Space Ho’s Decomposed
As corny as it might sound, this is probably the song that got me into hip hop. It’s not that it is a bad song, in fact, I still like it, but it is off a novelty album about Adult Swim (The Mouse and the Mask by Dangerdoom). How much nerdier can I get? In retrospect, it is a little puzzling why this would have been my favorite with other tracks like Old School and The Mask. Space Ho’s is chock full of references that I didn’t get (some I still don’t). On the other hand, it probably has the catchiest and most upbeat instrumental on an album full of catchy upbeat instrumentals. There are a few samples but most of them come from one song.
Rainmaker by Harry Nilsson (0:00)
Not much to explain here. It’s the drum track.
Morning Broadway by Keith Mansfield ((1) - 0:00, (2) - 0:37, (3) - 0:40, (4) - 0:32)
Morning Broadway is where all of the easily recognizable parts come from. (1) starts out with a guy singing “ooohoooohoooohoooooh” for one bar and then no melody in the next bar. This is a bit softer than the others and adds a lot to the song’s dynamics. (2) is a single DING that gets played before Dangermouse loops (3). The only way I can think of to type out the first bit (4) is DOO DEE. I think (4) ends like (3) but with triangle hits (or something that sounds like a triangle). It’s another that doesn’t get looped and is there to give the beat some variation.
The general structure of the song looks like this. There might be some mistakes, but it will give you the basic idea. He cuts what I am calling (3) short a few times for stylistic reasons.
(1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3), (2), (3)x2, (4), (3), (1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3)x3, (4), (1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3)x2, (4), (3)x7
