The Enigma and Genius of MF DOOM
Looking at the monumental underground success of MF DOOM.
“How DOOM hold heat then preach non-violence? Shhh, he about to start the speech, c'mon, silence”
And many other gems like this can be found on Madvillany – but I’m not here to tell you how great that album is, in fact, what if I told you it’s only a fraction of what makes MF DOOM so genius.
Born in London on January 9, 1971, as Daniel Dumile his family quickly emigrated to New York where he grew up. In Dumile’s early career before donning the metal mask, he was known as ‘Zev Love X’ and was in a rap trio with his brother DJ Subroc called KMD.
While never topping the charts, KMD was respected in the rap community. Tragedy struck when Dumile’s brother Subroc was killed in a car accident at just 19 in April of 1993.
Following Subroc’s passing KMD was dropped from their label and Dumile soon found himself homeless for many years resenting corporate hip hop. In the year 1997, Dumile resurfaced under the new moniker and persona MF DOOM, based on the Marvel supervillain Dr Doom and inspired by rappers Ghostface Killah and Kool Keith.
DOOM’s debut album ‘Operation: Doomsday’ was released in the fall of 1999 and was met with critical acclaim. The comic book aesthetic, jazz loops, soul samples and abstract style were well received by underground audiences. DOOM successfully carved out his own niche in rap music with his unorthodox universe.
In DOOMs own fictitious universe, there are also the characters King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn taking centre stage on their own albums. King Geedorah/Ghidra acts as the overlord of the doomiverse and is front and centre on 2002s ‘Take Me To Your Leader’.
Viktor Vaughn is a street thug, scientist and rapper from another dimension. Vik travels to our dimension as rap is outlawed in his. Vik is taken under the wing of DOOM before they start beefing. Pure comic book shenanigans right? Catch Vik on ‘Vaudville Villian’ and ‘Venomous Villian VV:2’.
In total DOOM has released over 6 solo studio albums and an overabundance of collaborations with other artists like Danger Mouse, Madlib and Czarface to name a few.
DOOMs influence and high regard in hip hop music cannot be ignored and has inspired the likes of Odd Future, Joey Bada$$ and even Drake. DOOMs is shrouded in mystery, he is rarely seen without his iconic metal mask.
DOOM has been known to use stand-ins at live shows as well as many of his featured guests including Pebbles the Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastik and Hassan Chop have very little/no information or other music known about them all adding the mystery and enigma that is… DOOM.
Stream MF DOOM on Spotify and Apple Music here.
