MF DOOM

[Regular Chicken]

Any fans here?

I am almost obsessed with this MC, I simply cannot stop listening to his albums. For me he is easily the cleverest and funniest man in Hip Hop at the moment, and has been since the days of KMD.

I love how it sounds like he's rapping complete random bollocks but each time you listen, more and more of it makes sense. Each lyric is packed with double entendres, puns, offbeat jokes, obscure pop culture references and random slang from across the world. His best work is so dense, its so enjoyable unpacking and deciphering what he's actually rapping about.

IMO his best album to date is Vaudeville Villain, released under his alias Viktor Vaughn. This character must be the funniest alter ego invented in hip hop, a wannabe tough guy who is actually all talk. In Modern Day Mugging, he tries to mug an old lady who ends up shooting him. In Let Me Watch, he tries to woo Apani B but blows it by pressuring her into sex. Her last line in the track is "I'd rather masturbate than fuck with Vik Vaughn" The follow up Vik album, Venomous Villain is weak in comparison, though does contain a good collab with Kool Kieth (Doper Skiller)

As MF DOOM, Operation Doomsday is a modern hip hop classic, Mm..Food? has some hilarious concept tracks (Kookies is about internet porn using food metaphors) but is let down by an instrumental middle section.

Madvillainy, with producer Madlib is superb, gorgeous to listen to, with Doom rapping nice and low, buttery and chilled out. Madlib's production is unsurpassed.

DangerDoom' The Mouse and the Mask with Dangermouse is pretty simple fun, but with repeated listens, Doom's genius slowly reveals itself, plus theres a great collab with Ghostface (The Mask)

His production can be great aswell, see his Special Herbs Volumes, plus Take me to Your Leader featuring Doom's production and an assortment of relatively unknown MC's.


Not his best work but heres 2 vids

Viktor Vaughn - Mr Clean

[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=WyiB-lkQBFY[/youtube]

Madvillain - All Caps
[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ewc1hixzYPY[/youtube]

[Funcrusher]

Yeah, I like Doom, although I felt a bit Doomed out by the time DangerDoom arrived, which I didn't really think was all that. But Operation Doomsday and Madvillainy are class. Isn't he supposed to have a whole album with Ghostface coming out some time? I'm a bit Ghostfaced out as well, to tell the truth. They've both got styles that can get tiring in large doses, and have put out a lot of releases. Doom's quality control has at least been better than Kool Keith's, the MC he probably most resembles.

[Regular Chicken]

Doom put out a lot of stuff over a short period of time but its been a while now, and I'm achin for some new stuff. He has the Ghostface collab in the pipeline, also Madvill 2, John Robinson Project and a mooted KMD reunion.

As for Kool Keith, I don't think he's nearly as talented as Doom. Just as surreal yes but nowhere near as clever or consistent. Keith seems pretty fixated on piss aswell, which kindof creeps me out.

[The Argus]

I absolutely adore Doom as well, he is without doubt my favourite MC.  It's just such a joy to discover new meanings to his lyrics even after the 20th time of listening to a song.  I also think Vaudeville Villain is his best album, a real back-to-back modern hiphop classic.

I am glad that he's held back on the releases recently, as much as I love him, even he isn't immune to oversaturating his audience.

[Egyptian Feast]

Good to see a thread about MF Doom. I only got into him quite recently, so all I've heard is MM..Food and a few other tracks here and there (Hot Guacamole, with Paul Barman, is a wonderful tune to start your day with; it even brightens up a 7AM bus ride to work in the pissing rain), but it's good to get a few pointers for where to go next. I love MM..Food, even the instrumental section in the middle (you gotta love that backwoods dietician!); I agree that it takes many listens to figure a lot of his lyrics out, there's so many ideas packed in there they just fly past you on the first few listens. The music is always fantastic too. How many other rappers would sample Frank Zappa's 200 Motels? I'd love to hear that track he did with Kool Keith, that sounds like a brain-scrambling proposition. I'd definitely say MM..Food is the most fascinating hip-hop album I've heard since the first Dr Octagon album.

Think I might pick up that Vaudeville Villain album. Thanks for the tips!

[Regular Chicken]

Great example of Doom's exceptional use of imaginative metaphor.

MF DOOM - My Favourite Ladies (Madlib Remix)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7vqyc1

Only Doom could rap about the different ladies he's banging but actually be talking about all the drugs he's on. Fucking Great.

[Goldentony]

DOOM's my favourite MC and Producer of all time, fucking Operation Doomsday is the finest record i own with the Madvillain LP a close second.

I haven't looked forward to an album as much as the new Ghostface collaboration LP in a long fucking time, i'm glad they're taking their time on it because they've got a potential classic on their hands.

[Cack Hen]

Is there going to be a new Madvillain album? I absolutely fucking love Madvillainy, it'd be a shame if there wasn't more of that. I heard they were working on one but that was ages ago.

[chand]

New Madvillain is supposed to be coming this year...there was a track from it called 'Monkey Suite' on the Stones Throw 'Chrome Children' compilation from the latter half of last year.

I love Doom massively, it started with the King Geedorah record that I got on the strength of a review when it came out and I never looked back since. I've been getting my hands on loads of his stuff, from that 'Live From Planet X' live album or whatever it's called, to KMD, to the Monster Island Czars record. The gaping hole in my collection is 'Operation Doomsday'; I keep meaning to download it but there's always rumours of it getting a CD re-release so I end up holding back. The original issue is going for silly money it seems.

He was mad prolific when I first got into him, last year I realised he'd done so many guest spots I made a CD-R compilation of like 13 tracks I had that he'd cameo-d on. And that was without even going out of my way to pick up albums he featured on, they were all on records I already had like Fog, Dabrye, De La Soul, Gorillaz, Wale Oyejide, The Herbaliser etc etc.

He's really got all the ingredients of a cult hero, definitely one of my favourite artists. His backstory is fascinating, from his days in KMD to his brother's death to 'Black Bastards' getting held back because of label unease over the artwork to his disappearance and eventual re-emergence as a masked enigma with multiple alter-egos (I love that about 'Fancy Clown' on the Madvillain record, where he appears as Viktor Vaughn dissing his metal face incarnation). I admire his dedication to wearing that fucking mask at all times when he's on camera, there's a MuchMusic interview on the Stones Throw DVD where they're interviewing Madlib as he digs in the crates in some indie record store and Doom is there looking incongruous as fuck with that mask on.

[hundred]

I like Operation Doomsday and loved KMD, but everything else of his bores me to tears. I bought Vaudeville Villain after it got positive reviews, hoping that it would change my mind, as I really want to like him, but I thought it was an unlistenable mess. I like some of his beats, they sound different to most things around today, but too much of them can be grating. Over the last few years he's been spreading himself a little thin too, he's had about five albums out in the past few years.

He also seems to embody something of a staid opinion that is dispalyed in a lot of hip hop 'fans' today, in that they forgot that hip hop is more than anything about dynamic sonics, style, bravado etc etc. I get annoyed when I talk with hip hop 'fans' who insist that 'real' hip hop is about someone rapping a thesaurus over a dustily sampled obscure jazz loop, but this is NOT in the spirit of hip hop as it was (young people getting together, creating a party atmosphere, talking about their experiences etc). Public Enemy NWA and countless others have all made music about themselves, while also making music that can play in a club (the whole point of the music in the first place), nowadays, this kind of music (basically anything coming out of the south of America) is dismissed out of hand. If I were asked to give an example of a modern classic hip hop LP, I'd give someone a copy of David Banner's 'Mississippi: The Album' before I gave them any Doom or one of his peers.

I'm not saying that Doom or anyone else shouldn't be making this kind of music, but the snobbery of people into hip hop making it out to be an intellectual matter bothers me quite a lot, and most of the time (in my experience) they have no idea what the history or the ethos of the music is about.

EDIT: On reading again, this sounds a little rant-y. Apologies if it does, I'm not attacking anyone's tastes here.

[Goldentony]

The gaping hole in my collection is 'Operation Doomsday'; I keep meaning to download it but there's always rumours of it getting a CD re-release so I end up holding back. The original issue is going for silly money it seems.

You can get it easy enough on 12". I got the CD version a long time ago in HMV of all places after reading the smallest article in the world on him in some music rag which managed to make KMD and DOOM himself sound like the most insane musicians of all time in about 20 words. I was an even younger impressionable idiot at the time so the fact that he wore a mask and the whole supervillain thing was what got me to buy it in the first place.

That's what i fucking love about the Operation Doomsday LP and DOOM hismelf - the whole mythology and untold shit about that period between KMD splitting up and Operation Doomsday coming out - he just went missing off the face of the earth collecting enough money to buy the worlds shtitest sampler and equipment to make a record that happened over an enormous 6 year period with only his old jazz/soul collection to rap over. He's missing for years then suddenly just strikes back under the mask and has this LP with him. No fancy electro beats or fast rapping or any showy bullshit, just the most demo like quality record on the planet that blows everything away at the time (for me anyway).

[chand]

Yeah I've seen the 12 knocking around, notably in Fat City recently, but it's moot since I criminally don't have a record player, I really have no room.

Before I knew who he was, I saw 'Operation Doomsday' in my favourite CD place, for £2. I kept looking at the cover thinking 'looks interesting', but never bothered with the purchase. Proved to be a fucking dumb move.

[Regular Chicken]

hundred - in my experience, DOOM fans are pretty open minded and love Public Enemy et al, and more club-oriented hip hop. Its mainly fans of the Anticon stuff who can be intellectual snobs.

Despite the layers and cleverness of DOOM's lyrics, theres nothing high minded about it - he raps about sex with underage girls, mugging old women, taking drugs, internet porn, but its all part of his humorous persona.

Chand - yeah I love it when his alter egos invade each other's albums and diss each other, that type of imaginative self-deprecation is sorely lacking in most modern hip hop.

[chand]

hundred - in my experience, DOOM fans are pretty open minded and love Public Enemy et al, and more club-oriented hip hop. Its mainly fans of the Anticon stuff who can be intellectual snobs.

Yeah, I love a lot of the Anticon stuff but it's not got a great deal to do with hip-hop. Which is fine, they're doing their own thing, it's just occasionally you get clowns who think they're something they're not. Sage Francis fans can be a bit pompous and indier-than-thou, although Sage himself is pro-'proper' hip-hop, I remember him defending it when Buck 65 went on a slightly pretentious rant about how hip-hop was shit in that Kerrang! interview.

I agree with hundred's part about Doom spreading himself a little thin on occasion recently...I liked MM..Food although it's structured in a stupid way with all those instrumentals in the middle, but the second Viktor Vaughn album was rather too slender; I remember reading on his wiki page that Doom only appears on 10 of the album's already-stingy 33 minutes, so it's one for completists really. Regardless though, I don't think the quality of his rhymes has dipped any so I'm upbeat about the second Madvillain effort.

[Regular Chicken]

"Back End" from Venomous Villain - "Dub it off your man don't spend that ten bucks, I did it for the advance, the back end sucks"

Says it all about that album really, and continues his tradition of hilariously dissing random beats he raps over, especially non album tracks:

"For your information I didn't do the beat y'all, it ain't my fault that she didn't move her feet at all" - All outta Ale (Blockhead)

[Funcrusher]

He also seems to embody something of a staid opinion that is dispalyed in a lot of hip hop 'fans' today, in that they forgot that hip hop is more than anything about dynamic sonics, style, bravado etc etc. I get annoyed when I talk with hip hop 'fans' who insist that 'real' hip hop is about someone rapping a thesaurus over a dustily sampled obscure jazz loop, but this is NOT in the spirit of hip hop as it was (young people getting together, creating a party atmosphere, talking about their experiences etc). Public Enemy NWA and countless others have all made music about themselves, while also making music that can play in a club (the whole point of the music in the first place), nowadays, this kind of music (basically anything coming out of the south of America) is dismissed out of hand. If I were asked to give an example of a modern classic hip hop LP, I'd give someone a copy of David Banner's 'Mississippi: The Album' before I gave them any Doom or one of his peers.

I'd maybe concede you on the David Banner album, although it's a bit samey. but basically I'm an old man who'd rather hear someone with something to say rhyming over a DJ Premier beat than some guy shouting learn forward, lean backward, get crunk, get tipsy ad nauseum. And proud of it. That said, I've never bothered with Anticon, Stones Throw, Aeasop Rock or Cage. I love  CompanyFlow/El-P and Cannibal Ox though, so I'll take those backpacker accusations on the chin

[Regular Chicken]

Madvill was a Stones Throw release wasn't it?

[Funcrusher]

That's true. I like the first Quasimoto album as well.

[The Argus]

That's true. I like the first Quasimoto album as well.

The Unseen is an absolute gem.  I know the whole "it's so much better high" thing is a cliche but this is one album where it really does apply.

[Goldentony]

Stones Throw have got a lot of good shit, those Gary Wilson records are marvellous, although not hip hop in the slightest.

[chand]

Yeah, I liked 'Mary had Brown Hair' by Gary Wilson, it's some off-the-wall shit. That was the first album he'd done in 30 years, Stones Throw seem to occasionally pimp obscure artists from back in the day like Stark Reality, and they put 'Third Rock' by Pure Essence on that compilation, which is a pretty neat old tune.

[Regular Chicken]

I love Stones Throw primarily because it is Madlib's home. Beat Konducta, Invades Blue Note, Quasimoto, Yesterday's New Quintet etc etc, the man is so prolific yet so amazingly, consistently brilliant.

New(ish) Ghostface / Doom track called Angels up on Doom's Myspace. The wordplay is unbelievable but there isn't much of a beat to it. I like it though.

[joeyzaza]

I've been a fan since he debuted on 3rd Bass' "Gas Face". He's one of only a few cats out there who are still keeping the whole "golden age of hip-hop" thing alive for aging b-boys like myself.

Here's one of my favourites (taken from the "Old School" single):

DangerDoom - Space Hos (Madlib Remix)

Always puts a smile on my face. How can you not love a track that's basically just a jealous moan about a cartoon character having his own chat show?

[Brian Coat]

Count Bass D is another artist Doom has worked with and I wouldnt tolerate a bad word against him .. any fans of the Count here? His finest moment : 'Dwight Spitz' -  a fantastic piece of work.

[chand]

Aye, I like him. I haven't got 'Dwight Spitz' though, I hear it's supposed to be great. All I've got is 'Begborrowsteel' and 'Act Your Waist Size'.

[Goldentony]

Only managed to hear 'Act Your Waist Size' by Count Bass D which was fucking great. Defenitely going to try and get hold of 'Dwight Spitz' soon.

Push Comes To Shove by Medaphor/M.E.D is another worth checking out.

[The Argus]

MF DOOM Pulls an Ashley Simpson

Sometimes wearing a mask can benefit an MC beyond merely helping develop a recognizable image. According to an army of pissed-off indie hip-hop bloggers and message board scribes, MF Doom pulled an advanced Ashlee Simpson move last night at a sold-out show at San Francisco's Independent venue. Apparently, a masked "Doom" took to the stage, and lip-synched  over a prerecorded mix. According to blogger Fucs Jones:

"The only thing that was actually live about the show was the hypeman's mic. Everything else ran straight off a recording, and fake Doom pretended to rap and walked up and down the stage doing rapper hands. He faked his way through a set of about 20 minutes, walked off the stage, and jetted out the back door."

It's one thing to jump on stage and fake it because you're too wasted or feeling exhausted, but it's another when there's an entirely different dude performing for a sold-out crowd. Evidently, there's another show tonight, so we recommend checking back for the scoop.

Anyone else heard about all this?  Apparently, a fake DOOM has been doing some of his live shows for him and lipsynching over his songs.  Then a couple of shows were cancelled due to 'illness'.  It's all very strange.  Unless he's just a firm believer in the any publicity is good publicity philosophy I can't see why he possibly would think he'd get away with it.

[t_kingpin]

Sorry to piss on everyones parrade but MC's are the bane of the music industry, the're fuckin god awfull. I've not listened to any links or clips but fuck me do they ruin the music..*boo* 

[The Argus]

I think you're in the wrong thread.  This one's just about MF DOOM.

[t_kingpin]

I think you're in the wrong thread.  This one's just about MF DOOM.

Sorry, if he is the exception to the rule then I appologise, but on the whole the're rely just not my cup of tea.