In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. After the death of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip hop scene from 1994 to 1997, living 'damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches'. Before the release, the album was shelved due to its controversial cover art, which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hanged from the gallows. The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records that same week. Is the fact that I’m making such a big deal about the mask proof that we always cling on to some image of the artist as a product? Is this desperation to understand more about the human behind the mask the exact same impulse that leads us to scroll to the bottom of Wikipedia pages to find out if a singer’s been divorced, or if an actor’s gay, or if a Prime Minister is thought to have had an affair? Does MF DOOM’s hiding Daniel Dumile behind Zev Love X behind MF DOOM pique the curiosity of folks like me? Is it all a ploy?ġ From Wikipedia: In 1993, just before the release of the second KMD (the group of which DOOM was one half, the MC) album, Black Bastards, Subroc (DOOM's brother, the other half of the group, its DJ) was struck by a car and killed while attempting to cross the Nassau Expressway. In few other places is this obsession more pronounced than in the world of rap. This is, in a way, DOOM’s statement against his arch-nemesis - the music industry.Ĭelebrity worship is a weird side effect of our lives. He don’t care about the fame that shit’s of no consequence, it’s more the message of what’s being said. At the same time, it’s something different and it fits with the theme of the rebel, the villain. The mask really represents rebelling against trying to sell the product as a human being. There was a time in hip hop when things started going from my point of view more towards what things look like as opposed to what they sound like (…) But what I’m doing is coming with the angle that it doesn’t matter what the artist looks like, it’s more what he sounds like. And because you hear the unvarnished story from the supervillain, something Daniel Dumile might not have been able to do, you appreciate the record more, and you understand Daniel Dumile better.Īpart from the emotional statement the alter-ego, the project, and the song makes, they also make a strong artistic one about celebrity culture. The story it tells is of a supervillain’s comeback from overwhelming odds, and the supervillain’s drive to keep on fighting until the end.

While Daniel Dumile might not have been able to rap about his experiences freely, a carefully crafted alter-ego could rap about his.Īt its heart, Doomsday is a darkly magical Roman à clef. It’s proof that, for an artist, the comeback itself is an artform. And by this count, Doomsday is no ordinary comeback track, and Operation: Doomsday is no ordinary comeback record.ĭoomsday is, unabashedly, a comeback track about coming back.

It is impossible to separate the art from the context of the artist and his/her life. Right above my government, Doom will lay / Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who’s to say? Ever since the womb til I’m back where my brother went / That’s what my tomb will say. But at its key moments, for instance in its chorus, you can see how emotional Operation: Doomsday really is for DOOM. And more-or-less devoid of cold cynicism. Its wickedly funny, and rife with puns and epic wordplay. MF DOOM's Doomsday is a pretty chill song given its emotional backstory 1.

Doomsday mf doom lyrics