On December 31st, New Years Eve 2020, we received the sad news that the legendary MC, MF DOOM had passed away. I reached out to a few of my friends, whom I knew were fans of DOOM, and wanted to give them a chance to share their thoughts, pay their respects, and say goodbye. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this. I hope everyone enjoys reading these beautiful words. Here is a tribute to your favourite rapper's favourite rapper.
JOE
MF DOOM. You are the GOAT. The finest to ever do it, and truly this game's SUPERVILLAIN. First listening to your DOOMSDAY album was a game changer for me. I'd never heard a rapper like you before, your ability to use mad references and vocabulary was crazy. You had these completely nutty bars that went hand in hand with your beats. It would create this awesome imagery in my head, straight out of a comic book. As a producer your choice of samples was so sick and instantly recognisable as DOOM. Every project you brought out was like this. Your wordplay was tricky, and your flow was dry, funny and full of character. You made being a nerd cool. There will never be another like you. You made something wildly original and at the same time so true and integral to hip-hop. You inspired everyone after you. We miss you bro!
SAM
DOOM is hip hop
For me personally DOOM was the best lyricist, he grabbed the English language by the bollocks and made it his bitch. His vocabulary could never be touched by anyone rhyming the names of Icelandic volcanoes for the fun of it in tunes like guvnor.
Tunes like rap snitch knishes had a tongue in cheek view of the scene at the time, whilst still outshining the MCs of the time, showing you don’t need to be a gangster to sit on a hip hop tune.
DOOM has been the biggest loss to hip hop in recent years, he bridged the gap between gangster rap and poetry in a way no one ever has and never will.
RIP to a legend.
OLIVIA
At one point in time he was my favourite rapper. Whilst my opinions are constantly changing, I still hold him in high regard. He didn’t just rap, he made poetry, and every time I listen to his music it brings me back to the same level of excitement I had when I was 14-15 years old discovering hip hop for the first time. The fact that he had multiple aliases has always been interesting to me, but I’m annoyed that I haven’t taken the time to explore them all until now. He was one of a kind.
OWEN
I remember being about 13, playing basketball at Hyde Park on this mad hot day, the kind of hot that means every fucker in Leeds is at Hyde. Still, because I'd been going all summer, I knew a fair few of the locals and managed to get a couple games in and amongst the kids playing heads and volleys and some bloke in baggy pants practicing diablo in the middle of the court. There was this guy there everyday who I reckon was about 25 and used to wear a full New York Knicks outfit at all times. He had a speaker and used to blast hip hop all day with the occasional classic disco tune randomly in the playlist. Usually it was stuff like Nas or Ice Cube - he used to play 'It Was A Good Day' at least once an hour. No one really cared because he'd been there so long he'd kind of earned the right to do whatever he wanted.
But on this day he switched it up a bit. I remember being in the middle of a game and hearing 'Kiss of Life' by Sade start coming through the speaker. I recognised it, but didn't know the name of the tune or anything. Then I heard DOOM come in and I realised it was a sample. The way he was riding the beat was mad, the beat was so smooth and to someone who didn't know hip hop at all; I thought he was doing something no one had ever done before. "'Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.' That's a audio daily double." rang out so clearly and I remember thinking it was "Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. That's the order of your daily double" whatever that means... something to do with a double measure of whiskey, maybe? Anyway, I asked the guy in the Knicks outfit what the tune was when I was guarding him and he just said "DOOM, man." and cut right past me for a layup.
Looking back, I think the context under which you hear an artist for the first time has such a big impact on your opinion on them as a whole. We often reminisce to "the first time I heard 'THAT' tune" and how "the sun was setting with a cold beer in my hand" or "I was going through a rough bit at the time". This was exactly the right context to hear DOOM for the first time. It was about 5pm on a glorious sunny day at Hyde Park, everyone was about and doing their thing, I felt like a don because I was playing basketball with the older people, I had a bottle of Rubicon Mango in my bag and all was cool in the world as far as I was concerned.
When I got home I went on this ancient laptop I had and just googled "doom rapper". The first thing that came up was 'One Beer' from 'MM.. FOOD' and that was where my love for DOOM truly began. "There's only one beer left. Rappers screaming all in our ears like we're deaf. Tempt me, do a number on the label, eat up all they MCs and drink 'em under the table". I thought that was mad. All summer I bumped MF DOOM and I will continue to bump him until the world stops going round.
For me, MF DOOM is one of those artists with a near flawless discography. Of course, I have my favourite songs and records that I prefer to other ones in his arsenal, but his work is so tough to rank as it's all at such a high level. Very few rappers can maintain that over two decades.
Everyone keeps telling me "his music will live forever" and I do appreciate this, but it doesn't make it any easier that he's gone. It's not like he had much of an online presence or anything, and he wasn't in the news very much, but I think I took comfort in the fact that the greatest rapper to ever live was out there, somewhere, just existing.
Rest in power, DOOM.
"You're on the list, if not, pick a number spot. Ten and a half Timbs is made to kick your bumbaclaat"
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