Even if you possess merely a passing knowledge of the art form known as hip-hop music, you’ve heard of MF DOOM. After an early start with KMD, the veteran MC began the brilliant second act of his career by deciding to rhyme from underneath an iron mask. The gold-standard word nerd combined supervillain kitsch with encyclopedic pop culture knowledge. Ever the mysterious artist, DOOM passed away a full two months before most of the world caught wind of his death.
Loose Hand—Indelible Mark
All the context in the world would mean little if Daniel Dumile weren’t one of the most gifted individuals to ever grace either side of the mixing board. As idiosyncratic a producer as he was a lyricist, DOOM made an indelible mark. He did so by taking samples so obscure they bordered on esoteric and looping them as loosely as possible. Producers like, say, Black Milk get praised for their timepiece-maker precision. Nobody could match DOOM when it came to sloppy-choppy.
"The gold-standard word nerd combined supervillain kitsch with encyclopedic pop culture knowledge."
Operation: Doomsay by MF DOOM (1999)
DOOM’s loose hand augments the humanity of his 1999 solo debut, Operation: Doomsday. Listen to the loungey, easy listening of “Rhymes Like Dimes.” Then put on almost-title track “Doomsday,” spooky, the Scooby-Doo sampling “Hey!”, or true-school elegance of “Go With the Flow.” Dumile played a sampler like Stephen Malkmus played guitar. These faraway, disparate musicians have nearly symbiotic approaches.
MM…FOOD by MF DOOM (2004)
“It’s the beat, he hears it in his sleep sometimes.”
In the spirit of Take Me to Your Leader, his 2003 release as King Geedorah, is MF DOOM’s excellent second (official) album. Titled MM...FOOD, all its song titles sit steeped somewhere in the kitchen. It features sample collage interludes with vocal samples taken from the margins and crevices of pop culture.
The former was an art he’d been trafficking in since he was one-half of KMD with his younger brother DJ Subroc. The 2004 LP contains some of DOOM’s most popular songs sharing space with weird sample sources. All the above still provide the basis of top-shelf, head-knocking beats.
Special Blends by MF DOOM (2004)
As a producer, DOOM released a staggering nine volumes of his Special Blends instrumental series. This eventually became a behemoth box set before the storage-convenient days of streaming. This odyssey exists as a living catalog for nearly every beat he made between the ’80s and the late-2000s.
Take Me to Your Leader by King Geedorah (2003)
As King Geedorah, DOOM’s drum programming is equally unlocked on 2003’s Take Me to Your Leader. But songs like “The Final Hour” and “No Snakes Alive” also flirt with fluctuating tempos to spectacular results. The former punches beneath a technicolor extraterrestrial sample with a subtle touch. The hodgepodge of ephemera making up the samples of the latter blast off to house music speeds before sputtering out and starting again.
"DOOM made an indelible mark. He did so by taking samples so obscure they bordered on esoteric and looping them as loosely as possible."
These range from the beat for “Beef Rapp” (listed here as “Vervain”) to an instantly recognizable Doobie Brothers loop. The most dizzying wordplay emerged from the caverns of DOOM’s headspace. His beats largely serve the musicality of rhyming sounds. However, they do so with much care in siphoning a dope rap beat from nearly any far-flung source.
Vaudeville Villain, Madvillainy, and More
Of course, DOOM’s career had myriad other alter egos and projects. Viktor Vaughn, the Monster Island Czars collective, and his legendary Madvillainy collaboration with Madlib are just a few. From the rhymes to the beats which back them, for the supervillain MF DOOM it’s all indicative of music coming from the soul.
