Deepest Bluest (Shark's Fin) - Analytical Essay page 2

Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Killers sworn to beast
Swallowed them in flames

A somewhat confusing stanza to be sure as Shark LL opens the second verse with a distortion of the Lord’s Prayer. While he may only be referencing the fires that consumed the deep sea research lab in Deep Blue Sea, we can find another level within the lines. By opening with a prayer and LL’s following mention to “killers sworn to beast swallowed them in flames” alludes to how one who is overcome by their beastly nature and becomes a killer (either through one’s own actions or perhaps through the scientific meddling that has created a shark/human hybrid) will be consumed in the eternal flames of Hell.

They switched my DNA
Flip me to Cool J

This telling passage reveals exactly how LL has become the murderous sharkman of the song. Was it a radiation accident? A prank by the Faerie Queen? No, it was his very DNA which has been changed. The “they” here is never fully explored, so the listener is left to wonder exactly whom has chosen to experiment on LL Cool J. Even more telling is the “Cool J” reference. As I have been referring to him as LL throughout, this line hints that “Cool J” may be a more fitting name and perhaps the name he has chosen for his new persona.

I can't fight the feeling
I'm born to kill prey

Again he insists that the situation is beyond his control, though one could conclude from the following verses that this is in fact Shark LL’s preference. In stating “I’m born to kill prey” we can infer that either being flipped to “Cool J” has been like a rebirth for him or that perhaps he is beginning to lose memories of once being human.

To survive an attack
There's only one way
Battle to the death
That's how sharks play

Shark LL gives you the key to victory here, you have to fight. There’s no reasoning with him. He’s a killing machine now and though it seems hopeless that you could win you have to try.

Weapons left behind
We dueling with the mind

He’s a cunning hunter, suggesting you leave your weapons behind. In fact, Shark LL now has razor sharp teeth that “don’t fall” he may not be able to hold a glock now that his hands have most assuredly been replaced by fins but he’s brought a deadly weapon nevertheless. Dueling with the mind indeed, trying to trick the listener into an even more vulnerable position. You should probably bring a harpoon.

You blind, crippled and crazy
You're real easy to find

The fantasy continues as Shark LL hunts you down. I’m not sure why a lean mean killing machine is choosing to attack victims that are blind, crippled and crazy. One can only infer that Shark LL is still unsure of his new skills and is choosing easy marks for practice.

Struggling to flow with hemorrhages in your throat
Getting the lap dance while I smash through your boat

Shark LL is doing some serious player hating here. By interrupting your lap dance and making it more difficult for you to compete with him in a rap battle by severing your jugular he is making this deadly game very personal. In a way he is showing off his more playful side, making a duel to the death more akin to a slick duel between two players.

Eat your whole fam
Nothing left but a right hand
Clinging to a rail
Escape, attempts fail

Were this song a folk tale the moral of the tale would be, of course, “Shark hybrid LL Cool J will eat you and everyone you love, seriously, also, my hat is like a shark’s fin.” In this quite untraditional folk tale Shark LL portrays both the hero and the villain he’s “closing in cause he’s supposed to win”.

You'll never make it home
Tear the flesh off your bone

Following the concept of rap as folk tale these lines are reminiscent of the tale of Hansel & Gretel where the listeners take the role of both Hansel and Gretel and LL Cool J takes the role of the terrifying witch who lives in not in an enchanted home of gingerbread but rather in a high tech deep sea research lab. Instead of Gretel baking the witch to death in her own oven at the end of the tale the rap version of the witch would be a shark-man hybrid that ate Hansel while Gretel was giving him a lap dance and then the witch would eat Gretel and probably Samuel L. Jackson.

Walking in undercurrents is a dangerous zone
I'm talking death out a moment's notice
You wasn't focused

While it’s always advisable not to walk in the undercurrents for safety’s sake, it’s even more deadly now that LL Cool J is half shark. He warns you again to be on guard. Then in a puzzling choice he changes the tense and refers to the listener in the past tense after only moments before using the present tense, has he already struck? Are you already dead and he’s mocking whatever is left of your corpse (presumably a right hand)? Such questions beg the listener to follow Shark LL further on this shocking journey.

Me and my crew strike
Like some underwater locusts

Again we wonder who his crew is exactly. Whether they are the same sharks from the film Deep Blue Sea or perhaps LL’s posse has also been flipped to a shark hybrid posse. A locust on it’s own is far from deadly, unlike the shark. However when locusts swarm they are among the most destructive forces in nature. One can only imagine how any town would fare against of swarm of man-shark rappers two thousand strong. LL Cool J then returns to his main thematic element by repeating “Deepest Bluest, my hat is like a shark’s fin” eight more times.