XPost: rec.music.hip-hop, alt.rap.highc, alt.rock-n-roll.metal.death   
   XPost: rec.arts.poetry, alt.snuh, alt.fan.karl-malden.nose   
   From: spamspamspam@spam.spam   
      
   "You can't fathom the depths   
   So let me draw you a picture   
   That Thing, I bring   
   I got flex like Reed Richards   
   Dr. Boom, I seal your doom   
   I kick the chair in a padded room"   
      
   Here, the author has (perhaps at the time, unknowingly) chosen an   
   extended metaphor, using the world of comics to draw in the listener, as   
   it were. It begins with "you can't fathom the depths". This line actually   
   has a rich background in hip-hop. It in fact refers to Chuck D, referring   
   to the SubMariner, Namor, on the monumental first Public Enemy album,   
   which is probably indeed the first lyric to explicitly reference the   
   world of comics. Very few people know that Public Enemy was actually   
   conceived as a comic book superhero supergroup, which is why the   
   characters are so fully realized. Chuck D, among others, is a huge comic   
   fan.   
      
   The stanza begins to gel with the second, inspired line referring to the   
   act of drawing. And it is then that we enter a series of Fantastic Four   
   rhymes. The merest act of capitalization changes a basically empty, sing-   
   song rhyme more reminiscent of Tom Hanks (think 'That Thing You Do') to   
   one one that is packed with meaning and history. To many, The Thing was   
   the original "Hulk".   
      
   All of which would be rather specious and pointless were it not tailed by   
   an allusion to the elasticine abilities of The Man in Blue, Reed   
   Richards, The arrival of the FF's figurehead is balanced nicely by the   
   'arrival' of Dr. Doom is the last couplet, again, nicely done without a   
   direct reference to anything in particular.   
      
   Finally, what musical comic book rhyme reference would be complete   
   without a tip of the hat to the Spinal Tap of metal bands, Gortician,   
   three more meth-sketched charicatures of real musicians?   
      
      
      
   The beauty of a rhyme lies in what's not said, and the economy of words   
   with which one can express multiple, complex ideas. As such, the above is   
   one of my favorites, where rap and comic books are concerned.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Can I borrow a feeling?   
   http://www.mp3.com/gortician   
      
   Bass for your anus:   
   http://www.mp3.com/manticore   
   http://www.mp3.com/meterversusyard   
   http://www.mp3.com/highc   
   http://www.mp3.com/measurerecs.   
      
   "[The artwork of Andrew Penland] is REAL...what I mean by "real" is that   
   it made NEW THOUGHTS occur in my head, which would have never otherwise   
   occurred." --Full Force Frank   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)