The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera: A Hip Hop Epic
Intro
Hip hop is a special genre to me. Anyone who knows me can probably mention some time where I rambled on some underground album that probably was listened to by maybe under 10k people and can only be found on some obscure YT channel. If I had to put in many words on why this genre means so much to me in particular is how direct and authentic it can really be. Most hip hop MCs are not dancers, instrument players or any sort of that ilk. What that leaves is the ability of the MC to put pen to paper and to fully transform those written words into music that can be felt, touched, experienced and much more when done well. It’s raw, it’s real, and all so genuine. Like poetry, through the simple power of words are all it can take to make one go fucking through and experience the whole gambit of emotions and even travel to new worlds and timelines. I mean this 100% with my heart and soul that shit is life changing if you listen to that one right song, album, MC, etc. Let’s take a moment to explore an album which I think embodies hip hop’s ability to tell these emotional stories
MF Grimm: The Grimm Reaper with Mad Flows
Percy Carey was born on June 11, 1970 in New York City. In youth, Carey would make appearances as a child actor on Sesame Street. At the age of 14, he had already decided on the dream to become involved in hip hop and become a MC. His career on the mic would begin during the late 80s with numerous shows and freestyle contests. Some of his contemporaries that he would perform alongside include names like Lord Finesse, GZA and Large Professor. The early 90s would prove fruitful for him too, forming a group known as Gravediggaz and rocking with a DJ known as Roc Rida. 93 would see the release of his first 12’’ So Whatcha Want N**** ? as well.
Trouble was never far from Percy Carey, however. Early in life, Carey would get involved in the world of drug and narcotics dealing, even being kicked out of highschool for beating up a dean over owed drug money. During the winter of 1994, Percy and his brother Jay would be fired upon in a storm of bullets by rival dealers on the way to a record deal with Atlantic Records. While surviving, the injuries would leave him deafened, blind and paralyzed from the waist down. Any and all deals coming in from music labels would fall through, but Percy would recover his vision, hearing and ability to speak. To this day, he still uses a wheelchair. Unfortunately, Jay did not survive the incident.
He would create the Day By Day Entertainment in the late 90s along with a Godzilla inspired rap collective, the Monsta Island Czars. Among the alumni was MF DOOM, the legendary underground MC who Grimm had an established working relationship with dating as far back as DOOM’s days as Zen Love X in KMD. However, debt from all the hospital bills from years prior would pull Percy back into the world of drug dealing. This would eventually lead to his later arrest and sentencing of life in prison in 2000. Paying $100,000 for a single day bail, Percy Carey would use this 24 hours to create an epic in the form of a hip hop album. This is The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera
A Ghetto Opera
From the title alone, we can tell this album is about creating an almost biblical story of one’s downfall. Ibliys is just one letter off from Ibis, the Islam parallel to Satan. He too was a fallen angel, was damned to his fate and kicked out of heaven. Being sentenced to life in prison is maybe the closest thing on Earth to a hell, so the comparison is more than apt in many ways.
The album kicks off with Alpha, where MF Grimm plainly states that we’re about to go on a ride. Ibliys gets his wings clipped, and we’re about to join him on his descent into hell. A woman ends this track, narrating from the Quran itself:
“And so the Elohim bow, all of them together, but not so Iblis. He was proud, and Ibliys was one without faith”
The term elohim can refer to many supernatural beings like angels and gods but important here is the fact that Ibliys, in his pride” refused to submit. This would mark the beginning of his downfall.
From there on, he takes us through Time and Space. Haunting is the best way to describe it.
“Angel thought he was better than man. So God shook him up and changed his plan. Broke his wing. No longer could he soar”.
We begin the fall of Percy Carey. Hell is the destination.
“cause the views he saw Hell indeed, burning at the core of Earth”.
According to the man himself, the album can be considered a series of questions, on life, death and more.
“Welcome to life, you was born to die. Learn lessons through suffering. Progress from struggling.”
This is life, where one must learn through pain, struggle and strife. Humility is the cure to these ills and ailments as Grimm continues,
“Why, again, it was so important for him to be better then all men? Better was a bitter sin (Bitter sin), being humble was the medicine. The elixir to fix his broken wing”
And with these restored wings, Ibis and by extension Percy Carey can uplift himself.
Life and Death starts up as the next track and presents Grimm a choice between two love interests, Life and Death themselves. Life (as humanized here) essentially embodies all that is good and wonderful in this world and pushes him to better himself. She’s
“A schoolgirl, mastered biology”
and wants nothing but the best for Percy, albeit pushy according to him.
“She’d rather see me get a diploma”
Grimms says rather than for him to be just another lost soul on the streets. Death here is a temptress who simply
“took the last breath of me (Grimm)”
and entertains his id and inner desires. He ponders his choice between Life and Death at his homegirl Coma’s place. Coma is likely a reference to his hospital time back in 94. In a lot of stories, comas are often depicted as the boundary of life and death. Coma, being the intermediary between Life and Death puts it all down,
“Life is wonderful, a hell of a girl. She wants to share her world, give you all she can. Death’s a freak, slept with every damned man. Life got your back, she’s picking you up. Death packs the gat, straight sticking you up”
With resolve, Grimm goes to Death to reject her and what she represents, Death has no intention to let him go so easily,
“she pulls a gun out and says, “It’s not over”
Riddled with themes of betrayal and hatred, “Freedom” presents us with anything but.
“Gentlemen. pick your poison with pipe dreams or bullets — now they’re filling you. Academy awards, best support. N***** act so cool with you, but hatred runs so deep in hearts and veins, they fooled theyself plus you.”
Even when Grimm sees awards and accolades, people close to him only have hate in their hearts, jealous of his success.
“Mutiny is upon your ship, but still, they seem like crew to you”
unmasks those veneers of love and reveal traitors among his own. Grimm makes a stand against his fake friends and allies,
“I am all alone, I’m running out of ammo, surrounded by the enemy”.
Even with his back to the wall, MF Grimm laughs in defiance, proclaiming,
“We’ll see at the end of this bloodbath. Who will get the last laugh, n****. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”
Grimm then takes us on a guided tour of his world and life in it, along with fellow MCs MF DOOM and Megalon in Foolish.
“Grimm scriptures are made from scratch, my mind floats, and I got war scars, war scrapes from war skits, rhymes souped-up like lentil to show my mental is not accidental”
These lines remind us that this is no fantasy, but the real experiences of Percy Carey. This album is purely made manifest into song. Grimm’s world is cruel and unfair as we learn that
“Giuliani referees this hellhole, but he don’t give a fuck, so there’s cuts, headbutts, and elbows” (Giuliani referring to Rudy Giuliani, mayor of NYC from 1994 to 2001)
Death lurks about everything and you could end up in a
“Jigsaw fate, chopped up, distributed body parts in different states. Take you to spots that nobody knows”
Megalon drops in to the lament about the state of the world, easily heard in bars like
“Look into my eyes. It’s hard to survive when your mother and father dies. You try suicide, but all you do is cry, wrist bleeding, who do I believe in?”
MF DOOM rounds out the song revealing that
“Nowadays, the game is all bugged out. Phony like back when Hammer tried to come thugged out”
A poor fool pays the ultimate price in the next song, Together. A traitor reveals himself to be colluding with a rival gang. Grimms relays,
“N***** had beef with N*****. Now he breaking bread with n*****?”
Grimm does not take this lightly, as they were pretty close,
“reminiscing when we laughed, having fun busting guns, but, yo, fuck it. That’s the past”
Eliminating his former friend hurts, but even then, Grimm and company
“tied him up”, “beat him up”, “chopped him up”.
The traitor’s final moments are captured in:
“Before we blew his brains out, he screamed out, “Why?” Didn’t tell him shit, let him find out from his maker why he was aired out — fuck him!”
An air of regret hangs over Grimm, but this is just another part of the criminal lifestyle he was leading at the time.
Break Em’ Off is the sole track not original to The Downfall of Ibliys and such doesn’t quite fit the story of it. That being said it’s a fun track with great liners throughout. Some of my favorites include
“Almost died having me — thank you to my momma. She named me Percy Carey — that’s universal. Known for showing love and busting pistols.”
and
“Judge acting like I just fucked his wife In his bed and drank his wine and she gave me head, so he’s giving me time”
Megalon returns from Foolish, taking the mic in full for Rain Blood. It’s an extremely raw and brutal look into the world of violence MF Grimm lays out in the album. The biblical imagery and allusion sprinkled throughout the album come into full with
“The nation is defeated — Revelations, n****, read it ’cause in The Last Days, The Beast is gonna come arrest this nation”
The Beast here is referring to the police. Shortly after, it is implied Megalon slayed an officer and celebrated with a friend,
“It had to be the saddest day of their life when a cop died. It was the gladdest day of my life”
and
“when he died, my mans pissed on his gravesite”
Later references to both Buddha and baptism lend a bit of spirituality to the song that borders on apocalyptic.
In Voices Pt. 0, MF Grimm’s psyche begins to unravel in a jail cell. He’s over taken,
“Tossing, turning, dreams of murder”
going from being the victim to a perpetrator. Grimm quickly assesses he may be coming onto major psychological conditions.
“Demented, schizophrenic. I know this sounds off to you. I do not lie. When I doze off, Spirits hope I die”
A quick reference to David Berkowitz, an infamous serial killer of the 70s, is thrown for good measure with
“I hear voices from a dog like Son of Sam”
“Don’t give a damn if the bullets fill me I don’t wanna live, I hope they kill me”
lays out in no unclear terms that Grimm has lost any will to live.
He begins to hallucinate a cellmate in
“My cellmate, all he do is scream out loud how he wants to go home. That’s funny. I’m here all alone”
Grimm calls the C.O. of the prison for some extra sheets for his imagined cellmate. Upon seeing that cellmate “disappeared”, Grimm questions the C.O. only to learn that
“He’s alright, but he’s not real”.
Formal diagnosis comes as Grimm notes,
“Evaluation say I suffer from depression. Hallucination, self-creations, what they’re guessing”.
Grimm refuses medication as he states
“He (the cellmate) said I need his help and he needs me”
Though the cellmate is but an illusion that can walk through the prison walls, there’s no escape for him either
“‘Cause his wings was burnt off”
The implication here is that this cellmate is Ibilys, the fallen angel from the start of the album, whose journey mirrors Grimm’s own, down to being disabled. As the song ends, MF DOOM abruptly drops and shifts the whole song into a 180, declaring
“And I’m the r******** one!”
MF DOOM takes over in the follow up, Voices pt. 1. On the same beat where Grimm essentially undergoes a psychological breakdown, DOOM delivers his signature of witty, clever and irrelevant lyrics. The contrast is both disorientating and magnetic at the same time. It can not be undersold how much finesse DOOM has over language with fun rhymes and sly references. Standout bars for include
“On the slow-mo, the con artist with the so-so chick chased them all like how he did to Slobodan Milošević ” (Slobodan Milošević, former president of Serbia, was ran out of office but his citizens after major abuse of his political powers)
and
“For no reason, you get cussed out like Tourette yet tight flow to make her bad ass stutter or even crack a smile from a mad fast cutter”
MF DOOM ends on what would be a fun and off beat track with allusions to schizophrenia in
“I hear voices saying, “That’s the Supervillain” (Uhh, I hear voices). Mostly from the women I hear voices. Supervillain”
The same woman narrator from Alpha returns, declaring
“blessed Iblis, showing him that, even though he was not in Heaven, Heaven could still come to him”.
Iblis, and by extension MF Grimm, still have a chance for redemption.
Tone shifts in the romantic Yes You Are (It’s Only A Movie). Grimm sings out in melody to start,
“You are my true love, Mary. Yes, you are Mary Magdalene’s on my mind …must know”.
Mary Magdalene in biblical scriptures was one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, mentioned by name more than most of others. She was said to be among the witnesses to Christ’s crucifixion, the first to see the empty tomb and the first to bear witness of Jesus’ resurrection. The extent of Jesus’ and Mary’s relationship has been subject to rumor and debate, though no canonical or apocryphal text supports any claim of romance or marriage. Still, Grimm draws upon some of those legends to establish the sense of romance in the song.
He goes on to say,
“While the world laughed, you stood by me. Others ran. You chose not to flee. You got Hell on Earth for loving me. Nothing scared you away, by my side you stayed”
Despite everything that has happened, and perhaps what is yet to come, Mary stands by her love. People on the outside have no love for her though as
“Some tried to judge you, picking up stones, shattered furniture and glass-made homes. Jealous people throw ’em, they ricochet, bobbing and weaving as they come their way”
Even as the rest of the world acts wicked and attacks Mary here, she remains firm in strength of love and convictions. Grimm, in turn, is able to find some strength to face whatever comes his way. He assures Mary with
“No hatred in your heart. Forgive them please. I feel no pain, my soul’s at ease. No questions. God made his choice, but always in your mind will be my voice”
Grimm may be set for damnation and to face the consequences of his actions, but he is able to face all of that with grace thanks to the love of Mary.
I.B.’s reflects a deep sorrow within Grimm, his desperation growing as he rambles
“I gotta get out of here. I gotta get the fuck out of here. DOOM, I gotta get the fuck out, bro”
Grimm ponders to the ether,
“Will I see you again? (See you again, love) I’m facing life, love sitting in the pen (Sitting in the pen, love), jail, no mail, so I don’t know when (I don’t know when, love) we’ll be together”
This is likely reflecting on Grimm’s life sentence, and the sheer weight of that fate is bearing down on him. Knowing that he can not live a traditional married life with Mary, he offers her a way out of their relationship with
“I thank the Lord that you picked me as your man (Me as your man, love), but if you can’t stick by, I understand (I understand, love). Do your thing. You got one life to live (one life to live, love)”
Throughout the course of the song, a sinister sample from the song Top Billin’ from Audio Two
“I stole your girl while you were in prison”
fills the air with paranoia.
Perhaps Mary hasn’t been keeping in fidelity. Grimm relays some of these fears, asking
“Will I see you again? Are you loyal? Are you with other men?”
Despite all these doubts, he asks to hold and kiss her in
“confirm visits so you I can touch (I can touch, love), kiss you softly make me feel free”
Later we learn that this song is telling the story of a phone call with
“Time’s up, love. I’ll call you after dinner. Back to lockdown”
To All My Comrades is not a rap song in the traditional sense, but rather a preview monologue of what is to come next. Grimm here portrays himself and his comrades as a noble wolf pack, remarking
“even though we are predators, prey is perspective”.
Though Grimm and crew are wolves, they are also victims of the greater evil powers that be. He refuses to stand down, defiantly proclaiming
“We cannot be trained, brainwashed, or domesticated like dogs who is happy to beg for scraps”
Watching from above, Grimm solemnly observes how his foes are like domesticated dogs, on how they
“play dead, play fetch, pull ropes like dopes”
Humankind also gets targeted with
“the civilized savages are shrinking our territory rapidly, killing all trees and natural resources”
Grimm ends this with a rallying cry to his comrades, even making reference to the classic imagery of wolves howling at the moon.
Howl channels an electrifying energy into what’s essentially a war song. The violence is visceral with
“Drunk off death, throwing up moonshine. Slit vein, sit still, crush all bones brittle. No pain, quick kill, maybe hurt just a little”
Grimm and his wolf pack feel unstoppable in
“Accept your fate, no struggle, don’t fight. Alpha, omega, pack overpower you”
The hook’s undeniably catchy too here, channeling Kris Kross with
“Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!”
Grimm’s killer instinct and hunger come up with
“Temptations, hunger pain. Please, Lord, forgive me chewing up lifeforms ’cause I wanna live, see?”
calling back to some of the more violent natures of previous tracks.
To destroy life is just second nature to him, much like how a wolf needs to kill and eat to live. The inherent sinfulness of taking life doesn’t go unnoticed with Grimm, saying
“Thou shalt not kill. For me to eat’s a big sin”.
Later, he gives in to his darker tendencies. Grimm proclaims
“I didn’t make this world, this shit’s beyond me. Humans judge, God understands me. Insane ’cause hunger pains command me to satisfy them in situation lands me”
A wolf’s howl ends the song, reflecting on the beast within him.
Emotional floodgates burst wide open in Words. Immediately, Grimm asks God
“Lord, why do you love me? I don’t even love me”
The biblical and religious imagery come on strong in this powerful hook with these intense, self-loathing lines,
“Doing things forbidden, giving into temptation, murdering your creations, breaking bread with Satan”
Grimm’s hatred of himself and his deeds carry onto the first verse, where he questions and ponders the Lord’s forgiveness with
“Always loved me when I cursed You. Believed in me when I didn’t believe in You”
Forgiveness such as this is just often referred to as divine, and is at the root of Christian belief. Grimm takes a moment to reflect on his own sinful ways and self deprecates with
“I’m a bad seed, Lord. I didn’t behave, not caring about life, didn’t even try. Sick of it all, just want to die”.
The 1994 shooting that left Grimm permanently disabled and his brother dead gets referenced in the end of the first verse,
“I expected more from the bullets that filled me. Ignorant, mad you didn’t kill me”
and in the second verse
“Pure hell watching my brother get slain. It pained. On my face was his brains”
Despite all the hardship, heaven can still come to Grimm as
“You blessed me, my friend. Resurrection. I’ll walk the earth again”
“You” in that particular line possibly references Christ himself, especially considering the mention of resurrection.
Teach The Babies presents an unorthodox penultimate track. The main verse has Grimm going through the alphabet with each letter standing for some aspect of his life in both music and crime. Standouts include:
“(“D!”) Day By Day (Day) (“E!”) Entertainment Enterprise (“F!”) Followed by Feds (Feds)”,
and
“(“L!”) Long arm of law (Law) (“M!”) Manhattan murderers (Murderers) (“N!”) No one caught though (No)”
The track after serves as a warning to the children not to follow Grimm’s dark path in life. He states plainly
“You got to teach the babies (“E…”) This drug shit is crazy (“What comes after E?!?”) And the money seems so right (“F.” “Oh, OK”) But it could end your life”
An outro plays out with the same woman from Alpha and Voices Pt. 1, reciting
“And on this day, Iblis met with his downfall at the hands of the almighty Ēl ʿElyōn. For the wrath without faith is the chastisement of fire”
El Elyon is an epithet used in the Hebrew Bible, referring to God Most High. Very directly, this passage alludes to Grimm being damned to a fate in hell.
As Alpha started this album, Omega ended it. A sampled monologue of an unknown origin goes
“He knows what it is to spend time in jail for evil. But more than a commentator, more than an author, more than a comedian, he is a soldier in a war against hate and bigotry. His weapons include a complete personal dedication of his talent and a razor-sharp sense of humor. The man with a message, a message of freedom and equality. A message about the need to close the gap between what is and what ought to be”.
Soon after MF Grimm returns as his alter ego, Jet Jaguar from the Monsta Island Czars”, comes to deliver the final verse of the album.
“Superstar Jet Jaguar, jig jugulars Jabbing, stabbing knife-thrusting combust and dance, I hustle while Feds tapping, bring noise like Savion”
shows that Jet’s lifestyle is similar to the one that led to Grimm’s downfall. And like Grimm before him, he revels in conflict with his many foes in
“I take them all to war and seize their territory. March to your death. Scream “Charge,” and meet your glory”
The cycle of violence that led to Grimm’s demise will repeat itself with Jet Jaguar’s operation continuing where Grimm’s left off. Despite Grimm’s damnation, he will not alone as many after will follow the same path in life. Jet proclaims
“Cook it up, got the block hot, flooded. With ready rock, they’re fiending, doing anything for me. Addicted, so they’re scheming “The high is calling”
Conclusion
It’s never easy to put down exactly into words how this work gets to me on a visceral level. A lot of my early life was spent in the Catholic Church and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) in particular. Though I’m not religious in any sense of the word in my adult life, the intense biblical imagery grabs me in both heart and mind. The production is dark and broody, creating an atmosphere of inevitable death. Learning about how Percy Carey wrote what in truth is an epic in 24 hours remains just so mind blowing for me. Carey’s unfiltered directness gratifies me and instantly takes me to the world of larger than life feats of figures like him and MF DOOM. His works, and some of my favorite hip hop acts in general, scratch this intense itch I have for direct and powerful stories. Part of me thinks I can trace this love to my own autism spectrum. Either way, MF Grimm’s story deserves its flowers and honestly so much more. Anyone with even a passing interest in the genre and its ability to tell stories and worlds ought to take a few listens. It’s larger than life itself and more fantastic than even the comic book superheroes or giant monsters MF Grimm and his peers love to reference so often.
Walking the Earth Again
During his sentence in prison, MF Grimm would study law and began appeals with counter-suits. His efforts would turn out successful, being released in 2003. Grimm would go on to produce numerous other albums and works including but not limited to Scars & Memories, American Hunger, and The Hunt for the Gingerbread Man. Most interestingly, Grimm would re-tell his life story in the form of a graphic novel autobiography, Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, illustrated by Ronald Wimberly. Said novel was published by DC Comic’s Vertigo imprint in September 2007. As recently as 2021, Grimm continued to release new material as in the album The Hunt For The Gingerbread Man 2: Get The Dough.
Holy shit! I actually wrote a full article on a thing. For real, writing was always something people told me that I had a bit of a knack for during my academic career but never something I harnessed anytime after. Always wanted to stretch my wings a lil bit and here is the result. If you made it this far, thank you so so much. Hopefully this will be the first among many works coming from me, though I can not guarantee any sort of pace. This most likely will be a fun side hobby for me to keep myself busy and engaged during lazy weekends and such. My main focus tentatively will be on underground hip hop works like what I wrote on. It’s something I’m both super passionate about and I see few of my peers tackle. Ideally, I hope this can be a gateway for the lot of you all to learn about and appreciate what I think is some really cool shit. Of course, other subjects are open to discussion too! If you somehow found this via Medium itself please check out my Bluesky where I’m on often with more off the cuff thoughts and posts. Down below will be some links of interests on MF Grimm that I highly encourage everyone to take a look at. All lyrics were sourced from Genius.com. Very special thanks to Jane Parker for helping to proofread and edit this work. This article would be what it is without her.
MF Grimm: The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera Album Review | Pitchfork
