On The Doc (Audio Lyric Poem, Rap Bars)

Tales of The BLACK Freighter

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

This is a track I wrote May 2021 that sparked 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.

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?

On The Doc (Lyrics)

I get raw for you just like a warrior¹/

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 decent²/

Seven. But instead they were met with heaven./

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

Shoes, see Prada³ 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/

Peers⁴. I been riding on the Doc[k] for a year⁵/

Been writing for like fourteen years/

Haven’t released nothing cause all that fear⁶/

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 food⁷/

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 running⁸/

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

Masked man, I’m blue like Manhattan/

From Watchmen, a clip of “Tales From The Black Freighter.”

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Dear Listener-Reader,

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With warm and loving gratitude,

and now Miguel

1. Big Daddy Kane, “Raw.”

2. Anthony Melon Fantano’s famous review of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

3. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” by Kany West. See, Kanye West Admits He “Posed As A Backpack Rapper.”

4. 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.

5. Reference to Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay. I moved to NY to CA, but, far from Frisco Bay.

6. 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.”

7. 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.

8. Watchmen comic book cover, the doomsday clock within the story, and Operation: Doomsday. Not only the death 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.