Their name refers to Mary Mallon or "Typhoid Mary", the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the United States, who infected 53 people with the disease as she continued to work as a cook while denying she had it.
In April 2011 a teaser was released on Rhymesayers Entertainment's Youtube channel entitled 'Are You Gonna Eat That?". The video had no further description and was in actuality a teaser for Hail Mary Mallon featuring the 3 members seated around a table. While Rob Sonic is stirring some noodles, Aesop exclaims "Are You Going To Eat That?", after which the 3 artists names are mentioned and the name of the group itself.
Plagues and Bacon
Hail Mary Mallon Lyrics
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It was written by the forks and knives of Mary Mallon
Fever in the stew, sorta buried in rabbits and boiled cabbage
Had a little lamb - it was average
Could'a been a Magdellan, Mary had a craft
It would ask her to master the oven of Manhattan's upper class
On a budget, lunched with the cemetery staff
Til her resume had slashed through the stomachs of the public
Everything you touch caught the pest
Imagine for a second the unrest
When the fruit of your labor is like a poison to the
Very employers you are laboring to impress
Queen Mary Midas, if gold is a rose-colored virus
Alive in the vilest environments around
Ladle in the soup
Feed you the spices in which you are later cooked
Knives don't cut in the kitchen
But yes those cooks might die
Tied to the same folk who loved ya
And then use blood for the pie
Sick don't look like it used to
And hearts can't eat off your fork
This goes out to the tragic
Cause Hail Mary Mallon wants more
She placed the trays on the pots and plates
Keep the goose and the gander and the possums laid
Heart is good as gone with no option, weighed
Whatever Mary carried when the doctors came
Coats on masked up orderly
Hellish fever formed from the pork and beans
Death came to dinner with New York's elite
A cup a milk a stick of butter and some quarantine
Mallon's talents, a balance of beasts born
From the typhoid cellulo' tell you to keep warm
Death in a petticoat peddle her sweet corn
To the butcher in the bowery and a felony feeds four
What cop? Want to tell you to keep clear
Manages sandwiches well and it breeds fear
On the bar near the bucket of cheap beers
It's your money or your life if you continue to eat here!
Mary don't fuck with the cake today.
Please don't fuck with the cake today!
[x4]
(Ay)
Not a pot luck
Got a unlucky pot where the ham hock wash up
Cram that slop down
Fifty cots in a sickly room
Each a pristine notch in her mixing spoon
Mary ain't a monster, a marvel of medicine
Innocently hid a bit headache in the venison. America
Might get bedside critical
Sweating in her X-eye, death by dinner bell
Indignance and diligence loudly, how she
Worked for the lawyers employing her proudly
Made 'em the medicine they stayed at home drowning
The fix is the Jones and Tyrone is the county
We know you mean well Mary, patience
There ain't enough will in the world that can save 'em
Good made of wood whittled down to the aphids
The danger is dead and buried at St. Raymond’s
The lyrics of "Plagues and Bacon" by Hail Mary Mallon are a tribute to Mary Mallon, a cook during the early 1900s who became infamous as "Typhoid Mary" due to her unwitting role in spreading the disease. The first verse describes Mallon's cooking style, which included using infected utensils and storing food improperly. She was also known for carrying the typhoid bacteria herself but remaining unaffected by the disease. The lyrics go on to explore the consequences of her actions, with lines like "Knives don't cut in the kitchen / But yes those cooks might die" and "Everything you touch caught the pest."
The second verse delves deeper into Mallon's story, with lines like "Death came to dinner with New York's elite / A cup a milk a stick of butter and some quarantine." It also describes how Mallon's profession put her in contact with many people who then fell ill, leading to her eventual quarantine. Despite the dark subject matter, the lyrics maintain a sense of dark humor, particularly in the repeated refrain of "Mary don't f*ck with the cake today."
Overall, "Plagues and Bacon" is a clever and biting retelling of a historical figure's story, using skilled wordplay and vivid imagery to create a compelling narrative.
Contributed by Ella B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.