What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Jack is rather underground at the moment – not too much buzz about him. He’s a well-kept secret – like what your granddaddy did with that girl in 1941 when he was stationed in England…

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Jack destroys mics with his flow with the same efficiency of Bugs Bunny eating a carrot (like a wood chipper)

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Prince’s seminal 1984 album (and the eponymous track)

Combined with “bad yellow bitch,” Mike references the colours of the LA Lakers

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Hodgy’s the ruler of his own domain, despite her intrusions.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

When Tyler “spits” (raps) his song, “Seven”, you’ll need an umbrella to protect yourself, as it will be as spirited a performance as that he gave at Coachella 2011.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Tyler is quite anti-religion

Hocus Pocus is interesting terminology to use when deriding religion, since the term is believed to have developed as a way to mock the Catholic ritual of transubstantiation (the priest would utter “Hoc est corpus meum” – “this is my body”). It is unlikely Tyler knew of the term’s Reformation etymology, but it’s quite appropriate.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

The .357 Magnum is a revolver cartridge renowned for stopping power.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

The most famous couplet of the poem. Why are the two lines so memorable?

  • It is a bold, confident statement, declaring a strange, long, harsh-sounding, exotic name.
  • The first line, the only one which contains the king’s name, has an extra syllable, a departure from the regular iambic pentameter of the rest of the poem, to draw attention to his megalomania ,
  • The term ‘King of Kings’ has a rhythmic, Old Testament biblical resonance; the Pharaoh is setting himself up as a god. (Note also that, like many today, Shelley was an atheist, so the ‘King of Kings’ could be a way of him mocking religion.)
  • The archaic term ‘ye, mighty’ distances the reader; the space of centuries increases the mystique.
  • The final words of the couplet ‘… and despair’ are chilling and signify inhuman cruelty. If read aloud the two words sound slow, elongated and ominous, with a dropping pitched syllable at the end.

Most importantly, much of the poem’s power lies in the fact that you can read “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” in two ways:

  • The way Ozymandias intended it. As the inscription on the massive statue of a great pharaoh, it was supposed to inspire dread and awe. He believed other leaders of men (“ye mighty”) must despair at the results of his sublime power (his “works”).

  • Ironically. During his lifetime Ozymandias was a feared and respected leader. Now he is a faint memory, a broken statue in the desert. As a Romantic poet, Shelley emphasized the incredible power of nature and the frailty of mankind. Here he suggests that the mighty ought to despair at how utterly forgotten Ozymandias has become. The desert–nature incarnate–has swallowed the vain pride of a once great man, and the same fate awaits the powerful of today.

  • Furthermore, the name ‘Ozymandias’ is not the original name of this pharaoh (originally Rameses II) but this is significant as it shows how even his name has been stripped from his once powerful identity.

As David Mikics points out:

…the pharaoh’s “works” are nowhere to be seen, in this desert wasteland. The kings that he challenges with the evidence of his superiority are the rival rulers of the nations he has enslaved, perhaps the Israelites and Canaanites known from the biblical account. The son and successor of Ozymandias/Rameses II, known as Merneptah, boasts in a thirteenth-century BCE inscription…that “Israel is destroyed; its seed is gone”—an evidently overoptimistic assessment.

For Breaking Bad fans, the use of “Ozymandias” as the title of a famous 2013 episode was particularly apt.

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

OF member Lucas Vercetti, whose face graces one of four covers of The OF Tape Vol. 2

pickles = dicks

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.

Loading...

Speedy Gonzalez is a very fast, semi-racist Looney Tunes character (hence the use of the word “looney”).

Tyler sure did come up fast in the rap game – OF started blowing up in late 2010/early 2011 (with the release of the Earl and Yonkers videos).

This video is processing – it'll appear automatically when it's done.