I remember when Ghostface confessed that “Nutmeg” was just a bunch of phrases that sounded flavorful together.
That freed me from thinking I was out of the loop on Staten Island slang and Kung Fu and Blaxploitation references.
The Nutmeg flow birthed a lot of babies, including Cannibal OX, El-P, and Aesop Rock. (And that’s just from one label!)
What Ghostface popularized gave emcees the freedom to make good music that makes you feel a type of way. You didn’t have to stick to any stilted sentence structure, or punchline build ups, or simile structure.
MF Doom mastered the Nutmeg flow
No one has more of a knack for lodging a weird image in your head than MF Doom. That’s what I like about his music.
What I don’t love are his fans who take his colorful scribbles too seriously
Troy uses MF DOOM as a litmus test for if you have good taste in hip-hop. Well, I use his use of the litmus test as my own litmus test measuring if you’re taking some lyrics more seriously than the rapper themselves.
I mean, how can you decode this Nutmeg-like gem on Madvillian’s “Figaro”
Close but no crills,
toast for po’ ills,
post no bills
Coast to coast,
Joe Shmoes flows ill, go chill
Not supposed to overdose,
No-dose pills
Off pride tikes
now talk wide though scar meat
Off sides like
how Worf rides with Starfleet
It’s dope if you don’t think about it too hard. And that’s the beauty of Nutmeg flow. Let’s not ruin it.