Not much was known about Daniel Dumile, the man behind the mask, outside of the rhymes and samples by MF DOOM or any of his other pseudonyms. As he said on MM…Food’s opening track “Beef Rap”: "He wears a mask just to cover the raw flesh - A rather ugly brother with flows that's gorgeous." Perhaps in his own mind he equated villainy with mystery - the notion that villains are men in dark castles that only emerge to conduct their dastardly deeds - and in that sense, he did live up to his persona.
Doom) his actual persona was one of perpetual mystery. While DOOM’s trademark persona was one of villainy (his name and masked nature were a reference to the Fantastic Four comic book villain Dr.
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For the past two decades, being a fan of DOOM meant admission to a sort of masonic society, code phrases and all. MF DOOM has frequently been referred to as “Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper,” a label that adds further interest to DOOM’s already purposefully murky legacy.
DOOM’s thoughtfulness has re-emerged in Kendrick, his gloriously sloppy flow in Earl Sweatshirt, his ability to cultivate a mythos in Tyler and his unorthodox production choices in Kanye. While history dictates that the current rap titans should be appropriating the hallmarks of mid-2000s mainstream hip-hop - Eminem’s speed and scare tactics, 50 Cent’s hooky excesses, or Lil Wayne’s insanity - they’re actually drawing more from DOOM’s playbook than any other. Rap found its Bob Dylan in Kendrick Lamar, its seemingly omnipresent Neil Diamond-like crossover king in Drake, its tortured Joker in Tyler, the Creator, its kaleidoscopic acid chemist in Travis Scott, and its brilliant troublemaker in Kanye West.Īs their songs climbed up the charts, DOOM’s musical paternity of hip-hop’s current generation became as obvious as a baby's on Maury. The 2010s were the decade when the fringes of hip-hop eventually became its center. While DOOM created several records that can be considered classics - MM…Food, Operation: Doomsday, and the oft-overlooked Danger Mouse collaboration The Mouse and The Mask being a few - Madvillainy continues to stand alone, a monolith to the pinnacle of hip-hop’s potential and artistic achievement, one that continues to ignite a love and deeper understanding for hip-hop in all those who reach out and touch it. The artistic chemistry between MF DOOM and Madlib was the kind of musical telepathy that has only occurred a handful of times in music history: John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, EL-P and Killer Mike, and hardly any others. “All u ever needed in hip-hop was this record,” Flying Lotus tweeted after learning the news of DOOM’s passing, referring to Madvillainy. Madvillainy is rap’s Giant Steps or Blonde on Blonde, the moment when DOOM sharpened his voice into a weapon of subcutaneous destruction - a ghostly drone that felt disconnected from any face or identity other than the embodiment of villainy.ĭespite the wide-ranging and fairly sizeable nature of DOOM’s discography, it’s impossible not to continuously return to Madvillainy in awe of its perfection.
With the release of 2004’s Madvillainy, DOOM’s landmark collaboration with producer/rapper Madlib, he truly reached an entirely new level of artistry. Though hip-hop had unquestionably become a force to be reckoned with, some still had their doubts that the genre could hold up artistically against its soul, rock and R&B ancestors. One of those words is “underground.” While it’s true that DOOM never had that mainstream smash hit that got him radio plays in between umpteenth spins of the likes of Post Malone, DOOM may have actually had more influence on hip-hop in the 2010s than any other rapper not named Quavo, Offset or Takeoff.ĭOOM’s free-associative lyricism, sloppy flow and esoteric production choices made a seismic impact on the underground in the mid-2000s. 31.Ĭountless tributes and words have since flooded the web, trying to do justice to the artist’s legacy. 31, the world learned that hip-hop’s self-proclaimed “supervillain,” rapper MF DOOM, had died at the age of 49 two months earlier, on Oct.
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