I'm Def

Trivia/Info

• Flansburgh: "This song was probably written the second I heard the term 'I'm Def.' In 1984, the rap lingo in my community was coming fast and furious and 'I'm Def' seemed like one of the more fucked up new kinds of slang. The song, though, has no relationship to rap music. [...] Even though the title is drawn from this popular culture reference, it's relationship to it is completely tangential, which is the core of what makes They Might Be Giants a hard band to explain." (ICE Newsletter, 1996)
• "I'm Def features yet another unsolicited phone message, this one from a froggy voiced songwriter who is probably somebody famous by now." — Then liner notes
• The version on 1985 Promotional Demo Tape #4 labelled as "I'm Deaf" appears to be a rougher, unmixed version of the recording released on the 1985 Demo Tape. Apart from the absence of reverb and stereo panning, the mix is mostly identical except for the last 20 seconds of the song, where the drum machine level is lowered as it continues to the end of the song. After the solicitor's samples conclude, the drums then return to full volume and continue with the pattern for an additional 4 seconds beyond the 1985 Demo Tape version before being abruptly cut off.
• The ending to this song has been edited out in rereleases of the song since its appearance on The Statue Got Me High EP in 1992, reducing the song's runtime to 1:08.
• On Dial-A-Song, this song was often played back to back with "Become A Robot".

Song Themes

Altered Voice, Music, Occupations, Songs With Samples, Telecommunication

Videos