Split Personality (song)
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- This article is about the song by UTFO and the album by Cassidy. For the psychological disorder sometimes described as "split personality" see Dissociative identity disorder. For the computer game, see Split Personalities.
"Split Personality" is a song recorded by Brooklyn hip hop masters UTFO, appearing on their 1986 album Skeezer Pleezer. The song speaks of Kangol Kid's and Doctor Ice's hilarious (yet disturbing) experiences with the beast that is schizophrenia.
[edit] Themes
The overarching theme of the pean involves the difficult -- nay, tortured -- existence resulting from the eponymous condition, which, as UTFO's rappers exasperatedly explain, is "like having two people inside of one."
For example, Kangol Kid decries how he might unintentionally "turn into a cop, and arrest myself." Doctor Ice, also having trouble with resolving his multiple personalities, speaks of having a difficult time in his relationship with a young woman he is courting.
As usual for UTFO, the song runs towards halfhearted misogyny. For example, Doctor Ice's vignette regarding his split personality-affected relationship with his date includes slapping, but also sweet kisses, and ultimately ends with Doctor Ice paying the young lady five dollars "for all that mess."
[edit] Impact
The song is also known have some of Mix Master Ice's best scratching, cuts, and samplings; most notably, Doctor Ice's recording of the word "the," rapped in an homage to Cameo's Single Life within the actual song, is looped humorously at the very beginning of the track.
This song, with its focus on the mental disorders at the root of random violence, ultimately inspired the gangsta rap movement later in the 1980s.
