Do You Not Get the Concept? // Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper

MF DOOM is one of those artists my brother plays while doing dishes and makes me realize he is way cooler than me. 

I mean, no older sister wants to admit that. 

Fortunately for me, his coolness exposed me to the wonders of Daniel Dumile, better known as MF DOOM, and his unparalleled rap talent. 

In the context of its release, “Operation: Doomsday,” MF DOOM’s first studio album, was released at the peak of hip hop in 1999. Commercialized rap was rising and began to shift the genre away from its lyrical and political roots into an art form used to gain fame, promote hypermasculinity and oversexualize women. 

“Operation: Doomsday” critiques the hip-hop community and record labels, all while spitting the most complicated bars to a more youthful instrumental that most wouldn’t expect from a rap album. His rhyme skill and rhythm are arguably the best of all time. I sincerely doubt any modern rapper would ever choose to rhyme with the word “Eyjafjallajökull”.

I don’t think any of them could. 

MF DOOM released the album after his brother died and his rap trio, KMD, dissolved. “Operation: Doomsday” is his comeback and reinvention. MF DOOM draws inspiration from Marvel comic villain, Doom, who experiences a series of unfortunate events and spirals into a supervillain. 

Though there was certainly enough emotional fruit to draw upon from his life, MF DOOM keeps “Operation: Doomsday” rather private. A lot of the rap I’ve seen in the modern era relies on rap discourse and personal beef to fuel their bars. MF DOOM’s bars instead at times feel nonsensical and at others, utilize immensely complicated and obscure cultural references to comment on his disagreement with commercialized hip hop. 

“Doomsday” is the song that truly marks this album as a comeback album. In the first verse, he raps, “bound to go three-plat, came to destroy rap,” marking his goals for his newly invented persona. MF DOOM raps the chorus — “On Doomsday, ever since the womb / Till I’m back where my brother went, that’s what my tomb will say.”

He swore that his rap would be true until he passed away, and he followed through until he passed away in 2020. The line, “That’s what my tomb will say” is him swearing on his grave that his rap won’t be commercialized, where bars are cheapened to make money. 

“Doomsday” is my favorite of the entire album. Maybe it’s because it was the first song I’d ever heard from MF DOOM. Maybe it’s because it samples “Kiss of Life” by Sade, one of my favorite artists. “Doomsday”’s laid-back but intricate lo-fi instrumentals and MF DOOM’s snappy but silly bars hooked me immediately. Even better, the track transitions perfectly into “Rhymes like Dimes.” 

The third track and second song of the album, “Rhymes like Dimes” is a free-association track, with improvised lyrics and a lack of structure. The song, though mostly unconnected, could be interpreted as MF DOOM comparing himself to a drug dealer, except his drugs are his bars. “I sell rhymes like dimes,” he insinuates that his bars are his drug, weed. It’s a silly song that demonstrates MF DOOM’s lyrical capability as he quickly shifts between topics and capitalizes on his groovy flow. 

The album itself is helped along by intermittent skits that draw on cartoonish samples of Doom from the 1967 “Fantastic Four” cartoon. By using the cartoon samples, MF DOOM depicts an experiment gone wrong. Doom gains scars — a metaphor for the death of MF DOOM’s brother — and returns to society as a villain, or in MF DOOM’s case, returns to society to “destroy rap,” as he says in “Doomsday.”

What makes “Operation: Doomsday” even better is it sets the precedent for MF DOOM’s future albums, creating new personas off of his DOOM character, each with their own distinct sound and story. The difference in sound between “Operation: Doomsday” where he raps under the persona MF DOOM and “Madvillainy” where he raps under the persona Madvillain, shows MF DOOM’s creativity and wide breadth of style. 

“Operation: Doomsday” is MF DOOM’s first concept album, and the blueprint for his other projects, which all take on their own concepts and characters. People aren’t lying when they refer to MF DOOM as “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.” He really was that good. 

Begrudgingly, I guess I have to thank my brother for showing off his way-cooler music taste. And if you listen and fall in love with MF DOOM too, all credit to him.