4-4-nodes, or 1 measure of 4-4 time. Madlib does this for each individual chord in the progression, And so the original 3-4 progression, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, is effectively converted into 4-4-4 time. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3. It's pretty cool, right? Madlib then adds a simple supporting drumbeat to beef up the rhythm section. Now let's return to that initial Bill Evans Jazz sample and observe why it makes such a great introduction

for this main beat. Technically speaking, the two pieces are in similar keys and have a similar tempo. The opening jazz sample is in G major at 97 beats per minute, while the raid beat is in a very closely related key of D major and just 3 BPMs faster at 100 beats per minute. Most listeners aren't going to notice these subtle variances, so the similarities in key and tempo is one reason why the transition between the two samples works at a technical level. Another reason comes from the precise moment Madlib chose to make this transition. The jazz sample ends on a rapid three-cord piano run, which I'll play a little slower here. Now this three-cord progression is followed immediately by the first chord in the Rade Beat.

And this first chord is triggered in time with that three-cord run, as if it's the fourth chord in the progression. So even though the instrumentation changes from the solo piano to a full band, Madlib treats the two as if they were the same, helping to smooth over the transition between them. At the same time, I don't want to oversell the similarities between the two pieces, because so much of the shock and impact of the switch comes from the contrast between them. We are set up to think the song is going to sound one way, and Madlib suddenly pulls the rug from under us and takes the song in a new direction. And so Madlib's genius is in his recognition that the two samples contain enough

similarities to work together, but were different enough to make an impactful contrast each and every time we hear it. It's just the right combination of chaos and order. How do you hold heat and preach nonviolence? Shh, he about start speech, come on, silence. On one stare-night, I saw the light. He heard a voice that sound like Barry White said, sure you're right. Don't let me find out who try to bite. They better off going to fly a kite in a firefight during a tornado time with no coat,

then I caught you. Wrote the book on rhymes, a note from the author with no headshot. He said it's been a while, got a breadwinner style to get an inner child and fin a smile. enters raid with a question, how doom hold heat and preach non-violence. It's another classic expertly crafted opening line. Notice how the first phrase shines in its alliteration of the H sound, how, hold, and heat. It's also extremely common that how is followed by the word do, as in how do birds fly. But doom cleverly replaces do with doom, subverting our intuition. Meanwhile, there's the rapid internal rhyme heat and preach before setting up the three-syllable

and rhyme non-violence. The same rhyme structure is sustained in the following line, shh, he about to start the speech, come on, silence. Once again we get alliteration. Now with the S sound, sh, start, speech, and silence. There's also the internal rhyme of he and speech, and the non-violence, come on silence, end rhyme. Now, as far as the meaning of this opening couplet, doom first plays with the contradiction of holding heat or carrying a gun while advocating for peace. Our intuition to interpret this as hypocritical and requiring an explanation is personified as an audience member shushing the crowd so they can hear Doom explain himself by way of a speech, which is a clever way to frame the remainder of his verse. Gun owners often argue that owning a weapon does not inherently make them violent, so Doom's claim isn't totally unheard of. However, given Doom's history of using weaponry as metaphors for his lyrical skill and the prevalence of gangster rap at the time, we ought to consider that the question here really is, how is Doom such a history?

a killer MC, yet doesn't rap about killing people in his lyrics. In this way, the line uses the contradiction as a reflection of how great of a rapper he is. He's so good that it defies logic, that his greatness demands explanation or proof, which will give by way of this verse. Finally, it's hard to hear about a speech preaching non-violence and not thinking about the most famous preacher of non-violence in Martin Luther King Jr., a literal preacher. And so Doom takes on this persona in the next lines, the opening lines of his quote-unquote speech, on one scary, Night, I saw the light, heard a voice that sound like Barry White, said, show you're right. Doom mimics a preacher claiming to hear the word of God, effortlessly executing four, three-syllable

rhymes in these two bars, Starry Night, saw the light, Barry White, and sure you're right. God's voice is comedically compared to the iconic baritone of Barry White, who actually has a song called Show You're Right. With Barry White's phrase, show you're right, being in this quirky scenario, the voice of God talking to our preacher, Doom. We realize that he's affirming Doom's claim of being a killer MC, that God is saying he's right about that. The quirkiness continues, don't let me find out who tried a bite, the better off going to fly a kite in a firefight during tornado time with no coat than I caught you. It's another example of rhyme scheme leading Doom to bizarre imagery and analogy, as he compares the impossible success of someone attempting to mimic

his virtuosic rhymes to someone successfully flying a kite in a tornado in the middle of a gunfight. cleverly, with no coat here refers to both a raincoat and a bulletproof vest, while Icacha refers to Doom catching the guy trying to bite his style, and also alluding to the phrase, caught a body. He continues, wrote the book on rhymes, a note from the author with no headshot. Wrote the book is a phrase used to mean someone is an expert on a given subject, in this case, it's killer rhymes. Given the allusions to a preacher and God, Doom might be alluding to the Bible here.

In other words, Doom didn't just write A book, he wrote The Book. His rhyme book is as sacred as the Bible and should be studied for centuries to come. A note from the author is a letter to readers placed before a book begins, but given the focus on Doom's musical dominance, we also recognize how Note doubles to fit this musical motif. Typically, an author's note or biography is accompanied with a photo or headshot of the author, but Doom's anonymity of course wouldn't allow for such a thing, hence with no headshot. But a headshot is also a bullet or a gun aimed at someone's head, which sustains the motif of gun violence that began with Doom holding heat and continued with firefight and catch a body.

Thus, no headshot in this context continues the boast about Doom's rhymes being superior. No one's catching a headshot or killing Doom at rhyming. The self-description continues, got a breadwinner style to get an inner child to fin a smile. Here there's a sly motivic connection between breadwinner, a term describing financially supporting one's family, including children, an inner child, a person's original or true self. So it appears Doom is flipping Breadwinner's typical meaning of financial support. His music does make money,

but more importantly, it touches our inner spirit. It makes our soul smile. God of Breadwinner style to get an inner child and feel a smile. And that's no exaggeration. The doctor told a patient it's all in your imagination, Negro. Ah, what do he know?

About the buttery flow, he need to cut the ego. Tripping. To date the metal fellow been ripping flow since New York plates was ghetto yellow with broke blue writing. This is too exciting. about the soul feeling truly enlightened.

They say the villain's been spitting enough lightning, the rock shock to bookie down to brighten. I like them. Continuing his boast about having a breadwinner style, Doom raps, and that's no exaggeration. The doctor told a patient, it's all in your imagination, Negro. Doom personifies his haters in the form of a racist doctor

diagnosing his confidence as delusional. Doom then undermines the diagnosis, rapping, Ah, what does he know about the buttery flow he needs to cut the ego? Note the wordplay here, as Cut plays off the idea of a butter knife, and there's even a possibility, Ego is a homophone for Ego, like the Waffles,

which would make sense in the food and butter analogy. Doom then continues, to date, the metal flow of been rip-and-flows since New York plates was ghetto yellow, with broke-blue writing, this is too exciting. The reference here is very specific. From 1973 to 1986, New York license plates were golden yellow with blue text. This was the era in which Doom was growing up in New York,

so the timestamp via the old license plates serves to display just how long Doom has been ripen flows or rhyming. As he did on both accordion and meat grinder, Doom is proudly proclaiming himself as a veteran in the game, whose skill is unmatched partly because of his vast experience. Now, in the final few bars of his only verse, Doom cleverly calls back to its beginning. He says, folks leave out the show feeling truly enlightened. They say, the villain been spent in enough lightning to shock rock the boogie down to Brighton, Aright then. Recall that the verse began framing itself as a speech from the preacher Doom, and we heard from a member of the crowd who said, shh, he's about to start the speech, come on silence. Now at the end of the verse, we once again hear

from audience members who feel enlightened after experiencing the power of Doom's words. Enlightened then extends to an analogy about electricity, as Doom spits enough lightning to power boogie down, slaying for the Bronx, to Brighton Beach. Notably, the Bronx is in the northern part of New York City, while Brighton Beach is at the southernmost part, so Doom is saying he has the power to light up the entire city. Again, notice the subtle callback here to the beginning of the verse when the question was posed how Doom hold heat and preach non-violence. Now here at the end, the audience leaves convinced of just how hot Doom's rhymes are. They're as hot as lightning and generate enough electricity to power the entirety of New York City. Recognize here how

Doom is extending the New York reference that began with the New York license plate lines, And with Boogie Down or the Bronx being the birthplace of hip-hop, it also continues Doom's boast of being a veteran in the game who grew up in the time and place the genre started. Finally, and perhaps most impressively, we have to remember that Raid as a whole was initially framed by Bistro, with Madlib and Doom performing live at a jazz lounge, a concept that then extended into Raid's live jazz sample introduction. Doom's nod to an audience leaving their show enlightened here at the end of his only verse brings this conceptual framework full circle. And so from the callback to the beginning of the verse,

to the extension of motifs established just before its end, to the acknowledgement of the song's broader concept as a whole, Raid's final lines are motivocally brilliant, tying a bow on yet another virtuosic verse on Mad Villany. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we completed our analysis of Doom's masterful verse on Raid. Now, before moving on, I wanted to quickly give you some insight into our approach to Mad Villainy this season. Because we want to cover more of MF Doom's discography after Mad Villany, we aren't giving all 22 of its tracks the full dissect treatment. Instead, we're skipping over parts of the album I feel don't fully need a detailed analysis in order to focus on the most compelling tracks and leave room for songs off MFood

and Born Like This. Of course, there's no slight to the tracks that we skip. Mad Villany is great from start to finish, but it's just the sacrifice that was necessary this season. And so with that being said, we're going to make our first painful skip now, moving from Doom's verse on Raid to Mad Villanese ninth track Curls. That means we're skipping over America's Most Blunted, the instrumental sick fit, and rainbows. But before we make the full jump, I did want to give some shine specifically to America's Most Blunted, because it's one of the more fun, iconic songs off the album. We're skipping it mostly because both Doom and Quasimoto are rapping exclusively about weed, and I don't think a line-by-line analysis is all that necessary. However, production-wise,

America's Most Blunted is one of the more impressive tracks on the album. A testament to Madlib's unending catalog of samples, the song contains 19, yes, 19, different sample sources. The main loop comes off a 1968 track, 99 and 1 half, by the band Fever Tree. Over this central loop, Madlib cuts, splices, and overlays an impressive array of sample snippets. Just to give you a taste of the variety of sources you hear throughout the track, I'll quickly cover a handful of them now in rapid succession. The song's title comes from Phil to Agony's 2000 track Blunted. And then there's Edo G's 2000 track, Saying Something,

which is quickly followed by a snippet of The Light by Farrow Munch. And now both samples in Most Blunted. The woman's voice we just heard there comes from a 1962 track called Acting Out the ABCs, an educational vinyl by the Disney Corporation. If you'll all gather close around the phonograph and listen carefully. And the sample list goes on and on like this, as Madlib assembles these fragments of audio into a dynamically textured musical mosaic. All right, now let's go ahead and make our jump to Mad Villanee's ninth track curls.

Like Raid, Curles was also conceived in Madlib's hotel room in Brazil. The song contains four different loops all sampled from the Brazilian artist Walter Kalman's song Airport Love Theme from 1970. Three of the loops come from this single stretch of the song. Loop 1, loop 2, the fourth and final loop comes from the song's beginning. Madlib cuts between these four loops throughout Curls, giving the track tonal dynamics that help propel the story Doom Tells in his verse. And while not as striking as Raid's introduction, Curles also begins. with two contrasting samples that combine to great effect. The first is the light, breezy F major seventh chord vamp.

This is then juxtaposed against a darker D minor loop. The light to dark contrast between these two samples is effective enough on its own, but the moment is made more impactful by the fact that Doom enters the track precisely when it switches to the darker D minor loop. It adds an aura around the villain, as if Doom's presence makes a bright room go dark. Trying to get a nut-like squirrels in his mad world. Land of milk and honey with the swirls where reckless naked girls get necklaces and pearls. Compliments of the town, Jula.

Left back now, schooler, trying to sound cooler. Doom begins with the title spotting simile, rapping, villain get the money like curls. The immediate play seems to be the image of a rolled or curled up wad of cash, thick and dispersible. But as likely curls also refers to curly hair, a natural phenomenon for some people. and therefore the villain gets money just as naturally.

Like curly hair, it's simply a part of his DNA. Curles is also a homonym with girls, and thus Doom claims to get both money and girls in excess. Given Doom's proclivity to play with common expressions, is likely he's riffing on the phrase, curls get the girls, which argues that girls are more attracted to curly hair. This gives away to the second line,

they just trying to get a nut like squirrels in his mad world. This is a nod to the 1986 number one hit song the rain by Orange Juice Jones. You without me like cornflake without the milk. It's my world. You're just a squirrel trying to get a nut. Now get on out here. Like Juice Jones, Doom boasts that the women

attracted to him and his curls of money are just trying to get a nut. The primary wordplay here is of course busting a nut. The women are looking to have sex with Doom. But it also refers to them trying to get his money, just as squirrels acquire and save nuts as their primary resource. Saying his

mad world connects to the opening villain a subtle nod to the world of mad villainy. He's also playing off the nut, as nuts is used to describe something or someone who is crazy or mad. He continues describing this world, land of milk and honey with the swirls. Milk and honey continue the food motif that began with nut, while swirls continues the curls motif and refers to the way honey is commonly applied in a swirling pattern. But the land of milk and honey is also a biblical expression. In the Old Testament, the promised land Israel is repeatedly referred to as a land flowing with milk and honey. Thus, the god Doom is likening his mad world to the promised land, where reckless naked girls get necklaces of pearls, compliments of the town

jeweler. A literal pearl necklace continues the opulence of his beautiful, mad world of riches like money, milk, and honey. But it also sustains to sexual innuendos, referring to the explicit kind of pearl necklaces doom the town jeweler distributes freely to the girls who come seeking his nut. The description continues, left back now schooler trying to sound cooler. This is a clever twist of phrase. Doom is describing himself not as a new schooler, as in new school hip-hop, but as a left back now schooler, as in he left or disappeared after KMD, but he's back now as Doom with a new, cooler voice and flow.

Hence we get the following line on the microphone known as the crown ruler. This continues the promised line thread with Doom framing himself the crown king of this world of milk, honey, nuts, and pearl. Now, as the verse continues, Doom is going to make a very doom-like pivot in subject matter, as he moves from the world he rules to the world in which he came of age, a backstory of sorts that explains how he rose to such a prominent position. As you listen, notice how this pivot occurs precisely when the beat switches sample loops. On the microphone known as the crown ruler, never lied tomorrow when we said we found the

boola. $500-something laying right there in the street. Huh, now let's try and get something to eat. Doom he turned four and started throwing to the poor That's about when he first started going raw Kept a dro in a drawer A rhyming clefto who couldn't go up in a store no more His life is like a folklore legend

Why you're sore still you need a smoke war breggin Instead of trying to ribs with a broke war legend Slipper made him swore he saw a heaven he was seven Doom paints a scenario from his childhood rapping Never lied to Ma when we said we found the mullah 500-something dollars laying right there in the street huh, now let's try and get something to eat. The irony here seems obvious. He was lying to his mother about how he obtained the curl of cash, which likely implies criminal activity. The fact he immediately

thinks of buying food with the money is a stark and intentional contrast from the abundance of milk and honey flowing at the start of the verse. It would seem the villain is framing his origin as a classic rags to riches story. The story continues in the next lines. Then he turned four and started flowing to the poor. That's about when he first started going raw. Doom is claiming he started rapping when he was four years old, entertaining the homeless like some Robin Hood character. Supposedly, he also began sleeping with women unprotected around this time, although started going raw could also mean his raw rhyme skills. In any case, we're starting to grow a little suspect of her perhaps unreliable narrator here. He follows by claiming, kept the dro and the drawer, a rhyming klepto who couldn't go up in the store no more.

Despite the implied poverty, Doom is somehow able to obtain dro or high-quality hydroponically grown merit. Like the $500, perhaps he stole it, as he then admits to being a kleptomaniac that's been banned from certain establishments. It's interesting that as his claims get increasingly suspicious, so does his rhyme scheme. On the surface, the poor, going raw, drawer, and no more, hardly rhyme. But Doom apparently has been rhyming since he was four, so he bends the words to his will, forcing, or rather curling them into the scheme. In line with the Robin Hood reference, doom continues by acknowledging the dubious nature of this entire narrative. rapping, his life is like a folklore legend. It's a self-mythologizing statement that transcends

the realm of Curles. Folklore refers to a body of myths shared amongst community, which Daniel Dumillet miraculously forged throughout his entire discography. With his comic book influences, multi-character world building, cloudy realities, fantasies, and backstories, Doom created a folklore that has been endlessly propagated by his audience across time. Curles has been operating as an origin story, a classic trope of the superhero narrative. but this isn't Doom's first or last attempt at an origin. There's Doom's Day the song, the broader origin story of Operation Doomsday the album, as well as infinite lyrical material where Doom references his beginnings.

While we may be inclined to connect these youthful experiences directly to Dumalay's actual life, Daniel himself typically pushed back against that, once saying, quote, the relationship between Doom and Dumillay, I'd say is like a percentage, a bit like the exchange rate between the pound and dollar. It varies a little bit each day. Sometimes it's zero and sometimes it's like, oh no, the dollar is collapsing, but I'd say it's pretty stable. Something like 1.8% of Daniel goes into Doom and vice versa, I think, unquote. In his 33 and a third book on Mad Villany, author Will Hegel celebrates the album as a folkloric

artifact, wonderfully emphasizing the mythology of Doom's career. When a story spreads among people, like Mad Villain's fan base, it takes on a new form of cultural ownership. The enduring folkloric power of Mad Villany is as much a testament to the intentional fictional world building of its authors as it is to the fans, critics, and associated individuals who perpetrated the album's legend, cultivating a distinct community around it. Mad Villany is special because any story about his creation lacks objective facts. The legend of the album has been passed from human to human through imprecise, changing narrative, unquote. On Curls, we have yet another instance of doom verbally and imprecisely relaying a sort of origin story,

contributing to the unknowable, utterly engaging folklore of his making. The lore continues, why you're so stiff, you need to smoke more, brethren. Instead of trying to riff with the broke war veteran, Spliff made him swore he saw heaven, he was seven. In terms of rhyme scheme, it's an exceptional sequence of lines, as folklore legend establishes a challenging three-syllable scheme that continues with Smoke more brethren and broke war veteran, then altered slightly for swore he saw heaven and he was seven.

Simultaneously, he weaves in the recurring internal rhyme, stiff, riff, and spliff. Narratively, Doom describes meeting a presumably Jamaican war veteran who recognizes the stress young Doom is under and introduces him to marijuana at the age of seven. This would seem to contradict his previous claim of keeping the drow in the drawer. However, it could be he was only selling it at age four, not smoking it. But this is precisely the kind of hazy backstory that comprises folklore. so we ought to not get too tangled up in the fabricated details. The marijuana given to young Doom becomes a gateway drug, as he continues the verse,

Yep, you know it, growing up too fast, showing up to class with moot in a flask. Doom's story is growing increasingly bleak. Raised by the streets, the pressures of poverty erodes his youth and makes him susceptible to substance. The idea of moate champagne in a flask is a stark juxtaposition. There's the workman-like concealed nature of the flask with the bubbly, light, expensive, and opulent nature of the moot. Doom has stolen. and crammed his way toward material goods, but is locked into a sort of lowly consumption, and he still got to go to class. Doomlin continues, he asks the teacher if he leave, will he pass?

His girl is home alone, he trying to get the... Dumalay, the writer, doesn't state the obvious rhyme, a rhyme so obvious it feels beneath him to even complete. So he twists the obvious into a creative moment, at once subverting our expectations and making us a more active participant in the song by forcing us to fill in the blank ourselves. In this world, it's Young Doom who's the squirrel chasing a nut, another reversal from the song's beginning. He continues, if you want to sip, get a paper water fountain glass, how am I supposed to know where your mouth been last? This is one of those quirky, idiosyncratic lines that simply no other

rapper would dare write. It seems to refer to Young Doom's schoolmates asking for a drink of his moat in the flask. The cone-shaped disposable paper cups dispense on the side of filtered water jugs is a great nostalgic detail of this public school memory. He then continues, hands so fast he can outspin Flash, known to smoke a whole mountain of hash to the ash. The wordplay here is clever, as Flash refers to the Lightning Fast Marvel superhero and to Grandmaster Flash,

the pioneering hip-hip-hop DJ who helped develop the art of record scratching, which requires quick hands on a spinning record, hence out-spin Flash. Doom is claiming to be faster than both. The question is, at what? The subsequent line would suggest he's lightning-concined, quick at spinning or rolling joints, continuing the substance motif that has dominated the majority of the verse now. But a secondary or simultaneous possibility is provided with the verse's final line. Boom, bash, leave the room with a stash. Assume it's a smash, Doom get the cash. It's a comic book

style description of a home invasion, as our youthful kleptomaniac makes the transition to full-blown criminal villain, whose superpower is ransacking with lightning speed and leaving with curls of cash. Just like the end of Doom's raid verse, this final line calls back to its first. Villain get the money like curls. In this way, the verse becomes a circle, that is, it curls all the way back around. Doom's origin story contextualizes the mad world of milk and honey doom now thrives in. But this final line also forces us to reconsider another line that came just moments before. He asked the teacher if he leave, will he pass? His girl is home alone. He trying to get the... Now, we initially assumed the missing word was ass, but given Doom's central focus on getting money throughout this verse,

it's just as or perhaps even more likely that the missing word here is cash, which also completes the rhyme with pass. The girl being home alone would make her house vulnerable to robbery, which is exactly what's described at the verse's end. Perhaps Doom got involved with the girl not out of love or lust, but to case her house. That would certainly be a manipulative, villainous thing to do. We also recall that the song titled Curls initially referred to money, but was also a homophone for girls, a duality that was explored at length in Doom's opening few lines. Thus, the bond between girls and curls of money sustains here at the verse's end. For our villain, Doom, there's not much of a difference between the two.

They both represent the abundance of riches he enjoys as crown ruler of his mad empire. And so it turns out that leaving the punchline a mystery opened the door for multiple possibilities, transforming what could have been an obvious rhyme into something far more interesting. It could be ass. it could be cash, or it could be something altogether different. Like so much of the folklore around MF Doom, we'll never know for sure. Soon as somebody thinks they know what you're going to say, that's part of the essence of a rhyme. It's to keep everybody kind of off guard a little.

So I take that and I stretch it with these different things, like leave one word blank, knowing that the listener is falling along and will fill in that blank, like how, you know, I'm following along and fill in the blank, but always put the word that you at least expect. Or what they think might be there is not there, but it still makes sense in another way. So I try to keep it as entertaining for somebody else who will be listening to it down the line even. And like, you know, it really puts a sense of longevity to the record as well to where, you know, you never know what the dude's going to say. So you want to hear it again.