MF Doom
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| Daniel Dumile | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Daniel Dumile |
| Also known as | MF Doom Zev Love X The Super Villain Viktor Vaughn King Geedorah Metal Fingers Metal Fingered Villain |
| Born | January 9, 1971 London, England |
| Origin | Long Island, New York, United States |
| Genre(s) | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Rapper, producer |
| Years active | 1989–Present |
| Label(s) | Metal Face Rhymesayers Fondle 'Em Big Dada Nature Sounds Shaman Works Stones Throw Sound-Ink Insomniac, Inc. |
| Associated acts | KMD Madvillain Danger Doom Monsta Island Czars MF Grimm Madlib De La Soul |
| Website | MF Doom site (not updated since 2004) Official Myspace |
Daniel Dumile (pronounced /duːməleɪ/) (born January 9, 1971) is a British born American hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most famously MF Doom (officially capitalized MF DOOM). He has also been known as Zev Love X, King Geedorah, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, and has appeared in several collaborative projects such as Danger Doom and Madvillain. Little is known about his personal life, though he did reveal in a 2006 interview on his MySpace page that he is married with two children, one of them teenage.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years with KMD
Dumile, the son of a Trinidadian mother and Zimbabwean father, was born in Southeast London, Great Britain,[1] then moved with his family to New York and was raised in Long Beach, New York.
As Zev Love X, he formed the group KMD with his younger brother Subroc and another MC called Onyx The Birthstone Kid.[1] A&R Dante Ross learned of KMD from the rap group 3rd Bass, and signed them to Elektra Records.[2]
Dumile and KMD's debut on record came on 3rd Bass's song "The Gas Face" from The Cactus Album[1], followed in 1991 with KMD's album Mr. Hood, which became a minor hit through its singles "Peachfuzz", "Who Me?" and heavy video play on cable TV's Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City.
Subroc was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross a Long Island expressway before the release of a second KMD album entitled Black Bastards.[1] The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records before the release of the album due to controversy over the album's cover art[2] which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hanged from the gallows.
With the loss of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip-hop scene from 1994-1997. He testifies to disillusionment and depression, living "damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches".[3][1] In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. According to interviews with Doom, he was also "recovering from his wounds" and swearing revenge "against the industry that so badly deformed him."[1] Black Bastards had become bootlegged at the time, leading to Doom's rise in the underground hip-hop world.
[edit] Birth of MF Doom
Dumile began to rap at open mic events at the Nuyorican Poets Café in 1998 where he withheld his face by putting a stocking over his head. His new identity was influenced by Marvel Comics supervillain Doctor Doom. He wears the mask while performing and isn't photographed without it, except for very short glimpses in videos such as Viktor Vaughn's "Mr. Clean" and in earlier photos with KMD[1]
The release of Operation: Doomsday in 1999 by independent label Fondle 'Em marked the official turning point for Dumile in his reinvention of himself from a major label recording artist of minor status to independent artist, where he would find his greatest success. In 2000, Doom released his first collaboration with MF Grimm, entitled MF EP. Since then, the MF's have begun a bitter feud.
During this time, Doom also began releasing instrumental albums, in a series known as Special Herbs.
[edit] Mainstream recognition
Doom's first commercial breakthrough came in 2004, with the album Madvillainy together with producer Madlib under the group name Madvillain. Released by Stones Throw Records, the album was a critical and commercial success. MF Doom was seen by mainstream audiences for the first time as Madvillain received publicity and acclaim in publications such as Rolling Stone, New York Times, The New Yorker, and Spin. A video for "All Caps" and a four-date U.S. tour followed the release of Madvillainy. Additional videos for "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Accordion" were released on the DVDs Stones Throw 101 and "Stones Throw 102: In Living the True Gods," respectively.
In the same year, MF Doom's second solo album MM..FOOD was released by the Minnesota-based label Rhymesayers Entertainment. As Viktor Vaughn (another play on Doctor Doom, whose "real name" is Victor von Doom) he has released two albums Vaudeville Villain & Venomous Villain (also called VV2),
Though still an independent artist, MF Doom took a bigger step towards the mainstream in 2005 with The Mouse and the Mask, a collaboration with producer DJ Danger Mouse under the group name Danger Doom. The album, released on October 11, 2005 by Epitaph, was done in cooperation with Cartoon Network's [adult swim] and frequently references characters from its programs. Doom also made an appearance in "November Has Come," a track on Gorillaz's 2005 album Demon Days. In 2006 Doom hosted the [adult swim] Christmas special and he could be seen in between shows, usually talking about what was up next, and cracking jokes.
[edit] Current and upcoming projects
MF Doom produced tracks for both of Ghostface Killah's 2006 albums, Fishscale and More Fish; and the two are currently at work on a collaboration album entitled Swift & Changeable. So far only one track has been released from the album, "Angeles", which appeared on a Nature Sounds compilation in late 2006. Doom has also revealed plans for a second Madvillain album with producer Madlib, with one song, "Monkey Suite", first appearing on the Adult Swim/Stones Throw Records album Chrome Children. Other potential projects mentioned by Doom include new albums from Danger Doom, The John Robinson Project and KMD,[4] as well as further albums under both his Viktor Vaughn and King Geedorah aliases. However, many such Doom projects have been rumored in recent years without materializing.
Despite no new Doom releases in 2006, Kidrobot and Stones Throw released an 8" tall Madvillain toy available to coincide with the release of the Chrome Children CD/DVD (hosted by Peanut Butter Wolf) which featured a DVD performance of Madvillain and several other Stones Throw artists. MF Doom also continued to work with [adult swim] doing voice-over work as Sherman the Giraffe on Perfect Hair Forever, being the voice for The Boondocks ads and previews and hosting their Christmas Eve 2006 programming.
MM..FOOD was reissued under the Rhymesayers label on July 24, 2007 as a special edition CD & DVD package.
MF Doom will also be doing production on the second album of past collaborator, Kurious which is due early 2008. He has also made an appearance on Stones Throw's B-Ball Zombie War on a track called "Mash's Revenge" along with Guilty Simpson and the late J Dilla. Lately, Doom has co-won a mtvU Woodie Award with Madlib in the category Left Field Woodie for Madvillain's "Monkey Suite" video.
[edit] Style
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MF Doom's lyrics are sometimes perceived as eccentric. With an abundant use of monosyllabic rhymes and bizarre metaphors, MF Doom combines complex syntax with phrasing to create a rhyme flow that is both exhausting and entertaining. His songs commonly lack the typical verse/chorus structure in favor of showcasing extended rhyme schemes and strophic or repeating beats and melodies.
Dumile’s style of rap is anything but contemporary. His rhymes embody his very own swagger and cynicism and are full of bizarre metaphors and intentional breaks from the norm. Because of his odd use of cadence, his lyrics sometimes seeming like they rhyme by accident, an aspect that lends to Dumile’s appeal. Though Dumile’s lyrics don’t necessarily rhyme, they're clever in their simplicity. In the song “Rhinestone Cowboy” MF Doom (Dumile) states…
"Certainly smashing in a fashion that’s timely, Madvillain dash in a beat rhyme crime spree, Who rock the house like rock and roll, Got more sole than a sock with a hole."
Samples from old cartoons (particularly Fantastic Four cartoons in which characters often refer to their arch-enemy, Doctor Doom) frequently find their way into MF Doom's productions. Even before his work on the Adult Swim-influenced Danger Doom project, his raps alluded to popular movies and TV shows, often Star Trek and the Godzilla films.
Unlike many rappers' first-person point of reference, MF Doom refers to himself in the third person to better convey his own semi-fictional persona. Doom himself is a caricature, a masked incarnation of the "supervillain" that his lyrics describe, which combines with personal traits and experiences to create an endlessly fascinating topic for his own songs.
Originally, MF Doom sported a mask that was very similar to Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four villain. However his current mask designed by Lord Scotch, a New York graffiti artist, is modeled after the mask worn by Russell Crowe in the film Gladiator. The mask is said to hide the metaphorical scars remaining from the death of MF Doom's brother Subroc in 1993; MF Doom has also given a number of alternative meanings for the mask, including the preservation of creative anonymity in the increasingly image-driven genre of hip-hop:
| “ | To me, from a musical aspect, hip hop is going into the direction where its almost damn near 100% on everything besides the music, what you look like, the sound of your name, to what you're wearing, the brand of clothing, whatever intoxicants you choose to put in your body, everything except what the music sounds like. So the mask is really a testament to yo, it's not about none of that, it’s straight about the wreck. You could be any color or whatever you know what I'm saying? The mask represents everybody to say that yo, nothing matters, the brand of clothing, none of that matters, it's about how you spit and how the beats is raw, thats what it's about. | ” |
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—MF Doom, MuchMusic |
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Dumile has been willing to create new characters by working with others and allowing them to don his mask (metaphorically). The character Madvillain is essentially an animated version of the MF Doom persona. He was spawned in Doom’s collaboration with producer Madlib for the poignantly titled album Madvilliany. The Madvillain character has inspired a line of action figures and other novelty items. He even has his own cartoon which can be seen in the video for the song "All Caps". The Madvillian character was a physical manifestation of the meshing of minds of Madlib and the Dr. Doom like character of MF Doom. Dumile’s newest co-alias is Danger Doom, referring to Daniel Dumile's collaboration with producer Danger Mouse.
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Daniel Dumile |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | MF Doom, Viktor Vaughn, Zev Love X |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Rapper, producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 9, 1971 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
