The Best Dish is a Rapp Snitch
I remember coming across MF DOOM during the early 2010s; I was getting deep into the blog era of Hip-Hop and was obsessed with learning about some of the upcoming acts like Odd Future, Pro Era, Childish Gambino, and A$AP Mob. I watched interview after interview, and one name kept coming up consistently. From Joey to Tyler, I kept hearing the name “MF DOOM,” this enigmatic rapper that I’ve never heard before. And I must be honest; I did not like him the first time I listened to him. His off-kilter rhyme schemes, his obscure references, and just the oddity of a guy named MF DOOM threw me off. It wouldn’t be until after high school I gave him a second chance, and whatever I missed when I was in high school struck me like a blast from King Geedorah because, man, as I was revisiting MF DOOMs catalog, his work blew my mind. I listened to ‘Mm.. Food’ first, mainly because Childish Gambino had a line on his album ‘Camp’ where he said,
Mm Food like Rapp Snitch Knishes
’Cause it’s Oreos, Twinkies, coconuts, delicious.
I simply wanted to understand the bar, so I figured I’d listen to ‘Mm.. Food’ for clarity. I remember checking the iTunes tracklist and seeing “Rap Snitch Knishes” and deciding to jump straight to that track. The track begins with a little preamble between featured artist Mr. Fantastik and MF DOOM talking about their disdain for “Rap Snitches” (people who rap about the crimes they commit and essentially incriminate themselves while trying to brag.)
After airing out their grievances, one of MF DOOM’s more iconic choruses begins to play. Both Mr. Fantastik and MF DOOM rap:
Rap snitches, telling all their business
Sit in the court and be their own star witness
“Do you see the perpetrator?” Yeah, I’m right here
Fuck around, get the whole label sent up for years
Rap snitches, telling all their business
Sit in the court and be their own star witness
“Do you see the perpetrator?” Yeah, I’m right here
Fuck around, get the whole label sent up for years
I love how funny and ironic this is. It’s a quick jab on emcees who would purposely snitch on themselves for some record spins and potentially get their whole label in trouble. While subtly admitting they are being snitches by making this song!
Mr. Fantastik begins the first verse comparing himself to “Ace” or “A” from the 2002 black cult classic “Paid in Full.” Mr. Fantastik says,
Type profile low, like A in Paid in Full,
Attract heavy cash cause the game’s centrifugal
Ironically enough, and I forgo the spoiler alert at this point because if you haven’t seen Paid in Full yet, you missed out on an iconic Cam’ron role, and this is your punishment. Ace ends up snitching on the Cam’ron at the end of the move in retaliation for killing Mitch. Like I said earlier, they’ve already acknowledged that they are snitches for making this song in the chorus; Mr. Fantastik’s comparison to Ace makes this song more genius, and we just got through the first bar!
By this time, if you haven’t noticed, both emcees share a stage name deriving from Marvel’s Fantastic Four. Mr. Fantastik is named after Reed Richards alter ego, Mister Fantastic, and MF DOOM is named after Victor Von Dooms alter ego, Dr. Doom. In the mainline Marvel universe, Mister Fantastic is the leader of the Fantastic Four and defends against Dr. Dooms’ evil schemes. Now MF DOOM plays this role to a tee, even to go as far as naming himself the supervillain of hip-hop. We can see it in his rhymes, interviews, and even performances. This man constantly had MF DOOM impersonate him during shows; no, I’m serious! Any middle-aged black man who fit MF DOOM’s build would dawn his costume and lip-synch his tracks. He even had comedian Hannibal Burress do it once. There is nothing more villainous than having a random person perform before paying and adoring fans just because you don’t want to if you ask me. Mr. Fantastik, on the other hand, is an interesting case. He may be more mysterious than MF DOOM himself, but in the context of this verse, we can see he is nothing like his mainline Marvel counterpart and is a bit more devious. Mr. Fantastik raps
My hoes be the thickest, my dro the stickiest
Street nigga, stamped and bonafide
When beef jump niggas come get me cause they know I ride
True to the ski mask, New York’s my origin
Play a fake gangsta like an old accordion
Wait, are these bars another semblance of self-snitching? I see this whole track as two villains monologuing to lesser villains. While belittling, they ultimately tell on themselves, either intentionally or not; they are both airing out other villains while showing what is wrong with self-snitching by doing it themselves. Mr. Fantastik ends his verse off by saying.
Complication from the wire, testimony was thin
Caused his man to go up north, the ball hit ’em again
Lame rap snitch nigga even told on the Mexican
As far as my knowledge goes, Mr. Fantastik isn’t talking about anybody. Still, the imagery he paints of a rapper being down so bad that he just snitches on everyone who has met him, even a random person just walking down the street, makes me laugh.
Mr. Fantastik has an excellent verse that leads into the chorus and preps us for a just as impressive verse from MF DOOM.
MF DOOM begins his verse with an onslaught of subtle and overt references that just fill me with glee, MF DOOM raps.
True, there’s rules to this shit, fools dare care
Everybody wanna rule the world with tears for fear
Yeah, yeah, tell ’em tell it on the mountain hill
Running up they mouth bill, everybody doubting still
We can immediately see how MF DOOM uses references to get his point across. Biggie uses this same sentiment in his Ten Crack Commandments rapping.
There’s rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual
We can already see how clever MF DOOM can get; MF DOOM reuses what Biggie says in a song where Biggie raps about the rules to selling crack, another instance of self-snitching, and addresses it by saying, fools can care less about what the price of fame may cost them. He immediately jumps into a reference from Tears of Fears hit song Everybody Wants to Rule the World. And then jumps into another reference to a negro spiritual called “Go Tell It on The Mountain Hill.” We are four bars in, littered with references ranging from Hip-Hop to English Pop-Rock to Negro Spirituals.
The next couple of bars feed into the self-snitching motif that has been throughout the song.
Informer, keep it up and get tested
Pop through your bubble vest or double-breasted
He keep a lab down south in the little beast
So much heat you woulda thought it was the Middle East
I love how MF DOOM can describe something without blatantly saying it. When he raps “so much heat you woulda thought it was the Middle East” he is talking about a gun, but he does it in such an open-ended matter that it can be interpreted as something else, which makes it that interesting to decipher. He does something similar in “Rhymes Like Dimes,” where he raps.
In his right hand was your man’s worst nightmare
Loud enough to burst his right eardrum, close-range
We can only assume what is in his right hand. But this could be a gun, a microphone, or even some world-ending sonic disruptor device that a supervillain would have. He never fails to bring the supervillain persona to real life.
Doom ends the verse by saying the song’s name in the last line; he raps.
Son, shut your trap, save it for the bitches
Mmm, delicious, rapp snitch knishes
He does this throughout “Mm.. Food” he states the song’s name either in a verse or hook and puts a food reference hence ‘Rap Snitch Knishes.’ A Knish is a traditional Jewish food; how does it relate to rap snitches? I honestly have no idea; the whole album is based around food and drinks references sans the track “Vomitspit.” as far as I can tell, Knishes have no relation to Rap Snitches.
I can’t help but drone on about MF DOOM and his cartoonish approach to Hip-Hop. He is an emcee with a flamboyant yet elusive personality. His rhymes and flow break the traditional structure of a rap song and have a meta quality. Rapp Snitch Knishes is MF DOOM at his best. He puts other emcees on blast by calling them out while at the same time snitching on snitches. I mean, what else would a villain do?
