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Movies. From.

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one for musical analysis broken into short.

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Adjustable Episode: This is episode Nine

0:44

or season One dissection of and

0:46

after I'm your Host: Caucasian. A.

1:12

Year After abandoning bad villainy due to it's

1:14

leak into cyberspace, Doom and Madlib reconnected in

1:16

the fall of Two Thousand and Three to

1:18

finish what they started. During. The

1:20

Sessions The Duel would record a

1:22

handful of new tracks, including Accordion,

1:24

Bistro, Raid, and others. But.

1:26

Even with these additional songs, Stones Throw,

1:29

the label that brought Doom and Madlib

1:31

together felt the project lacked a conclusive

1:33

ending. According to reporting by Jeff

1:35

Wise for Pitchfork, less than a week before

1:37

the album had to be turned in for

1:39

pressing, the label rented Doom as sixty dollar

1:41

an hour studio to record one final song,

1:44

the subject of her episode today. Rhinestone,

1:46

Cowboy recall one like he has

1:48

gone like a horrible my before

1:50

the storm assault upon. Fan

1:56

of the and random tantrum

1:58

sentimental Randall knowing the. Along with

2:00

To Be Mad Villainy's final track, allowed Doom

2:02

and Madlib the unique opportunity to create toward

2:04

that conclusive end. Thus the

2:06

track begins with third-party praise about the

2:09

album's greatness, which is followed by applause,

2:11

as if Rhinestone Cowboy was an encore.

2:24

The opening dialogue is sampled from A

2:26

Children's Garden of Grass, a comedy album

2:28

about marijuana from 1968, which

2:30

is also heard at the beginning and end of

2:33

America's Most Blunted. The

2:47

couple's comments on the weed they're smoking are

2:49

reappropriated to comment on Mad Villainy as a

2:51

whole. This then triggers the applause,

2:54

which are pulled from a 1968 live

2:56

album by Maria Bethana, a Brazilian artist

2:58

Madlib discovered on that infamous trip to

3:00

Brazil in 2002. Rhinestone

3:09

Cowboy's main beat is also pulled from a Maria

3:11

Bethana record. This time it's her 1971 song, Marina

3:13

Marina. Madlib

3:27

grabs a two-measure loop and speeds it

3:29

up significantly. Now

3:41

one very small but very cool detail I have

3:43

to point out has to do with the interaction

3:45

between the applause sample and this main loop. In

3:48

this pitched up version, the central repeating note we

3:50

hear played by the strings is an E. Now

3:55

If you notice in the applause sample, one of

3:57

the audience members can be heard whistling. Now

4:04

this whistle but originally lower

4:06

and pitch in the sample

4:08

source. This means Madlib pitstop these

4:11

applause so that the whistle and

4:13

the strings matched, making the blend

4:15

between the two samples incredibly smooth

4:17

and harmonious. A

4:20

local one. Lucky old old girl

4:22

loves the old mobile. Change.

4:31

The longer. The

4:44

Climbing On Line Army. Of

4:51

Earth hold the cold one like he hold

4:53

and or gun Mikey hold the microphone and

4:55

stole the show for fun. The.

4:57

Rhyme scheme here is incredibly dense. The

4:59

opening hold the cold one which contains

5:02

his own internal rhyme is mirrored exactly

5:04

with Holding a Gun. And. This

5:06

line one falls on be to and

5:08

gun falls on before. So. When we

5:11

hear the next line begin with like he

5:13

hold the were expecting another one gun rhyme

5:15

to follow be to have this line. But.

5:17

Dube subvert the expectation. He sat

5:19

by instead saying microphone. Not. Only

5:21

does microphone not rhyme, but also three

5:24

syllables which stands out because every word

5:26

up to this point has been one

5:28

syllable. Or. Mike does rhyme

5:30

with like central rhyme. Cadence here

5:32

is delayed, creating tension. This

5:34

have been released when Du pays off the

5:36

original one gun rhyme with stole the show

5:38

for fun. And. Terms of its

5:41

meaning, the songs cowboy theme is established

5:43

straight away as Doom compares holding a

5:45

cold beer and a cold metal microphone

5:47

to an old western gunslinger wielding two

5:49

guns in either hand. With. These

5:51

weapons in hand doomed steals the show.

5:54

The. Criminality continues or a full of

5:56

for ransom flows is handsome. Ransom.

5:59

Money is a clue. Pick old western trope was

6:01

doomed doing his trademark twist of using

6:03

violence and crime as a metaphor for

6:05

destroying his competition or foes and wrap.

6:08

He continues I was in

6:10

tandem: Anthem: Random Tantrum, Oh

6:13

is what doom cause madlib. His first name

6:15

is Odis. To. The play here is

6:17

that the two of them are a

6:19

tandem. A duo who create musical anthems

6:21

from random tantrums are spontaneous birth of

6:23

creative energy. But. There's also an

6:25

incredibly clever secondary meaning to owes in

6:28

tandem as the vast majority of the

6:30

words the burst so far contain the

6:32

vowel oh, Out. Of the twenty nine

6:34

words to this point, fourteen of them container

6:36

know. But. More importantly, the

6:38

rhyme schemes have also centered over

6:40

sounds. There's cold, cold, old store.

6:43

And. Then there's one which hit Slant Ride with

6:45

a gun and fun but it's still establish

6:47

with that oh sound. Finally, There's

6:50

Ransom, which hits rhyme with

6:52

both oh, an odorless worth

6:54

but all emphasizing that of

6:56

sound. Handsome tandem anthem Random

6:58

Tantrum. Does. Owes in

7:00

tandem the witty met a reference to

7:02

his birth as he literally strings together

7:04

all these oaths and tandem. This.

7:06

Oh, onslaught continues in the next line.

7:09

Phantom of the Grand Old Opry asked

7:11

the dumb hadi. Do

7:13

Me Or execute something. He does better than

7:15

anyone I've studied, which is maintain one rhyme

7:18

scheme while stab are seeing a new one

7:20

simultaneously. The. First half of the

7:22

line, Phantom of the Grand Old Opry

7:24

continues the previous scheme Phantom rides with

7:26

tantrum or grand friends with fan the

7:29

first syllable a Phantom. Ole.

7:31

Opry then establishes a new scheme on be

7:33

to which has paid off and the same

7:35

bar with dumb hadi on before. Moving.

7:38

From one scheme to another in the

7:40

same line allows the rhyming to remain

7:42

relentless. To this point, forty eight out

7:44

of the fifty six syllables in the

7:46

birth rhyme and impressive eighty six percent.

7:48

Also. Notice how the new Opry hottie

7:50

scheme is a new variation on the old

7:53

Val Sound. now as far as

7:55

meaning phantom of the grand old opry plays

7:57

on to references first to the classic musicals

8:00

of the opera about a masked musical genius

8:02

who haunts an opera house. Doom

8:04

is of course a masked musical genius

8:06

himself, but he haunts the grand old

8:08

opera, a historic country music show venue

8:10

in Nashville, a reference that continues the

8:12

song Central Cowboy Motif. So

8:14

not only is Doom mashing together rhyme

8:17

schemes, he's also mashing together his references.

8:19

He then continues, masked pump shoddy,

8:21

somebody stop me. This

8:24

conjures an image of the masked villain with

8:26

a pump action shotgun, but the

8:28

line also references the 1994 movie

8:30

The Mask starring Jim Carrey, whose

8:32

catchphrase is somebody stop me. Somebody

8:35

stop me. Doom

8:38

continues the verse, hardly come sloppy on

8:40

a retarded hard copy. Hard

8:42

copy here seems to refer to the

8:44

album Mad Villainy itself, either the leaked

8:46

version burned to a physical disc or

8:48

to the official physical release. Retarded

8:51

is being used as slang for either

8:53

slow or extremely good. If Doom's

8:55

referring to the leaked version, he's saying the

8:57

actual hard copy, the physical release was slowed

8:59

or delayed by the leak. If

9:01

he's referencing the leak itself, he was saying

9:04

it was extremely dope. He follows

9:06

by saying after rocking parties, he departed

9:08

in a jalopy, watched the drop top

9:10

poppy. After quote unquote

9:12

stealing the show, Doom and Mad Lib get

9:15

away in a dilapidated convertible. Interestingly,

9:17

the word jalopy is thought to have its

9:19

origin from the French word jalop, which refers

9:21

to a tired or worn out horse. Combined

9:24

with the fact that jalopy was used in

9:26

the early 20th century, Doom's use of the

9:29

word fits perfectly with the song's old western

9:31

theme. He then spits

9:33

the memorable lines known as the

9:35

grimy, limey, slimy, try me, blimey,

9:37

simply smashing in a fashion that's

9:39

timely. The ufini here,

9:41

the simple oral pleasure of hearing these

9:43

words in rapid succession, is masterful. But

9:46

like jalopy, both limey and blimey are

9:48

words used during the early 20th century.

9:51

Limey was slang for immigrants arriving in

9:53

America from England. Doom's use of

9:55

the word gains dimension when we recall that he was

9:57

actually born in England while his mother was visiting England.

10:00

visiting family. Meanwhile, Blimey is

10:02

an exclamation used to express amazement

10:04

or surprise. The line

10:06

simply smashing in a fashion that's timely might

10:08

reference the conception of the song itself, as

10:10

Doom was called to write this song under

10:12

a kite deadline, and he smashed it in

10:14

a timely fashion. Doom continues

10:17

to blur criminality with music and

10:19

music. Doom

10:44

continues to blur criminality with musicality,

10:46

rhyming, mad villain, dashing in a

10:48

beat rhyme, crime spree. We

10:50

rocked a house like rock and roll, got more soul

10:52

than a sock with a hole. The

10:54

latter line here is one of those doom analogies that

10:56

makes sense when you hear it, but takes you a

10:58

second to figure out exactly why it works. First,

11:01

soul, S-O-L-E, refers to the bottom

11:04

layer of shoes, but is also

11:06

a homophone for soul, S-O-U-L, tying

11:08

into the musical genre motif. The

11:11

insole of your shoe touches your socks directly,

11:13

and too much contact between the sock and

11:15

soul results in a hole, so technically, a

11:17

sock with a hole has a lot of

11:19

soul. He continues, set the

11:21

stage with a goal, to have the game locked

11:23

in a cage getting shocked with a pole. Set

11:26

the stage here continues the live show motif,

11:28

with Doom and Mad Lib putting the rap

11:30

game on lock like a dog behind bars

11:32

being abused with an electrified pole. This

11:35

kicks off an extended dog motif,

11:37

which continues, overthrown like throwing Rover a

11:40

biscuit. Overthrow here

11:42

doubles as dethroning those in power and

11:44

literally overthrowing a dog a treat, so

11:46

Rover, a generic dog name, has to

11:48

chase after it. Impressively, Doom

11:50

rhymes Rover a biscuit with overly

11:52

chauvinistic, rapping, a lot of bitches

11:54

think he's overly chauvinistic, let go

11:56

his dick if that's the case.

11:59

Bitches, as in female dogs continues the canine

12:01

motif, as Doom cleverly writes an intentionally

12:03

chauvinistic couplet in the very lines in

12:05

which he's denying being a chauvinist. This

12:08

kind of comedic irony is uniquely Doom. We

12:11

also recognize how let go is something said to

12:13

dogs when they have something in their mouths, and

12:15

in this case, it's Doom's red rocket in the

12:17

bitch's mouth. The weirdiness continues,

12:20

rats, what a waste, there's more

12:22

cats to chase, dogs. Cleverly,

12:24

Doom chains together a lineage of sorts,

12:26

as cats chase rats, and dogs chase

12:29

cats. Specifically, in this case,

12:31

Doom the dog is chasing the people.

12:36

Doom rolls his way toward

12:38

the end of the

12:41

verse, rapping. He

13:04

got it like new powers, woke up, wrote and

13:06

spit the shit in a few hours. He's

13:09

referring to a swift execution of the

13:11

song itself, written under pressure and completed

13:13

with ease, an ability he compares to

13:16

a superpower. He continues, Sheesh,

13:18

been unleashed since the Glee Club, had

13:20

your fam saying, please make me a

13:22

dub. The double

13:24

E sound dominates here, with Sheesh,

13:27

Unleashed, Glee, Please, and Me. A

13:30

Glee Club is a singing group, usually in high

13:32

school, so Doom is saying he's been rhyming for

13:34

years, adding to the boasts of veteranship on the

13:36

album. Unleashed also subtly continues

13:38

the previous canine motif, alluding to a

13:41

dog off of his leash. Had

13:43

your fam saying, please make me a dub, seems

13:45

to reference the leaked version of Mad Villainy. Anyone

13:48

with a leak in their possession would have family and

13:50

friends asking to make them a copy. Doom

13:53

then caps off the verse, well, since you ask

13:55

kindly, where he been, behind the Mask,

13:57

who can't find me? You're blind in the

14:00

water. Line: Don't leave your mind blown. When

14:02

he signed with the Nine, he the rhinestone

14:04

cowboy. The. Songs western theme

14:06

is formalized here as we get a

14:08

vivid image of doom and it's glistening

14:11

metal mask holding a shiny nine millimeter

14:13

gun like some cartoonish Old west gunslinger.

14:16

The. Momentum leading up to the punctuating

14:18

song title is created by the

14:20

rapid rhymes Blind Winds own Mind

14:22

Blown, Shine Nine Rhinestone. Cowboy.

14:25

Slivered summer awkwardly after a brief pause since

14:27

the word doesn't that the scheme something doom

14:29

or more than make up for at the

14:31

end. Averse to. Now. The title

14:33

Rhinestone Cowboy seems to be a nod to the

14:36

famous country song by the same name. Written.

14:38

In Nineteen Seventy Four, Rhinestone Cowboy

14:40

was originally paid by singer songwriter

14:42

Larry Weiss and appeared on his

14:45

album Black into Sweets. On

14:57

it's original release, and Seventy Four Winds

14:59

so terribly failed commercially as a single.

15:01

However, it did find some success in

15:03

Australia Piggy at number seventy one on

15:06

the charge there. Are just so

15:08

happened that country singer Glen Campbell was on tour

15:10

in Australia the time and he heard the song

15:12

on the radio. Convinced. Of it's

15:14

greatness, Campbell recorded a more polished person

15:16

of the song and Nineteen Seventy Five.

15:29

Cables. Version of Rhinestone Cowboy became

15:32

a sensation, topping both the country

15:34

and pop charts in the Us

15:36

and eventually entering the lexicon of

15:38

enduring classic American soccer. Thematically.

15:40

The song is about an ambitious, hard working

15:42

artist paying his dues while attempting to make

15:44

it in show business. The struggle

15:47

is detailed and the songs versus. I've.

15:49

Been walking the streets so long singing

15:51

the same old song i know every

15:53

crack and these dirty sidewalks of Broadway.

15:55

Or. Hustles the name of the game and

15:57

nice guys get washed away like the snow.

16:00

and the role. Juxtaposed against

16:02

these verses is the song's iconic

16:04

chorus, which presents the rhinestone suit-wearing

16:06

cowboy as the symbol of American

16:08

success, stardom, and adoration. Quote,

16:11

On the road to my horizon, but I'm

16:13

gonna be where the lights are shining on

16:15

me, like a rhinestone cowboy, riding out on

16:17

a horse and a star-spangled rodeo, like

16:20

a rhinestone cowboy, getting cards and letters

16:22

from people I don't even know, and

16:24

offers coming over the phone. The

16:27

rhinestone cowboy glistening in the limelight is

16:29

an idyllic dream, the image of

16:31

success that's remembered when things get difficult, a

16:33

reminder of the life that awaits him if

16:35

he continues to pursue his dreams. Understanding

16:39

the history and themes of the song,

16:41

Doom naming himself the rhinestone cowboy presents

16:43

a few interpretive possibilities. We

16:45

first recall Daniel Dumoulin's own difficult musical

16:47

journey, starting in high school with his

16:49

brother Sub-Rock, finding early success with KMD,

16:52

enduring the loss of his brother in

16:54

the end of KMD, and the arduous

16:56

intern period before his return as MF

16:58

Doom. With the rhinestone cowboy

17:00

being a symbol of success after a difficult

17:02

and long journey, Doom's crude

17:04

tongue-in-cheek re-appropriation of the symbol may be

17:07

a boast of his own accomplishment,

17:09

a veteran in a game that's reached

17:11

that idyllic nirvana that has become

17:13

an admired icon, his metal mask glistening

17:15

like rhinestones. And while this

17:18

interpretation seems to be the most common, at least

17:20

in my research, it doesn't actually make total sense

17:22

to me. Because a rhinestone

17:24

cowboy is kind of a corny image from

17:26

a corny song. Rhinestones

17:28

are essentially fake diamonds, just like a

17:31

rhinestone cowboy is a flashy show-business version

17:33

of a real rugged cowboy. It

17:35

just doesn't make total sense to me that Doom would

17:37

align himself with this symbol. I mean, this

17:40

is the guy who came back into the game

17:42

to reject the shiny suit puff daddy brand of

17:44

hip-hop, and a rhinestone cowboy seems

17:46

to symbolize a similar commercial brand of

17:48

country. So I dug a

17:50

little deeper into the reference, into the origins of

17:52

a rhinestone cowboy. And what if

17:54

I told you that Doom might not be referencing

17:56

the famous song, that he might actually

17:59

be referring to another Another rhinestone cowboy, one

18:01

that came before the hit single, and

18:04

one that offers a much more compelling

18:06

and frankly ingenious parallel with the masked

18:08

villain himself. More on that

18:11

right after the break. Welcome

18:16

back to Dissect. Before the break I teased

18:18

the possibility of Doom referencing a more fitting

18:20

rhinestone cowboy than the famous Glenn Campbell song.

18:23

I'm actually going to save that revelation for the end

18:25

of the episode, so let's now dive into Doom's second

18:27

verse on the song and his final verse on the

18:29

album. Doom

19:03

kicks off the second verse with the

19:05

rhinestone's opening couplet, Gooney Goo Goo, Looney

19:07

Kookoo, like Gary Gannu off New Zoo

19:10

Review. Alright, so a lot going

19:12

on here. Gooney Goo Goo can

19:14

be broken down into two parts. Gooney describes

19:16

an aggressive person hired to commit a crime,

19:18

a nod to Doom himself, while Goo Goo

19:20

can describe either adoration, as in goo goo

19:23

eyes, or the babbling sounds a baby makes.

19:26

But it's most likely Doom is referencing Eddie

19:28

Murphy's comedy special Delirious, where Murphy tells

19:30

the story about Bigfoot disguised as a

19:32

woman. I jumped back and

19:34

said, but Doom's just motherfucking shit. Then

19:37

the kid took the fish out of his mouth and looked at

19:39

his brother and said, Gooney Goo Goo. Doom's

19:43

use of this nonsensical phrase makes sense

19:45

given he's a looney cuckoo, both words

19:47

that describe crazy people. Meanwhile,

19:49

Gary Gannu is a puppet character from the

19:52

80s show The Great Space Monster. Now,

20:00

there's a bit of a factual error in

20:02

Doom's line like Gary Gannou off New Zoo

20:04

Revu. New

20:12

Zoo Revu was a 70s show for children that had

20:14

its final season in 1977, and Gary Gannou wasn't

20:18

created until the 80s and appeared on an

20:20

entirely different show. But just

20:22

like on Accordion when Doom rapped about getting more

20:24

cheese than Fritos and then seemed to acknowledge his

20:27

mistake by referencing a Fritian slip of the tongue,

20:29

Doom here follows his error by saying, but who

20:31

knew the mask had a loose screw? It's

20:34

a play on the idiom to have a

20:36

loose screw, which denotes strange behavior or mental

20:38

illness, tying back into the Looney Cuckoo. The

20:41

mask having a loose screw is also a reference

20:43

to Mad Villainy leaking, as a loose screw can

20:46

cause a literal water leak. This

20:48

idea gives way to the next sequence of lines.

20:50

Hell could hardly tell how to tighten it up

20:52

like the Drells and Archie Bell. In

20:55

other words, the unfinished version was so good

20:57

fans could hardly tell it wasn't done, and

20:59

had to tighten it up, refers to Doom

21:01

and Madlib reconnecting a year after the leak

21:03

to finish the project. At the

21:05

same time, Doom here is citing the 1968

21:07

song called, Tighten Up by Archie Bell and

21:09

the Drells. The

21:17

reference to Mad Villainy's leak continues with,

21:19

It speaks well of the hyper-bass, wasn't

21:21

even tweaked and it leaked in the

21:23

cyberspace. Can't wait for the Snipes

21:26

to place at least a tracklist in bold

21:28

print typeface. Doom here

21:30

praises the enthusiasm his fanbase shows for

21:32

their music, noting how the untweaked leaked

21:34

version didn't even have a tracklist. Fans

21:36

who downloaded a copy as it orbited

21:38

aimlessly in cyberspace had to guess what

21:40

each song was called. The hype

21:42

and anticipation had the duo's fans clamoring

21:44

for anything official, if not a physical

21:47

release, at least a formal tracklist, something

21:49

official to substantiate this thing that they

21:51

loved. Doom continues adding to

21:54

the album's lore, rapping, Stop for a year,

21:56

come back with some tax, pop full of

21:58

beer. Doom's clip coincides to

22:00

the year-long break between late 2002 and 2003, when Doom and Madlib

22:04

abandon the project after the leak. In

22:07

this interim period, both artists release two

22:09

projects. Doom put out Victor Vaughn and

22:11

King Ghidorah albums while Madlib release Shade

22:13

the Blue and Champion Sounds, his collab

22:15

with Jay Dilla. Come

22:17

Back with Thumb Tax Pop Full of Beer

22:20

seems to plan the idiom Get Down to

22:22

Brass Tax, which means to focus on what's

22:24

most important as a means of getting something

22:26

accomplished. In this case it refers to Madlib

22:28

and Doom's focus on finishing the album. Of

22:31

course, Doom is coming with plenty of beer in

22:33

hand. Doom

22:59

continues the

23:05

verse still referencing the

23:08

album's creation and authors.

23:26

He raps, where hip hop sharecroppers used

23:29

to wear flip flops, now rare gear

23:31

coppers. Sharecropping

23:33

is when a landowner allows a tenant to use their

23:35

land and return for a share of the crops produced

23:37

on that land. On one hand,

23:39

this refers to Madlib and Doom's equal split

23:41

of Madvillainies royalties. They are literally

23:43

sharing the profits. But the line could

23:46

also be read to mean that hip hop is

23:48

the land and Madvillain are reaping the financial rewards

23:50

of harvesting the genre. This

23:52

is what has led them to go from rags

23:54

to riches, from copping flip flops to rare sneakers.

23:57

This theme continues with, He's in it for the

23:59

Quiche. I might as well not ask

24:01

him for no free shit, capiche. Oh, my

24:03

aching hands from raking in grands and breaking

24:05

in mexicans. Not wanting to

24:07

go unpaid for his labor, Mad Villain's official

24:10

release was at least in part financially motivated.

24:12

Since there was legitimate demand for the album, Doom is

24:14

saying he's not just going to give it away for

24:17

free. He also plays on the

24:19

sharecropper's analogy, conjuring an image of him literally

24:21

raking in the money like a field worker.

24:24

He then pivots to the cupplet, Villain, his

24:26

smile stuns your chick, while he put himself

24:28

in your shoes, Runya Kicks. Doom

24:31

here plays with the idiom, put yourself

24:33

in someone else's shoes, a phrase meant

24:35

to inspire empathy about another person's circumstances.

24:37

But the villain has no empathy. Rather, he's

24:40

taking the idiom literally. The phrase

24:42

run it is used by thieves demanding someone

24:44

hand over their possessions. So Runya Kicks implies

24:46

he's stealing your shoes and running off with

24:48

your girl. He continues raw

24:51

lyrics. He smells them like a hunch, the

24:53

same intuition that tells them spike the punch.

24:56

Depending on the idea of smelling raw,

24:59

likely rancid meat, Doom proposes the same

25:01

instincts responsible for his raw lyricism are

25:03

also responsible for his villainy. You can't

25:05

have one without the other. Doom

25:08

then closes out the verse, let the beat

25:10

blast. She told him wear the mask. He

25:12

said, bet your sweet ass, it's made of

25:14

fine chrome alloy. Find him on

25:16

the grind. He's the rhinestone cowboy. There's

25:19

an extended double entendre here. The woman asked Doom

25:21

to wear a mask, which in this context seems

25:23

to mean a condom. His confirmation

25:25

of bet your sweet ass and find him

25:28

on the grind plays into the sexual connotations.

25:30

However, Doom's mask isn't latex. It's

25:32

metal fine chrome alloy, which sets

25:35

up the now perfect four syllable

25:37

rhyme with rhinestone cowboy. Now

25:39

here we have to recall the fact that the

25:41

first verse ended with leave your mind blown when

25:44

he shined with the nine. He's a rhinestone cowboy.

25:47

For Doom, one of the most technically adept

25:49

rhymers in hip hop history, the oddly placed

25:51

cowboy without a rhyme stands out, especially at

25:53

the punctuating moment at the end of the

25:55

verse. It's like it's not up to

25:58

his own standards, which might be why shortly after Doom

26:00

recites the line, he shushes the crowd so he

26:02

can start another verse. No,

26:05

no, no, no, no, no. It's almost

26:07

as if Doom is saying, let me try again.

26:09

That ending wasn't up to my standards. I need

26:11

a do-over. Of course, then

26:14

he sticks the landing the second

26:16

time around, perfecting the punctuating moment

26:18

with a flawless four-syllable rhyme, fine-chrome

26:20

alloy rhinestone cowboy, formally bonding

26:22

the dazzling metal mask with the glistening

26:24

adornments of the rhinestone suit. This

26:27

progression from incomplete to complete end rhyme

26:29

creates a satisfying resolution, like the tension

26:32

and release created from an unstable musical

26:34

chord progressing to a stable one. And

26:37

like a conclusive chord at the end of

26:39

a composition, it adds a feeling of finality

26:41

and completion to Doom's last words on the

26:43

song and ultimately the album. However,

26:45

let's really think about what Doom just did here.

26:48

Knowing Rhinestone Cowboy was to be Mad

26:51

Millenie's final track, Doom took a unique

26:53

meta-perspective on his verses, referencing multiple times

26:55

the conception of the album itself, how

26:57

the unpolished version leaked into cyberspace, how

26:59

the duo abandoned the project only to

27:02

reunite a year later to complete it,

27:04

to perfect it. This

27:06

progression, from rough draft to finished, is reflected

27:08

in the progression of the rhinestone cowboy rhyme

27:10

at the end of each verse, from

27:13

the imperfect but still effective

27:15

mind-blown rhinestone cowboy to the

27:17

finality of the complete, fine-chrome

27:20

alloy rhinestone cowboy. So

27:22

not only does Doom refer to the album's lore

27:24

and conception and the lyrics of its final song,

27:26

he actually reflects its conception in its

27:29

structure. It's a meta on meta, an

27:31

incredibly innovative and impressive way to punctuate

27:33

the final moments of Mad Millenie. Now,

27:36

having reached the second iteration of the title

27:38

Rhinestone Cowboy, we can resume our discussion of

27:41

the reference. To recap, the

27:43

most ubiquitous rhinestone cowboy is the enduring hit

27:45

song written by Larry Weiss in 1974 and

27:47

made famous by Glenn Campbell in 1975. But

27:51

here's where things get interesting. Years

27:54

before this song was written, there was

27:56

an oddball singer-songwriter living in Nashville who

27:58

called himself the mysterious Rhinestone cowboy. Stone

28:00

cowboy. His real name

28:02

was none other than David Allen Coe,

28:04

a now infamous and very well-known country

28:06

singer whose career spans over five decades.

28:09

Coe is notorious for his troubled upbringing. He

28:12

was sent to reform school at the age

28:14

of nine and spent much of the next

28:16

two decades in correctional facilities, including three years

28:18

at the Ohio Penitentiary. He moved

28:20

to Nashville to pursue a music career, where he

28:22

performed on the street while living in a hearth.

28:25

After a few unsuccessful blues albums, he

28:27

turned to country music. However, his specific

28:29

brand of country was not the traditional,

28:32

clean, polished Nashville style. In

28:34

line with his troubled past and

28:36

reputation, Coe's country was dirtier, grittier,

28:39

darker. He had long

28:41

hair, multiple earrings, and Harley-Davidson biker

28:43

boots. He sung about adultery

28:45

and marijuana. Initially, Coe

28:47

created an anonymous character to perform his

28:49

country music under, the mysterious rhinestone cowboy,

28:51

which was also the name of his

28:54

very first country record. Under

28:56

this character, which Coe considered a separate

28:58

entity from himself, Coe wore rhinestone suits

29:01

and a lone ranger mask to conceal

29:03

his identity. I'll repeat that

29:05

so it sticks. He wore a mask

29:07

to conceal his identity, the reason for

29:09

which he explained years later, saying, quote,

29:12

I wore the mask for the first two

29:14

years. I wanted people to like the music

29:16

rather than me personally. It seems

29:18

like over the years, everyone writes about me

29:20

rather than about the music, unquote. Along

29:23

with artists like Waylon Jennings and Willie

29:26

Nelson, Coe became one of the founders

29:28

of what would be named Outlaw Country,

29:30

a defiant, conscious rejection of the clean-cut,

29:32

mainstream sound of traditional Nashville music at

29:35

the time, with Campbell's rhinestone cowboy representing

29:37

the epitome of this commercial sound. Now,

29:40

the parallels between Coe's mysterious rhinestone

29:42

cowboy and the equally mysterious MF

29:44

Doom are uncanny. Like

29:47

Outlaw Country's anti-establishment rebellion against

29:49

commercialized country music, MF

29:51

Doom was part of the independent hip-hop

29:53

movement that rebelled against commercialized rap music.

29:56

Both Coe and Doom share an almost mythological

29:58

origin story that influenced the their respective

30:00

characters, each choosing to remain anonymous,

30:02

each donning a mask for the

30:04

same reason, to emphasize the music

30:07

over the person behind the mask.

30:09

Now it's unclear whether Doom knew

30:19

of Coe's character or happened to come

30:21

across the mysterious rhinestone cowboy vinyl record

30:23

when crate digging. Like so much

30:25

about Doom, we'll never know for sure. However,

30:28

we should probably ask ourselves which is more

30:30

likely. Doom aligning himself with

30:32

Glenn Campbell's incredibly commercial hit song

30:35

or that he's aligning himself with the

30:37

mysterious anonymous masked outlaw rebelling against the

30:39

Glenn Campbells of the world. I

30:42

don't know about you, but my money's on the

30:44

villain. Sometimes

30:47

they were comedic or

30:50

relentlessly horrifying. They

30:52

were the foes of society, whether

30:54

fighting the local sheriff or

30:59

a secret agent. Frequently,

31:02

they mirrored our times. The

31:04

gangster villains which rival real newspaper

31:07

headlines of the present day. Collectively,

31:11

they are the components which have fueled

31:13

nightmares for decades to come. The

31:17

villains. Appropriately,

31:19

Mad Villainy ends by reprising the

31:21

same documentary film narration that began

31:23

the album. Doom, by way

31:26

of the sample, once again reminds us

31:28

that archetypal villains across time are nothing

31:30

more than a reflection of society, a

31:32

reflection of human nature, a reflection of

31:34

ourselves. The final line is

31:37

especially potent. Quote, Collectively, they are

31:39

the components which have fueled nightmares for

31:41

decades to come. The villains. It

31:44

doubles as a statement about Mad Villainy itself,

31:47

an album that fans instantly recognize as

31:49

exceptional in the moment and has since

31:51

sustained relevance for two decades, passed down

31:53

from generation to generation like a beloved

31:56

and treasured heirloom. It's an

31:58

album that proves the transformative potential of

32:00

collaboration, with two generational talents teaming

32:02

up in their early prime like

32:04

Davis and Coltrane to create something

32:06

spontaneous and ageless and true. And

32:09

like all albums considered to be classics,

32:12

Mad Villainy both captures the time and

32:14

transcends it, cementing itself as

32:16

an aspirational blueprint for legions of

32:18

creatively like-minded artists for generations to

32:21

come. Now, after

32:23

the villain documentary sample, Mad Lib

32:25

reprises the instrumental for Rhinestone Cowboy,

32:27

a musical score to carry the

32:29

album home. Accompanied by

32:31

well-deserved applause, we imagine our two

32:33

creative partners in crime side by

32:35

side on horseback like some grisly

32:37

old classic western, riding but

32:39

never fading into an endless horizon.