Driving up to the massive hospital complex I was struck by
the enormity of my surroundings and the problems concealed within their
walls. Two days ago I had been urgently
summoned to the hospital, the psychiatric ward to be specific, to aid with a
new patient's diagnosis. A week prior
this patient had appeared on the hospital grounds seemingly out of
nowhere. Amazingly the brilliant doctors
working there had all come up short in their efforts to determine what sort of
ailment plagues him.
"Doctor Penfold, thank you for coming."
"My pleasure Doctor.
Has anything changed regarding your patient?"
"Unfortunately not.
He still speaks in riddles and nonsensical statements that neither
myself nor my staff can decipher. Would
you like to rest a moment before seeing him?
Your trip must have been rather taxing."
"Don't worry Doctor.
I was able to sleep on the plane and I have all my wits about me."
"Very well.
Right this way."
The Chief Psychiatrist led me to an elevator that took us up
to the ward's fourth floor. Upon exiting
the elevator I was led down a maze of hallways under bright fluorescent
lights. We finally arrived at our
destination and the door to the patient's room was opened. I entered the room, and the strangest
conversation I have ever been a part of began.
"Hello. My name
is Doctor Penfold. What's your
name?"
"Alright, when I say your name, you say here. And we
will assume 'here' is short for 'Here I am, rock you like a hurricane.'"
"We can talk about music later, but right now I need to
know your name."
"Yes, and I need a prehensile tail so I can grab onto
things like a monkey."
"If you don't want to tell me your name out loud
perhaps you'd be willing to write your name on this piece of paper?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...Lois this is not my
Batman glass."
"Alright, we'll move on. How are you feeling today?"
"It's like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my
brain!"
"I see. How do
you suppose that koala bear produced that rainbow?"
"You don't need a machine to make a rainbow for
rainbows are made of happy thoughts and dreams and chocolate unicorns and
gumdrops and licorice sunsets and fuzzy gum drop bears and chocolate covered
chocolate gumdrop land..."
"Chocolate gumdrop land sounds like a magical place. How old are you?"
"I'll be dead long before you were born and I'll be
dead long before you'll be dead."
"Hmmm, that must make you..."
"Did you get...that thing...that I sent you?"
"I'm afraid I haven't received any packages today,
no."
"You are expendable.
That oven is not!"
Understanding crept over me like the rising tide. I excused myself and quickly left the room to
inform the Chief Psychiatrist of my findings.
"Doctor I know what has happened to your patient! At some point he went on an adult swim into
the depths of his psyche."
"Can he be treated?"
"I am confident we can help him, but the treatment is
unorthodox. Someone get me a stereo and
an auxiliary cable!"
Hey oh waveriders!
It's classic appreciation time once again. Which album is featured inside the spotlight
today? Why it's The Mouse And The Mask from Danger
Doom of course! Yes, it's true. I'm writing about an album that sounds just
as crazy on paper as it does through speakers.
Don't believe me? You will
shortly!
What exactly is Danger
Doom? Good question. Back in 2001 the evening programming on
Cartoon Network was replaced with something new called [adult swim]. As the title suggests this new programming
was intended for more mature audiences.
Slightly more mature audiences anyway.
Fast forward to the year 2005.
Producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse and celebrated emcee MF Doom
collaborate directly with [adult swim] to produce an album inspired by the
various shows aired under their banner.
Importantly the album contains a slew of original contributions from
beloved characters from those shows.
So let's review shall we?
What we have with TMATM is a hip hop album celebrating cartoons made
for young adults featuring a guest list that is mostly made up of actual
cartoon characters. Oh yeah, this has
classic written all over it! When the
album was released I remember debating with myself whether or not to pick it
up. At that time I had never heard MF
Doom, and the only thing I knew about Danger Mouse was that he had put out the
Jay-Z/Beatles mashup The Grey Album. Sure I liked a couple of the cartoons on
[adult swim], but I certainly couldn't be accused of being a rabid viewer. To top it all off I was still in the infancy
of my hip hop fandom. Everything
considered, I have no idea why I decided to buy this album...but I did. Perhaps it was pre-destined?
Whatever the reason was behind my procurement of TMATM I am forever grateful. This album is spectacular! It was spectacular then, and it remains
spectacular now nearly ten years later.
Every aspect of this album works.
The production is pitch perfect.
It's organic and varied, with a distinct vintage feel. The rapping is creative and clever, perfectly
in tune with the crazy subject matter.
Here is a taste of the insanity.
And we'll be right back, after these messages / Fellas grab
your nutsacs, chicks squeeze your breastesses / We ain't all that grown, it's
still funny / Like, going to the store on your own with rainbow money / Since
then had an insane flow, sonny / Walkin' to the corner rhymin' in the rain,
nose runny / Break dancin' maybe ten, bummy, is when SUB-ROC would run up
handspring / Arabian somee! Ooh wee, like a Hong Kong Phooey kick / Or a
weekend afternoon, karate movie flick / Slept good, no justice, no peace /
Woody kept it hood, never discussed it with po-lice / Shot the fair one nobody
ran to get the gat / Or felt they had to put it up in they raps to set it phat
/ And since when lyrical skills had to do with killin' a cat? / What type of
chitlins is that? / The Super Villain as the bat, hide your tonic / Whoever
willin' to ride, provide raw chronic
Most impressive of all is that all of the guest spots from
the cartoon characters never lose their charm.
I still find them as amusing as I did when I first heard them back in
2005. In fact one particular sentence
spoken by the character Master Shake still finds it's way into conversations
with friends and family sometimes. Those
recipients in the know chuckle and smile, while the others just think I'm
continuing to lose my mind. It's a
trade-off I'm willing to make.
Waveriders, if you're one of those folks who already own
this fantastic album then you know what I'm talking about. If on the other hand you are a music fan who had
no idea this album existed then you are in for a treat! Get to listening and enjoy!
- Penfold
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