Link: http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=9773
Anyone who's at all familiar with MF Doom has heard the story. In a past life he was Zev Love X, a member of KMD, (themselves creators of two great rap albums). KMD is dropped from their label with their second record Black Bastards shelved in the wake of "Cop Killer" hysteria. The same week Zev's twin brother and rhyme partner Subroc is hit by a car and killed. Zev, now a Kause of a Damaged Society, goes into recluse for half a decade, only to emerge wearing a metal mask and rapping about comic books. Makes for a great press release and the whole thing is pretty cliche at this point.
But I don't think the mythology can adequately describe the experience of hearing Operation: Doomsday and the proceeding singles [1] stripped of that context. Bobbito's Fondle 'Em records was always vaguely eccentric but fairly consistent in their true schoolisms. Most of the records they dropped could reasonably be traced back to Gang Starr or De La or whatever. It took someone from that era to really flip it. There was no precedent for these record. [2] There were plenty of low fidelity recordings in that era. Everyone was a four track avenger, but it took Doom to really master the ****. He calculated a sound that would complement tape hiss perfectly - spitting an slightly off beat flow, words slurred from a combination of old gold and gold fronts, over tinny and unquantized chops of 80's quiet storm drivel like James Ingram and The Deele.
A revisionist could write it off as backpacky but Doom, like Wu-Tang before him, was able to walk the line between the streets and the nerds, rapping about grimy **** like taking your girl or breaking you off like the end of a philly (ayo!) while also dorking out over pop culture references to velamints and Scooby Doo. It's the type of tape you'd get faded and make with your boys [3], except it was done by a really talented emcee. Revisiting the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito show on Stretch's blog you can see that mentality as a logical extension of their radio show.
It's unfortunate that Doom began his descent towards gimmicky self parody almost as soon as this record dropped. Unlike most of the work that followed, Doomsday was as ominous as it was cheesy. Now he's a damn cartoon character. It's great that dude seems to be loving life, and dons the mask to signify silliness instead of hiding scars. But that makes for far less interesting (however more marketable) music.
I really regret not purchasing this album when it came out. Remember this dropped at the pinnacle of my bootleg hustle and I was on some harded headed I already got the singles, Bobitto's not getting any more of my hard earned money business. It's now notoriously out of print, and likely to stay that way due to the shameless uncleared samples. I still don't own a copy. Fortunately I know a guy.
"?"- feat. Kurious
"Dead Bent"
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