Loaded with
palindromes is
MC Paul Barman's very first full-length LP,
Paullelujah!. Released 15 October 2002 on
Coup d'Etat Records, the album clocks in at just over forty-four minutes in length and is, in my mind,
excellent. The album's lyric sheet looks an awful lot like a newspaper, and, in fact, is supposed to resemble one.
The Jew Dork Rimes features a "drop ded op ed", a theater review, and a "Gnostic Illicit Song" (one of a myriad of palindromes floating around this album, as mentioned previously).
The Tracks:
- It's Here
- Paullelujah!
- Cock Mobster
- Old Paul
- Bleeding Brain Grow
- N.O.W.
- Excuse You
- Vulture Shark Sculpture Park
- Anarchist Bookstore, Part I
- Burping & Farting
- Talking Time Travel
- Anarchist Bookstore, Part II
- A Somewhat New Medium
The Songs:
01. "It's Here" -- A standard introduction, a fan is ecstatic about the release -- finally! -- of MC Paul Barman's first full-length album. He is, in fact, so thrilled about this, that he starts singing for joy.
02. "Paullelujah!" -- The first rap track on the album, this song is reported to be the speech Barman would have given, had he been elected student class president. He begins with a denunciation of public schools, then briefly disses private schools, before eventually suggesting a solution to the problem: "We could rehabeducate with art, but we ain't got paint. You can take your budgetary constraint and fudge it up your hairy taint.... I know, I'll reopen the Black Mountain School, and bring back to us the abacus as a countin' tool."
03. "Cock Mobster" -- This is Paullelujah!'s first single, and it is an hilarious one. It is, essentially, a series of couplets about Barman's interest in mating with female celebrities. To name a few, "I'd like to fire blanks in Tyra Banks;" "I'm immersed in Kirstie Alley's thirsty valley;" "I'd slip my slim sword in Kim Gordon;" "I'm sure to spill sperm in Laura Silverman;" "... which brings in Amy Tan: she said, 'Lay me, mon!';" "Sigourney Weaver has a thrashing, horny beaver;" "Lisa Bonet, I'd like a piece o' yo' day;" and "I'd like a smelly slice of Kelly Price, plus get with the hairy scar of Teri Garr." It seems like there are hundreds of others, and they are all just as good -- or, perhaps, just as bad -- as the ones above enumerated.
04. "Old Paul" -- As an elderly gentleman, Barman reflects on what it was like being one of the only white rappers extant. "Old Paul gave rap a cold call; the caucasoid had the whole block annoyed." In my mind, the best part is when he draws an analogy betwixt himself and France: "Was I to rap as France was to Morocco? Was I colon rap colon colon France colon Morocco?"
05. "Bleeding Brain Grow" -- Anybody who thinks to rhyme "pretzel-dough model" with Quetzalcoatl is all right in my book. Also, "How much does the challah cost?" This song also has -- I think -- the most palindromes of all the songs on the album. Check it: "Ma, origami magi roam. Eve, Mika, RZA, Evil JD, Nasir is Osiris and J-Live, AZ, Rakim, Cormega, Cage, Mr. O.C.: I'm anomie. I, mon ami.
06. "N.O.W." -- A narrative about a guy who follows politics to ball all the chicks, this song's first verse is perhaps its best and its most clever: "Are you for 86'ing injustice? If so, then get on the bus this moment. Let's foment dischord in the District Of Corruptia. It's up to ya to keep Title IX's impact intact...."
07. "Excuse You" -- A letter to the editor of The Jew Dork Rimes, "Excuse You" has Barman proclaiming that "I drop gems like I've got holes in my pockets," that "I'm iller than the Iliad," that "The way I communicate could make a freakin' eunuch mate," and that "I'm the ne plus ultra of B+ culture."
08. "Vulture Shark Sculpture Park" -- A fun, fun song, during which Barman takes a group of students to the titular park. Animals seen include Bunny Loafabread on a sofabed; Hamstergram to Amsterdam perched on an ampersand; and Hairy Moth Owl. They also see a new-born gorilla dip a blue corn tortilla chip (think about it; it's a six-syllable rhyme).
09. "Anarchist Bookstore, Part I" -- A narrative about a place that is reported to be remarkably similar to the Internationalist Infoshop in Chapel Hill, NC. Voice Talent, a rapper, hangs out there and pisses people off. After being told that his Sunday Showcases were akin to a mistrel show, he thinks to himself, "Someone's psychotic. Someone took too much semiotics. Furthermore, someone can tzuck my tzaddik."
10. "Burping & Farting" -- As someone (possibly Black Italiano) proclaims at the end of the song, "How can it be so smart and so stupid at the same time?" That's pretty much what I think, as well.
11. "Talking Time Travel" -- A "talking blues" song in the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan tradition, Barman travels back to a time when it wasn't just rappers who enjoyed the rhyme. Among other things, he hangs out with the people who wrote, edited, and updated Strunk And White, and his "super group" plays while the Peace Club fights the Fight Club.
12. "Anarchist Bookstore, Part II" -- In this continuation, several irate customers bust the chops of the clerk currently working in the Anarchist Bookstore. "If y'all are so destitute, how come you're dressed so cute?"
13. "A Somewhat New Medium" -- A weird spoken-word song, recorded apparently several minutes after the incident described therein happened. I don't know what to think of this one.
My sources include