Almost a year ago, on Dec. 31, 2020, Super Villain MF DOOM’s wife announced on SM that the legendary artist had died, but two months earlier, on Oct. 31, 2020. He was 49. No cause of death was given and it was a mystery why DOOM’s death was revealed well after the fact, but it was in character for a man of mystery who wore a metal mask in public to hide his face.
I’m not the first to note this, but he died in the year we had to mask up for covid, and he died on the day — Halloween — that masks are de rigueur. You can’t make this up for an artist as well-known for guarding his privacy as he was for his complex rhyme schemes and unique beats.
DOOM wasn’t commercially popular or mainstream, but the quality of his work stood out like the metal mask he wore, and he had the respect of everyone in the business. He was literate, but he stayed raw, especially in his beats. He once said that when he sampled, he wanted the dust and scratches on the vinyl to come through in his work. That was part of his textural contribution to the slivers he borrowed to stitch together his own unique sound, frequently with intros or outros of comic villain Dr. Doom’s voice warning of this or that, or a voiceover, like that of a staid white woman at the end of “Deep Fried Frenz” who says, “Negro humor always escaped me.”
That comedic element was juxtaposed with literary wordplay — “I’d rather go out with a blaze, than give ‘em the glory,” again from “Deep Fried Frenz,” almost catches you off guard that he turned the cliche “blaze of glory” on its head — and poignancy culled from personal angst and grief he didn’t hide.
He lost his equally talented brother DJ Subroc — they were the group KMD in the early 1990s — when Subroc was 19, and he was haunted thereafter by his death. At the time, DOOM was Zev Love X, and Subroc’s death had coincided with their big-time label dropping the group. It sent DOOM on a downward spiral that lasted at least four years.
When DOOM reappeared in 1997 on a small indie label, he was MF DOOM. His voice was huskier — he says about a thousand blunts did that — and he was heavier from his penchant for beer. He also sported a bald spot that stood out behind the mask, giving the self-anointed super villain an every-day Joe look that seemed to say, “You can do this, too, if you’ve got the balls and the talent and don’t give a fuck.”
Grief makes you want to change. It also makes you angrier, even as you learn to hide it, and all of this was evident in the three 12-inch singles he released that made their way into the first MF DOOM album, the 1999 release “Operation: Doomsday.”
There are a bunch of DOOM classics on the LP. DOOM’s birth name name was Daniel Dumile (pronounced Doom-ill-lay). On “DOOMsday,” DOOM’s grief for Subroc is explicit in these lines that mention their name, and anyone who’s lost someone close can relate to this:
On Doomsday!
Ever since the womb 'til I'm back where my brother went
That's what my tomb will say
Right above my government, Dumile
Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say?
Tragedy struck DOOM again in 2017 when he lost a son, aged 14. By this time, DOOM was living abroad; in 2010, he’d been denied re-entry to the U.S. after a trip overseas. Born in the UK, DOOM had immigrated to the US as small child, but he’d never been naturalized nor did he have a green card.
In 2019, on MLB draft day, I posted on IG this picture of me and my son Joe — who’d been expected to be drafted by the Mets but wasn’t. Joe’d lost his older brother and I’d lost a son, Johnny, 17, in 2011, and we’d been shut out of the draft. We felt the DOOM that day. The photo was accompanied by DOOM’s “Hey!” from “Operation: Doomsday,” which has these lines, a thank you for our supporters, many of whom were on Twitter:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen (hey)
I'd like to thank you all for joining us this evening
Let me know if y'all with me y'all (hey)
Johnny, aka Firn, was a writer and beat-maker. Like DOOM, he was an intellectual, and though he had his own unique style, he too was literary. And he shared DOOM’s sentiments on sounds. You can hear the crackling vinyl on the sample he used on “So Icy Hot,” which has this poignant chorus that’s far above pay grade for most 17yos:
Cowards hide and heroes die
People give and people cry
So I’ll see you on the other side
Gangstas ride and minions lie
People try and people thrive
So I’ll see you on the other side
You can hear it here:
It’s only recently, since DOOM’s death, that I’ve become convinced that DOOM had influence on Firn, just as he did on many others.
You’ve probably seen the tweet of another literary rapper, Lupe Fiasco, paying homage to DOOM. He, too, was influenced by the man in the metal mask:
What it comes down to, all said and done, is appreciation for DOOM is appreciation for anyone who isn’t afraid to take chances; is comfortable expressing himself through the gamut of emotions; isn’t caught up playing to the crowds; isn’t worried about “likes”; is intelligent, literary, and talented; isn’t afraid to expose the frailties and peccadilloes of humanity, including racism; has humor; is self-deprecating; and, yes, will flash braggadocio when necessary.
Those are rare traits to find in one package.