Songfacts®:

• "MX" is about toxic hangers-on who floated around the early Deftones scene like wasps and barflies.
  
  "The whole thing has to do with greed," Moreno told Dutch press in Melkweg, Amsterdam, during an October 13, 1997 interview. "The way women, the way I kind of perceive women that surround me, at least, has always been like take, take, take, and you can only give so much, and then it's like, 'what do I get?'"
  
  His frustration gets pretty extreme as he imagines shoving her over a railing, but Moreno is known as a sensitive, compassionate soul, and it's safe to guess that he was just being hyperbolic for poetic effect.
• As Moreno sings, Annalynn Cunningham, wife of drummer Abe Cunningham, occasionally talks to him so that the song becomes a conversation between the two. She was initially hesitant to be on "MX" but quickly fell into the sinister role and had fun with it.
• Pretty much from the moment the song was released, rumors have circulated that the title "MX" is an abbreviation of a woman's name. But Deftones has addressed this directly and explained that it's actually referring to Max Cavalera, singer of Brazilian-American metal band Soulfly. Moreno thought the riff for "MX" sounded like something Soulfly would do, so they called the song "Max" until entering the studio where guitarist Stephen Carpenter removed the "a" from the name and left only MX. Cavalera plays guitar and sings on "Headup," another track from Around the Fur.
• With Around the Fur, their second studio album, Deftones started consciously moving away from autobiographical lyrics in favor of crafting fictional stories. "MX" appears to be something in between those extremes, as it's lifted from Moreno's general experiences but isn't referencing any specific, real-life person.
• Moreno didn't like the original version of "MX," so he wrote a new version while recording vocals in the control room. "New melodies, new whole idea," he said. "It was just something that I was feeling at the moment." The final, transformed version of "MX" became one of his favorite songs.
• Moreno recorded the song drunk and in darkness, as he did for most of Around the Fur. Previously he'd recorded songs while playing live with the crew in the studio. Around the Fur was the first time that he recorded in his own booth. He found the experience inspiring and fun and enjoyed indulging.
• Hidden tracks were a big thing on CDs back in the 1990s. Two of them follow "MX" on the Around the Fur CD. For those not blessed enough to have listened to pre-streaming music, this means that after "MX" ran its 4:52 length, the CD kept playing to 37:18. Those curious or lucky enough to keep listening would find a couple secrets that Deftones buried there for them.
  
  The first hidden track runs from 19:32 to 19:55 and is known as "Bong Hit." It's not a song but the answering-machine message that the band used at their Seattle apartment (Deftones recorded Around the Fur at Studio Litho, owned by Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam). It opens with the burbling of a bong and then some garbled words from Carpenter, who ends with, "Call back later!"
  
  The second hidden track is "Damone." It's a proper song and runs from 32:36 to 37:19.
  
  The hidden tracks were only included on the CD release of Around the Fur, not the vinyl. Both hidden-track and single-track versions can now be found on streams today.