On December 31, the last day of the infamous and pandemic year of 2020, the death of the legendary rapper and producer MF DOOM was revealed. But according to a message shared by his wife Jasmine on the artist's social networks, he did not die on the day the news broke to the world, but in fact on October 31.
The death of Daniel Dumile, the man behind the metal mask, at 49, has yet to have its cause reported, which makes the rapper's final moments as mysterious as his own journey into the world of rap.
MF DOOM is a unique figure in Hip-Hop. Known both for his artistic genius and for his enigmatic and intriguing personality, the prolific, chaotic and illusory London MC living in New York, Daniel Dumile was already an artist way before SBTRKT thought about flapping his wings and Daft Punk considered wearing robot helmets. Behind the privacy assured by his symbolic metal mask, he meticulously created a unique world, becoming a phenomenon and attracting a huge cult of fans. It is a world infested with villains, monsters, science fiction, metaphysics and references taken from comic books. An authentic gallery of strange characters built through multiple personalities with an inseparable aesthetics and, of surely, with meticulously constructed musical bodies, mixed with dancing sound collages that are not so obvious ... using as artifices, for example, word games, TV ad vignettes , obscure Jazz and Soul Music films and classics, and an unparalleled lyrical skill and flow, palatable for using references from pop culture but of a complexity in rhymes and metrics never seen in Hip-Hop culture. Rare have been the cases where a visually intriguing persona finds a parallel with an artistically intriguing mind. MF DOOM achieved what very few people have accomplished to date.
Next we will tell a little about the history and trajectory and the main highlights of each chapter of the career of one of the most brilliant, complex and influential artists in the history of Hip-Hop.
K.M.D. AND ZEV LOVE X
While growing up in Long Island, Daniel Dumile divided his time between music, comics, graffiti and video games. The music gradually took over thanks to his younger brother Dingilizwe also known as DJ Subroc. Thus, Rap and music production became more than a hobby. In 1988 the brothers along with MC’s Onyx The Birthstone Kid and Rodan created the group Kausing Much Damage, better known as K.M.D.
K.M.D.'s debut album Mr.Hood was launched in 1991, after the scout with passages for Def Jam and Tommy Boy Records - Dante Ross, discover the group listening to their participation in “The Gas Face”, of the New York group 3rd Bass. At the time, K.M.D. identified himself as a member of the Jund Ansar Allah community (an Islamist armed organization), the LP was very focused on the American black racial issue, addressing religion, pan-Africanism and racism, but compensating for the heavy air with samplers taken from the children's program Vila Sésamo . Despite that, it was lighter tracks like “Peachfuzz” that guaranteed some success for the group.
However, with the release of the Black Bastards album in 1993, the group radically changed the tone of their songs, going far from the good mood present in the debut album. The disc was quickly shelved and kept away by Elektra Records, which found the title and cover too controversial. The group was terminated from the label shortly thereafter. Black Bastards was thoroughly pirated and gave to K.M.D. a sort of cult status, and ultimately it had an official launch in 2000.
Still in 1993, a tragedy would forever mark the life of Daniel Dumile: his brother and group partner DJ Subroc tried to cross the Long Island Expressway on foot and was hit by a car, dying right on the spot, which marked the end of the group.
It was then that Dumile and his alter ego Zev Love X completely disappeared from the musical radar. Many say he lived for years on the streets of New York, but the artist never confirmed such story.
THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF METAL FACE AND THE LAUNCH OF 'OPERATION DOOMSDAY'
Dumile reappeared at the end of 1997 on open mic nights in New York (in several underground clubs like the Nuyorican Poets Café) wearing various disguises. However, it was in 1999 and thanks to his iconic metal mask that he became a symbol, with the release of his first full album Operation: Doomsday, one of the most celebrated and original records of the complex pantheon of works that define underground Hip-Hop, code-named MF DOOM (Metal Face DOOM), by the independent label Fondle 'EM Records by Bobbito Garcia. Zev Love X's melodic and optimistic Afrocentrism was left behind. The inspiration now comes from the villainous Doctor Doom (Dr. Destino), taken from the pages of Marvel's “Fantastic Four” HQ, and from an unyielding search for anonymity, which they say was triggered by a disgust with the music industry acquired after K.M.D. He definitely took on the persona and called himself the super villain (for many the superhero) of Hip-Hop and never performed or was seen without his iconic and inseparable metal mask. And his behavior has always corroborated this: he often booked shows, sold tickets, and sent a stuntman to perform in his place (which he himself called Doombots). The audience was obviously irritated and usually noticed after a song with a horrible playback, or even the voice of the stuntman was not at all similar and he did not know the lyrics (((laughs))).
Dumile needed to reinvent himself, not only to avoid the pitfalls that always attract and betray black men in contemporary America, but also to escape the very norms of identity raised by the culture in which he moved. We can argue and, above all, affirm that, by appropriating the mask of Doctor Doom, Dumile "positions himself as an enemy, not only of the music industry, but also of the dominant constructions of identity that relegate to black man second-class citizenship.".
VIKTOR VAUGHN, KING GEEDORAH AND MONSTA ISLAND CZARS
Reaching a relatively cult status with Operation: Doomsday, MF DOOM has kept his fans base by working behind several other pseudonyms. In 2003 he collaborated with several producers, including RJD2 to launch Vaudeville Villain, signed by the character Viktor Vaughn. The same year was also marked by the appearance of King Geedorah, an alter ego he used to produce the LP Escape From Monsta Island! from the Monsta Island Czars group, as well as the LP from the same group called Take Me to Your Leader. According to DOOM's words on the LP insert, the last one was a concept album: “Geedorah is a space monster. He's not from Earth. I did it differently on purpose. It was a mix of lyrics and instrumentals of the hour. For me it is much cooler than any other crap right now… The whole album is the perspective that alien Geedorah has on humans...”
MADVILLAINY AND THE ENCOUNTER OF MINDS
The encounter of the also great producer Madlib and MF DOOM gave rise to the duo Madvillain for the creation of Madvillainy, resulting in one of the most successful albums in the history of Hip-Hop. Launched by the Angelino label Stones Throw Records in 2004, they produced shorter tracks that together accounted for 45 minutes and abused the samples and melodic collages of Jazz, all very well produced. The album was eagerly awaited by fans and ended up attracting a much wider audience of Rap and was also highly acclaimed d by the overwhelming majority of critics, even from the mainstream music. Madvillainy played a key role in consolidating MF DOOM's first real appearance. The metal mask artist rarely gave interviews and in the very few when he did, he always praised Madlib as one of his greatest references and inspirations.
MM…FOOD AND THE METAL FACE COME BACK
Since the release of Operation Doomsday, the character MF DOOM has made a triumphant return with the album MM… Food? in 2004, released by the Rhymesayers label. MF DOOM's culinary adventure was not as well received by critics as Madvillainy, but fans praised the album for the richness of the lyrics and for having a more boastful and comic DOOM, in addition to welcoming his return in charge of production with great tracks such as “Hoe Cakes” and “Rapp Snitch Knishes”.
DANGERDOOM FLERTS WITH MAINSTREAM
In 2005 MF DOOM worked in a collab with the talented producer Danger Mouse, under the pseudonym Dangerdoom resulting in the LP The Mouse and the Mask, released by the Epitaph label and licensed to the British label Lex Records. The project had a commercial appeal and geek culture in it, along with an absurd variety of collaborating artists. Among the most unusual and weird, one with the animated character from Adult Swim of the Cartoon Network called Aqua Teen Hunger Force, who released a dirty and rather asshole chorus for the song “Sofa King”, as well as better known names like Cee-Lo on the track “Benzie Box” and Talib Kweli embellishing the track “Old School”. However, it was DOOM's expected collaboration with the rapper and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan Ghostface Killah, on the track “The Mask” that got the most attention.
LAST CHAPTERS, LEGACY AND BEYOND...
In 2009, MF DOOM moved to the United Kingdom, when his re-entry in the USA was refused after his first European international tour, because although he lived in the country most of his life, he never became an American citizen, becoming away from his family for almost two years until he got his citizenship in 2012.
In the same period, taking advantage of the commercial success of The Mouse and the Mask, the British label Lex Records released Born Like This under the short name "DOOM". Although a much denser album than Madvillain and Dangerdoom, full of references to Charles Bukowski and themes of disillusionment and anti-establishment, the album became his first solo work to hit the charts, debuting at 52nd in the USA. Although it is one of his darkest adventures, Born Like This was full of first-time aspects for DOOM; including the first time he played outside the US, musical partnerships with Thom Yorke from Radiohead and Gorillaz and another EP produced by J Dilla called Gazzillion Ear. Born Like This would be his last solo work signed as MF DOOM, which then multiplied in several collaborative projects who attested and defined well his greatness, his pen and his lyric, his distinctive nose for the production of beats and his undeniable status of “favorite MC of our or your favorite MC”: after the acclaimed Madvillain project created with Madlib, DOOM through the alter ego Metal Fingers and his Metal Face Records label he shared album credits with MC and New York producer MF Grimm (the MF EP of 2000, and the instrumental series of samples and beats Special Herbs volumes 0 to 9 + Spices Volume One , and the series of remixes of famous Hip-Hop songs from other rappers and MC's - Special Blends 1 & 2, all from 2004), Danger Mouse (the 2005 The Mouse and the Mask album, signed as Danger Doom) already cited earlier in this article, Jneiro Jarel (Key to The Kuffs, 2012, as JJ DOOM), Masta Ace (MA Doom: Son of Yvonne also 2012), Bishop Nehru (the 2014 NehruvianDoom album), and finally, Czarface (the trio formed by 7L, Esoteric and Inspectah Deck with whom he signed Czarface Meet s Metal Face, in 2018). Also in 2018, DOOM and Cypress Hill DJ and producer DJ Muggs shared the credits for the EP “Assassination Day”. His last collaboration in life was the sound “The Chocolate Conquistadors” with the Canadian band BadBadNotGood, a song that is part of the last update of the Grand Theft Auto Online - GTA series of games, released in the second half of last December. Altogether, in life MF DOOM through its various aliases has released six solo albums, and six other collaborative.
We may add to this vast array of work an extensive list of specific collaborations that led MF DOOM to work with such distinct and important names as Prefuse 73, Aesop Rock, The Herbaliser, Non Phixion, Prince Paul, De La Soul, Prince, Kurious Jorge, Count Bass D, Zero 7, Joey Bada $$, Vast Aire, Daedelus, Wu-Tang Clan, Quasimoto, Dabrye, Shape of Broad Minds, DJ Babu, Masta Killa, Hell Razah, Jonny Greenwood, Oh No, Flying Lotus, Cannibal Ox , Jake One, Damu The Fudgemunk, The Avalanches, Your Old Droog, Rejjie Snow, Westside Gunn, Tuxedo and many other names of this infinite culture.
MF DOOM's life force was a metaphor for all black men in this world... he took all the fear in the world and created beautiful art with no strings attached. The art of MF DOOM represents the purest, most free and the deepest spirit of Hip-Hop culture, he has always been the same since Operation Doomsday. DOOM immediately became a mold for an entire generation from the beginning of the new millennium (2000s) that sought to draw in the cultural underworld an alternative to the mainstream rap game that has always dominated the top of the charts, helping to boost the underground Hip-Hop scene in the late 90s, establishing the subgenre as a viable and productive branch of Rap music.
All of this only makes it clearer that Daniel Dumile was a monolithic presence, that he did not move even a millimeter to meet anyone, that he raised a parallel dimension in which he lives alone, oblivious to any movement in the real world. It was the mask that protected him, that he transformed and that transported him to that dimension. The mask, incidentally, was the artist.
When reporting DOOM's death on December 31, two months after his death, the family certainly respected his reserved personality. The cause of death was not disclosed, yet another fact that underlines the privacy of a man whose life was framed and reinvented by tragedy: not only did he lose his brother at the beginning of his career, but he also had to deal with the premature death of his youngest 14-year-old son, King Malachi Ezekiel, in December 2017. Perhaps, after all, the mask served as a shield to hide the pain. The world will no longer be able to count on the anti-hero of the metal mask that instilled fantasy, abstraction and real art on this life on Earth.
Certainly, in the coming years, new verses, beats, posthumous works and projects and collaborations by MF DOOM will emerge and materialize. But even if these collective desires do not come true, the truth is that the legacy of the reclusive and reserved super villain of the iconic metal mask already has enough history and breath for eternity. DOOM was the main actor in the “film” that he himself produced, directed and distributed, and a reference for every artist who produces completely free independent art. His longtime friend from New York streets Busta Rhymes, wrote about it on his Instagram when he mourned the death of his friend Daniel Dumile, reinforcing what differentiated MF DOOM from all other MC´s, it was his full freedom, always being who he really is , regardless of any label, and that everyone still had a lot to learn from MF DOOM!
The death of MF DOOM took everyone from the world of Hip-Hop and fans by surprise this new year ... several important cultural artists such as award-winning actor Mahershala Ali, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Danny Brown, Denzel Curry, DJ Premier, El-P, Flying Lotus, Pete Rock, Ghostface Killah, 9th Wonder, JPEGMafia, Noname, Questlove and Tyler, the Creator, mourned the artist's death on their social networks, including the leader of the legendary A Tribe Called Quest, Q -Tip, who also mourned the death of the super villain on his Twitter: "RIP to another Giant your favorite MC's MC. MF DOOM!!" The Abstract, who also mourned the death of the super villain on his Twitter
REST IN BEATS MF, DOOM! SUPPA!!!
Carlos Tico: Historian, Presenter at Dublab Brasil, Vinyl Collector and Musical Researcher.
