CURLS BY MADVILLAIN - TRACK REVIEW

Hey everyone,

Pez from the SonicPlug collective here, bringing y’all a track review.

Tonight’s track is a humour-filled punchline extravaganza delivered by none other than the infamous super-villain, MF DOOM. No less ‘super’ than DOOM, the Beat Konducta, Madlib, complements DOOM’s hypnotic flow with a glamorously dusty, otherworldly instrumental. Curls, by Madvillain, is the 9th track off of Madvillainy, the one and only timeless collaboration between these hip-hop legends.

Curls finds Madlib sampling Waldir Calmon’s Airport Love Theme, a synth jazz record. Despite the wavy environment created by Madlib, DOOM’s verse inspires a more benignly solemn undertone, one which details his early drug use and teenage misdemeanours. 

Seeing “heaven” when he was “seven”, DOOM alludes to his first experience of smoking weed, an experience so good that it opened up his world to divine pleasures. In characterising his childhood as one which went by “too fast”, DOOM reveals that he feels cheated on his early loss of innocence, demonstrated by him “showing up to class with Möet in a flask”. Here, DOOM also speaks on the negligence of the ’streets’, whereby the traits one garners from it - be it good or bad - propels you too far ahead of ordinary education. Such acquired qualities are suggested in the opening bars of the verse, finding DOOM playing the God of his “mad world”, one which females are all trying to get a “nut” from him. Well played. Even still, this sexually sacrilegious imagery is continued in the “land of milk and honey with the swirls”, a reference to the the Bible’s Israel - a land that is abundant in agriculture. DOOM puts a cheeky twist here, though, as he refers to the abundance of the money he makes and girls he’s seduced - skills that the gained from the streets. Deeper still - pardon the pun - the imagery of “milk and honey” insinuates DOOM's absolutely RAWDOGGIN’ the honeys, a notion that’s supported by honey’s higher viscosity than milk…

ANY-who, after playing God and showing up to class with some nice champagne DOOM requests to skip class entirely; we see that DOOM is still thoughtful, though, as he asks if he’ll “pass” it he does so. The Villain’s reason for skipping class induces quite a scoff, thanks to his “girl” being “home alone” so DOOM is trying to get the “(ass)”. The punchline is deliberately left voiceless, adding, I feel, to the effectiveness of the bar, as the meaning of this it is esoteric. Obviously, the streets has taught him to prioritise them CHEEKS over education; such a notion is oxymoronic for DOOM, as he laments the early loss of naïvety, but simultaneously indulges in the dirty-dirty. 

Curls is a dense lyrical barrage that is at times humorous, and at others introspective and slightly sombre. Tracks like these give a peek into the magical world of Madvillainy, the quintessential abstract hip-hop album. This track, and so the record, is nothing less than a magnum opus meticulously crafted by the villainous hip-hop virtuosos.

100volts/100volts

PLUGGED by,

Pez*