Is "Slanted and Enchanted" a phrase?

January 24, 2022 1:35 PM

In 1992, Pavement released their most excellent debut album "Slanted and Enchanted." In 1998, Baton Rouge rapper Young Bleed released the most excellent song "How You Do Dat," which uses the phrase "slanted and enchanted" at 00:42. Is there any explanation for this other than to assume that Young Bleed is a massive Pavement-head?
posted by kensington314 to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Best answer: The phase comes from a doodle that Dave Berman drew, so Young Bleed probably just has excellent taste in music.
posted by TurnKey at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: It's also possible it's just a phrase he saw/heard that sounded cool and stuck in his head. I mean, he probably hung out in record stores and Pavement was big, so he certainly could have seen it on a poster/display. Collecting interesting phrases is part of a rapper's job, and a good rapper is like an antenna, just picking those up everywhere.

But let's assume he's just cool.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:58 PM on January 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

Rappers like internal rhyme, layered meanings, intertextuality, and pop-culture references, so, uhhh, it's possible?

(His verse also makes references to The Godfather, Scarface, and Volume 10's 'Pistol Grip Pump' (later covered by Rage Against the Machine), for what it's worth.)

On the other hand, 'slanted' is a thing (warning, Urban Dictionary link), and, again, rappers like internal rhyme.

(Some people on r/pavement have asked the question.)
posted by box at 3:04 PM on January 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This is unlikely to be the first ever use even if I'm remembering right, but I'd swear that I've heard Little Richard sing a version of 'I Feel Pretty' including, in one of the obvious places: "I feel slanted / And enchanted".
posted by BCMagee at 5:20 PM on January 26, 2022