MF DOOM: The Greatest Underground Artist Of All Time?
MF DOOM is one of those rappers that gets his name mentioned time and time again by our favorite rappers, but who is he?
When you hear about him, one of the first things mentioned is that he’s our favorite rappers, favorite rapper. From the outside in, he wears an iron mask and bares a vocal tone that matches that of a drunk 40 year old uncle you only see at cookouts, from the fan point of view— he’s the perfect villain.
You won’t ever see DOOM making a fool of himself on Instagram live or using social media often as he’s one of those artists that keeps you wondering where he’s at and what he’s doing. It’s often I search for new DOOM tracks hoping for a new drop since they seem barely advertised.
Getting into MF DOOM at first it seems like there’s this Yung Lean effect where you don’t really like the music, but then something clicks in your head and you go rewatch again and again, finally becoming a fiend for the music. MF DOOM has a vocabulary and rhyme pattern like no other, and because of this it’s hard for the first time learner to become attached.
Once you finally understand his mind and music it’s like a new galaxy opens up and you really start hearing the songs and vocals for what they truly are. Song like Beef Rap and Fancy Clown are perfect songs to get you started into DOOM, album wise I’d say ‘Vaudeville Villain’ by his alter ego ‘Viktor Vaughn’ seems to be one of my favorite front to back albums from him— you really don’t want to skip a song.
Now that you know who MF DOOM is, what makes him the greatest underground artist of all time? Character. DOOM is like a nice pair of black Nike Uptowns worn for a few months, broke in with character, dirt, blood, love and ready to go anytime.
There’s tons of artists we could throw up who’d fit the top seem, but let’s be real here whose really going toe to toe with the villain? Artists from the 90s, 2000s, and that 2016 Soundcloud era really don’t hold up caliber when it comes to being the greatest of all time.
If we’re comparing numbers then XXXTENTACION would clearly be a bigger artist but does that make you the greatest underground artist? No.
DOOM has been lyrically aforementioned many times by many rappers even those from the 90’s like Mos Def and Nas. Modern day artists follow suit like Drake, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, Joey BADASS, Capital STEEZ, Kid Cudi, Kayne West and more as being their favorite rapper.
His music has been featured on classic PS2 Versions of Tony Hawk games like THUG2, not to mention the numerous Adult Swim appearances not to mention the clones, we can’t forget the clones. Like a mad villain out of a comic cartoon DOOM regularly sends clones to perform for him live— so if you think you watched him perform live, probably not. DOOM has even been invited to perform at an Adult Swim Festival, that’s when a clone who turned out to be Hannibal Buress showed up and performed at the concert.
Understanding his albums like Madvillainy take multiple listens and a frequency of emotion as his album seems like a rough take off a villain mind. DOOM is an innovative artist and could be credited as being the starter of punch line rap and comic personas.
Before MF DOOM, he was an 80’s artist named Zef love who was apart of a Hip Hop group called ‘KMD’, during this time his brother passed away and Zef disappeared from the rap game. Later coming back as MF DOOM and treating rap with an attitude of vendetta.
MF DOOM often uses samples in between songs during his albums which resemble an 80s-90s super hero cartoon. Most of which bring a nostalgic sound and an even greater entrance with his unique voice. His character is widely based on Doctor Victor Von Doom, a comic book character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a villain for the Fantastic Four and Iron Man series.
The mask is sort of like his way of taking the peoples eyes off the person and putting the focus on the music rather than worrying about what the artist looks like as DOOM comes from an era where artists would be heard long before you even knew what they looked like. In fact you had to go to concerts to get a glimpse of what artists looked like back then.
I could talk about how DOOM is the best all day but really who the greatest underground artist at the end of the day would be an opinion as we’re all going to vibe to different art. My personal choice for this would be MF DOOM. Whose yours?
PS: Don’t forget ALL CAPS when you spell the mans name.
