Which brings me to the news that DOOM, the mysterious, metal-clad MC who used to be known as MF DOOM, dropped his latest album, Born Like This, on Tuesday. As I've mentioned here before, I'm a big fan of the self-proclaimed supervillain of hip-hop, whose flow is almost as schizophrenic as it as skillful.
A trip through DOOM's lyrics takes you on a nonsensical journey of hilarious references, so masterfully put-together that you may not catch up until multiple bars have already passed. I can't think of any other rappers that have mentioned Ernest Goes To Camp, Worf from Star Trek and the Hadron Collider in the same song. In essence, DOOM is the hip hop manifestation of the Black nerd.
Shaping his persona from Marvel Comics' Dr. Doom., his songs often feature various audio clips from science fiction movies, radio and TV commercials and Saturday morning cartoons. In 2003, he released an album entitled Take Me To Your Leader under the guise of King Geedorah, a monster from outer space in the Godzilla films. Weird, yes. But DOOM is so dope, he's actually able to pull this off.
Born Like This plays like a copy of the National Enquirer or Weekly World News, set to beats from Jake One, Madlib and the legendary J Dilla. The intro and outro are both loops of a harmonious gospel song, sandwiching the weird grooves and off-kilter lyrics DOOM is known for. The second track, "Gazillion Ear" is as schizo as DOOM's rap style; two-thirds of the song uses Dilla's "Phantom of the Synths" beat, with an in-song interlude which features DOOM spitting over "Dimethyltryptamine," another Dilla beat first used by Jay Electronica.
Gazzillion Ear - Doom
"Microwave Mayo" could have been produced on a 1980's Casio keyboard, but its beautifully-complex synthesized harmonies sound like old NES music gone horribly right. What sounds like jibberish at first makes more sense with each passing rhyme, which is the modus operandi of DOOM's evil genius.
Microwave Mayo - Doom
The album's namesake comes from a poem by Charles Bukowski which paints a grisly, apocalyptic picture of society and fits perfectly into DOOM's schtick. The track "Cellz" features an excerpt of Bukowski reading the poem in a haunting tone before giving way to DOOM's calculated mumbo-jumbo.
Cellz - Doom
Granted, these are only a few samples of what Born Like This has to offer, but this album is solid from top to bottom. Ghostface Killah and Raekwon make well-timed cameos and Posdnous of De La Soul provides vocals for his own evil alter-ego.
If you already didn't find me weird enough, here's hoping that some of you will continue speaking to me in public after knowing that I listen to this. No matter, nothing being said behind my back could be half as bad as things being said about me on the interwebs as of late. Perhaps it is I, DCJONESY, that's been a villain since an itsy bitsy zygote and not DOOM? If it's anywhere near as fun as he makes it out to be, then toss that metal mask in my direction, please.
