DOOM/ Born Like This/ Lex (2009)

by Chaynes

DOOM (until recently known as MF Doom, Metal Fingers, the Supervillain, King Geedorah, Viktor Vaughn the Vaudeville/Venomous Villain, etc…) is something of an enigma. If that list of aliases doesn’t give it away, DOOM likes to remain secretive. His telltale mask creates a layer of protection between DOOM and the normally exposed autobiographical rapper, constantly flooding us with rhymes about how much money/pussy he (or she) has collected/abused. DOOM doesn’t tell us about his life, at least his real life, he tells us about ours.

DOOM’s catalogue is extensive and varied, ranging from uncanny guest-spots on multiple records to pastiche-instrumentals drawing on old sci-fi records and comic books. Within that massive catalogue are a few records that DOOM puts his whole effort into, namely Venomous Villain, Operation Doomsday, MM… Food, and Born Like This. Born is DOOM’s most recent solo outing, and it consolidates what DOOM tries to do with every record into 17 weird-ass tracks.

DOOM works extremely well both as a rapper over his own production and as a rapper over tracks produced by others, but he usually picks one path or the other for solo records. Born finds DOOM mixing his own beats with an all-star cast including J Dilla, Jake One, and Madlib. DOOM’s sci-fi infused fantasies, chopping up all sorts of old beats and sounds and narrators, blend perfectly here with Dilla’s eerie synths, Jake One’s boom-bap, and Madlib’s blunted-out ecstasy. These settings seem the only fitting scene for DOOM’s abstracted, cosmically comic understanding of the human condition.

His rhymes are what set DOOM definitively apart from all the other rappers out there right now, or ever for that matter. There are those with better technical ability than DOOM (Busdriver comes to mind) and those with a better articulation (here we think of Aesop Rock), but no one can make us laugh like DOOM without the accompanying trivialization. His rhythms are almost as jagged as the cut up samples over which he rhymes, and he seems to take patterns of rhyme for way to many bars only to wrap them up with ridiculous one-liners that are satisfyingly offensive and hilarious. Despite the mask’s gravitas, DOOM never takes himself too seriously and consistently denies us any ability write him off. When he tells us on Born that he got “his PhD in indiscreet street hagglin’”, we believe that the Supervillain actually has become an expert in his field.

No DOOM record is complete without ridiculous samples, and Born is no exception. Creepy old voices foretelling the dastardly deeds of masked villains blend seamlessly into DOOM’s gravelly apocalypse. But Born reveals something of DOOM’s literary side: “Cellz” begins with a reading of Bukowski’s “Dinosauria, We”, prophesying the doomed world (forgive the intentional pun!) of the human condition and modern technology. This type of literary reference could come across as gauche, or at least contrived, in less skillful hands, but DOOM has spend a lifetime carefully selecting samples, so we must therefore take this choice as DOOM’s bleak comment on the current state of things.

The narratives on this album take us beyond the off-the-cuff witticisms of DOOM’s previous output and into a sick world on the brink of death, consumed by villains of all kinds with no heroes to swoop in and save us. This idea is supported by the disturbing image gracing the back cover of the album (yes, this means you should actually go out and buy the physical album!): a sonogram showing a male figure in fetal position, yet wearing the DOOM mask (literally Born like this). We are breeding villains, corrupting ourselves from the inside out, filling the world with danger and conspiracy. But don’t worry, it is not all doom and gloom (damn I am full of puns today!). This album is hilarious and will get your head bobbing better than any other hip hop outing this year.

DOOM is the most creative and interesting rapper making music right now because he is never willing to compromise his search for the new and strange in the face of widespread success. Just don’t laugh too hard when he sings a hook like a dying dog.