On The Doc (Lyrics)

On The Doc

and now Miguel

0:00 / 0:00

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Prolog

“On The Doc” was written, recorded, mixed, and preformed by me, and now Miguel.

This is a track I wrote May 2021 (Watchmen dropped May 13, 1986). It was sparked from an idea I hope to continue to explore around what it means to read and write as decedents of slaves, and put this question in relation to Hip-Hop and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. This idea began with me working through the death of the Comedian, and MF DOOM. The beat on this one is by Damu The Fudgemunk, “Coco Mango” off DOOM’s Born Like This. There will, more than likely be more edits to this one, but wanted to put this out to give “Muskie Fish Fry” more context.

¹

Lyrics

I get raw for you just like a warrior²

Kick haphazard rhymes but I ain’t stalling ya

I took the two seater converted the coops for you

Dropped the top on your melon in a second

More quicker than a hater who wanted a lite to decent³

Seven, But instead they were met with heaven

I guess that’s the life of Pablo step in diablo

Shoes, see Prada⁴ ought to order the prodigal

Son some founds that would leave em chilling in nautical

Gear for years they don’t be seeing the piers like

Ship stuck in the ocean, but I owe this to my

Peers⁵, I been riding on the Doc[k] for a year⁶

Been writing for like fourteen years

Haven’t released nothing cause all that fear⁷

Left me stuck, on the dock of the bay, with a can of Old Bay

Consuming these crabs in a barrel to plan my escape

Listening to Dr. DOOM as I consume my food⁸

This the desert island chronicles of a Watchmen got him

Looking for the masked man who had past hands with

Time. Yellow faces with blood running⁹

Time is running out. I poor a little brew for the

Masked man, I’m blue like Manhattan

FOOTNOTES

1. 1. From Watchmen, a Black youth reading the comic, “Tales From The Black Freighter.” What was in the freight? A Black history they try to wash away, but, a could Cain wash his own hands of those stains? ↩
2. 2. Big Daddy Kane, “Raw” (1988) ↩
3. 3. Anthony “Melon” Fantano’s famous review of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). ↩
4. 4. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” by Kany West. See, Kanye West Admits He “Posed As A Backpack Rapper.” See, Hayley Hynes, “Kanye West Admits He ‘Posed As A Backpack Rapper,’” HotNewHipHop, November 13, 2021 ↩
5. 5. Many layers here but I’ll point to one. What was really on that ship in Tales of the Black Freighter (the comic within the comic of Watchman)? Slavery, it’s legacy is ever present. Honoring those who did not make it to the other shore either voluntarily or involuntarily. Survivors' guilt? Be on the look out for another reference to the Black Freighter towards the end. ↩
6. 6. Reference to Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay—inspired by the San Fransico Bay (released January 8, 1968—a very important year). I moved to NY to CA, but, far from “Frisco Bay.” ↩
7. 7. What does it mean to write as a descendant of slaves? What does it mean to write and make meaning through writing when that same tool was used to dehumanize you? And, how brave are you who decides to write despite the history and legacy of slavery in the “new world.” ↩
8. 8. I will point to two layers, but there are more to come as I continue to work on this theme. MF DOOM transitioned Oct. 31, 2020. He was a raper who had a comedic style, wore a mask, and was know as the super villain. One of the questions I asked in my Muskie Fish Fry post was, “Who Watches the Watchmen?” Alan Moore never answered this question for me so I thought, isn’t it the villain who watches? I mean Pennywise, the most diabolical—in my opinion—is a clown and he is most definitely a watcher. And when we don’t answer this question, we don’t get a chance to reflect on how Black bodies, art, and intellect, if not appropriated, is vilified or laughed at—but what villain isn’t scary and funny (feel free to help a brotha out with any scholarly sources that reference this sort of theme—I’m sure Mama Morrison’s Playing in The Dark has a line or two about what I’m pointing to). Another layer, Watchmen starts with the death of the leather mask “hero,” the Comedian. I very much admire MF DOOM’s pen and production, but, I too am grappling with the problematic sides of Dumile’s MF DOOM’s transphobic and homophobic lyrics. MF DOOM in many ways like The Comedian hero [villain] in Watchmen. ↩
9. 9. Watchmen (1986) comic book cover (first image below), the doomsday clock within the story, and Operation: Doomsday (1999) (second image below). Not only the transition of DOOM but also a limitation of the naive belief in the purity of underground “real” Hip-Hop via Kanye West’s unraveling and a list of Hip-Hop icons who have fallen and thus taken the culture down with them.

   

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