He spoke through splicing bits of dialogue from Fantastic Four records/cartoons, Wild Style, Blaxsploitation flicks, and the Toho-era Godzilla movies.ĭOOM aligned himself with the Monsta Island Czars, a collective of homies and like-minded artists. He threw in bits of jazz, Stax Soul, and ’60s rock into the mix. The beats, produced by DOOM himself, were a heady mix of Quiet Storm-era R&B, mixed with pounding hip-hop drums. He began to move away from the traditional 16-bar verse/chorus song structure. The lyrical content, approach, and musical backdrop were unique. Released in the final quarter of 1999, it’s both reverent of the past and weirdly futuristic.īut it wasn’t just DOOM’s delivery and the grittiness of the sound that made his album so appealing. Eventually the label released Operation: Doomsday, a twisted and unorthodox hip-hop origin story that plays as part comic book, part Saturday morning cartoon, part monster movie, part fever dream. It would be another few years before he began to sport the flashier Gladiator/Maximus-fashioned guise.Īll told, Fondle ’Em put out three separate DOOM 12”s from ’97 to ’98, each making DOOM more and more of an underground sensation. He took the piece of WWF merchandise, associated with the wrestler Kane, and spray-painted it silver. Furthermore, DOOM changed his rhyme flow from upbeat and peppy to a heavy, drunken slur.īack then, DOOM wore a store-bought mask. These 12”s contained dusty, unpolished tracks, with all of the lo-fi studio hiss and grime still dripping from it. Starting in 1997, DOOM began crafting his new material through Fondle ’Em Recordings, an ultra-indie imprint created by Bobbito Garcia, then one of the foremost champions of underground hip-hop. He proclaimed that he was “scarred” forever by his initial experiences in the music industry, and now was forced to cover his face to hide the damage. DOOM began to fashion his “character” in the mold of Victor Von Doom himself. There are stories of DOOM resurfacing on stage during the mid-’90s rocking a stocking mask, a la Ghostface Killah in ’92 and ‘93. Zev Love X didn’t emerge with his metal-faced visage overnight. Once known as the relatively carefree Zev Love X, a member of the group KMD, he retreated to the metaphorical shadows after music industry shenanigans and the death of his brother, Dingilizwe “Subroc” Dumile. Which makes Operation: Doomsday, released 20 years ago, his Fantastic Four #236 (1981), a memorable and perfectly crafted re-introduction. DOOM has earned his legendary status by executing one of the best and most unlikely reinventions for an emcee. And like many great supervillain origins, it’s one born out of tragedy. MF DOOM has become as familiar as the origin of the supervillain that inspired him. And in today's bland commercial Rap universe, Operation Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy.Happy 20th Anniversary to MF DOOM’s debut album Operation: Doomsday, originally released October 19, 1999.įittingly, the origin of Daniel Dumile a.k.a. Doom series, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. The comic-book themed skits, many of which include snippets of dialogue from Marvel's Dr. where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on Tick, Tick. On arguably the best track, Rhymes Like Dimes, Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.'ĭoomsday features female vocalist Pebbles the Invisible accompanying the masked rhyme avenger on his journey to denounce wack MCs, while on ? he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. This is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way, Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF Doom hides the cachet underground legends are made of. Limited Edition Alternative Sleeve Designīlack double-vinyl reissue with poster of MF Doom's first solo gem, Operation: Doomsday, remastered from the original 1999 version on the legendary fondle 'em label, so side A is listed as 'side zero', side B is 'side one', and so on.
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