“jane…oh, what a nice name”

going back to 86, alarm radios must of been real pricey cos, for the first few bars of erick sermon’s verse on “jane”,he not only brags about having one, but borderline schools you on what an alarm clock radio IS.deep.this, for me, is the kinda random shit that i love epmd for.in the early days, they were not even very good rappers, on par with duece poppi, or some shit, but they had good chemistry as a duo, and of course the “jane” saga, a five-deep, not very well thought out, multi-song story about a girl that they fuck/like/dislike/like again/kill..on every epmd lp there was a jane song, and even redman makes mention about meeting her..

alarm clocks aside, they tell a strange story, as they both rap from ericks perspective at first, then take individual roles, then switch up again as erick takes jane to bed…

also, listen again, because for the love of god, it doesnt make any sense!, even to rap thinkers extrawdinare, like myself..

let us count the ways..

erick sets his fancy alarm clock radio, but makes no mention of having two females at his house, or the fact that he has pre arranged with pmd, the microphone doctor, to be his wingman, and take up the slack on this other girl, we assume the ugly/fat friend, who’s hair is the only thing of note about her.

so, from the jump i’m confused.it’s also so old school, nowadays the story would be about banging both of them in the ass, whilst smoking a blunt the size of amsterdam.but i digress.

next morning he (the e double) wakes to a note where jane kinda disses his lovemaking ability, the cow, by saying she wants him to be better, bigger, stronger and much faster(huh?)..although he has kinda admitted he was a shit lay already, with lines like “she showed pain but inside she felt joy” and telling us that he was” tired of busting her” by 3am, all classic denial behaviour, added to fact he mentions the alarm clock radio more than her in the first place(must put a girl off),so, overall, he’s not really selling the encounter to me..why would you write a song about being shit in bed?, i mean he already has a lisp!

THE QUESTIONS REMAIN:

what happened to p’s girl?why does erick wonder who is at his door, when he knows p is coming over..?jane appears to try and chat p up at first, so whats happing with the friend? sherlock holmes could not riddle me this.

musically, dope mary” jane” flips, nicely scratched up by dj k la boss, but why are they triggering what sounds like parrish saying “swamp thing”?,is it to distance erick from the j to the a to the n to the e?, or just for pure randomness?.that beat made it as far as a texas single at one point, i believe.

this song raises more questions than it answers, the main one being why didn’t they think it through a bit better?.iv’e listened to it five times in the course of writing this, and i will damned if i can work it out.

really.

pt 2 soon..i’m audi like kirk gaudi.