It’s about crawling through the ship wreckage and still trying, I guess like a junkie will try and get some semblance of justification and routine, I’m always obsessed with how, in whatever situation I’m in, trying to invent that one bit of stability to keep it all together.

• Nicky Wire, in interview with The Quietus

Nicky Wire told Quietus that this song was written over text while he was caring for his sick daughters.

I was under a mountain of shit. My Dad was in hospital, and my wife was in hospital, the kids had norovirus and I was just mopping up sick and shit, amazingly I didn’t get ill but everyone else was so poorly. I’ve never been through so many Flash wipes and so much Domestos in my entire life. I was walking round in rubber gloves. It was proper Howard Hughes, I had face masks on and everything, but there you go.

It’s easy to relate the experience of quarantine and religious disinfectant to the claustrophobic world of seals and tape in this verse.

In 1991, following an argument with journalist Steve Lamacq, Manics songwriter Richey Edwards carved “4 Real” into his arm in response to Lamacq questioning the Manics' authenticity.

The event gained huge notoriety and is a very significant part of the MSP mythos. Everything the band have done since Richey disappeared has been widely viewed through the lens of his probable suicide after the release of The Holy Bible. The rest of the band are defined in the public by things that Richey did decades ago, their own identities and accomplishments overshadowed by the story of the “troubled genius”.

Moreover, Richey’s particular act of self-harm was motivated by a desire from the press and public for rock stars to be both authentic and to live up to a narrow, shallow vision of what authenticity actually is. This is an impossible standard, and trying to live up to it must be draining.

Alpha-Q-Up was routinely awarded “best username”.

His main contribution to the site was as a community builder, rather than an annotator. Along with illustriousQ, he founded and led the most powerful Qrew in Genius history, goatchat Qrules. This movement encouraged people to insert the letter Q into their name and grow the squad’s power by recruiting members and helping them gain new ranks (mostly editor).

He was demodded by BasedGator on 24/9/16 due to inactivity.

Malcolm Flex was one of the four horsemen of the textpocalypse. He was a true renaissance man. As well as the obligatory deep knowledge of hip-hop (particularly 90s East Coast and contemporary Midwest), Flex was a strong annotator of literature, current events, philosophy, and screen, with his annotations on Mr Robot being one of the most detailed efforts in screen annotation outside of Heisenferg, Tomi, and Alekezam.

The area where Flex really excelled was in history and politics. As his name implied, Flex was very interested in the Civil Rights movement, but also in Noam Chomsky, critiques of neoconservativism, and world events. For many, Flex was an inspiration who encouraged them to learn more about Civil Rights – it wasn’t uncommon for forum discussions to just end with him getting tagged so that he could clarify something.

Flex twice interned at Genius HQ in NYC, once in Williamsburg and once in Gowanus. He was in many ways the epitome of the “annotate the world” philosophy.

HailTheKing was a somewhat eccentric user. He mostly annotated TI lyrics and religious texts, as well as literature. However, it is probably for his political views that he is best remembered.

As his username suggests, HailTheKing believed entirely sincerely in the divine right of kings. He was aware that this was a fringe belief, but it stemmed from some very intense fundamentalist religious views. He would also gain notoriety for arguing against evolution and in favour of homophobia.

I think he survived the first great purge under Tomi before finally being demodded under ScopeY. He was later de-editored, I think by Empath.