“The Fever (Aye Aye)” is a song by the experimental hip hop trio, Death
Grips, featured on their critically acclaimed sophomore release, the Money Store. Most of the lyrics from other songs on
the album depict the various contributing factors to a protagonist’s ever-worsening
paranoia, such as urban gun violence and police brutality. This particular song
explores a substance abuse problem and the effect it is having on the protagonist’s
life and mindset. Rapper, MC Ride goes on to explain how these substances,
namely cocaine and marijuana, hinder the protagonist’s ability to enjoy the
success and respect that he commands within his community. The lyrics on “the
Fever (Aye Aye)” are pivotal to the
development of the aforementioned character, as they demonstrate how troubling
vices are having a detrimental effect on the character and his psyche.
The first verse features what appear
to be fragments of dialogue between the protagonist and another unnamed character,
in which they discuss the potency of a type of marijuana, a deviated septum
that the protagonist received while using cocaine, and the increasingly demanding
quality of the protagonist’s habit. When the protagonist reveals that he has a
constant desire to use illicit substances, the unnamed character tells him he’s
on the road to suicide. The protagonist belligerently replies, “fuck you,” and
goes on to brag about his dangerous reputation, leading into the song’s hook.
The hook is the only point in the
track where the protagonist is candid about his thoughts on his substance abuse.
His first line, “I got the diamonds, scrapin', sidin',” is a brief description
of the trouble he’s gone through to become as successful as he is, and his
second line, “wastin' my life in altered states dem,” is an admission to the
detriment that substance abuse is having on his experience with that success. This
is the first point at which he acknowledges the negative aspects of his substance
abuse. In the last section of the hook he repeatedly chants “I got the fever!”
This powerful line is the protagonist finally admitting, albeit to himself,
that he is struggling with drug addiction.
Throughout the next verse, the protagonist
goes into great depth about the violent nature of his reputation and how it has
adapted with his drug use. As if to brag, he describes the enthusiasm with
which he meets such morbid tasks as torture. He recalls one particular case
where he was torturing a victim while under the influence of drugs, and had a
moment of mental disparity. When his faculties returned, he became particularly
ferocious and apathetic to his victim’s suffering, proceeding to water board
him. This verse leads back into the hook and then to a surreal third verse.
At the beginning of the verse, he
experiences temporary blindness and a sensation of “ankles tied to cinder-blocks.” These symptoms may indicate dehydration or even drug overdose. The
protagonist himself is subsequently kidnapped and cruelly tortured by something
reminiscent of a cult. In the next mini-verse, he is miraculously unharmed, but
he feels a sense of malaise as he comes down from his amphetamines. He’s become
intensely paranoid and “pulls the chord” on someone who “wasn’t there before.”
The song ends with the hook.
The argument in “the Fever (Aye Aye)”
is between the protagonist and his public persona. He recognizes that drugs are
taking a severe toll on his physical and mental health, but feels he needs them
to maintain the bravado and heartlessness that his community has come to fear
and respect. This argument serves not only to humanize the protagonist, but to satirize
drug use.
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