Dumile's eccentric wordplay makes him a favorite of underground hip-hop fans. He is heavily influenced by American comic books (especially the Fantastic Four and their battles with Dr. Doom). Japanese science fiction is also an influence; the concept for King Geedorah (which is derived from Ghidorah) and the Monsta Island Czars comes from the Godzilla movie series. He is also renowned for bringing comedy back into the sometimes overly serious world of rap lyrics and a unique, sample-heavy production style.
Early Years with KMD
He was born in Southwest London, England on January 9, 1971 to a South African father and a West Indian mother; the family moved to New York and lived in Long Island where he was raised.
His debut in the world of rap music came when he devised the concept for, and guest-appeared on, the song "The Gas Face" by the rap group 3rd Bass, under the MC name Zev Love X along with his younger brother Subroc. Zev Luv X, Subroc, and another MC called Onyx The Birthstone Kid together formed the group KMD. Originally, "KMD" stood for "Kausing Much Damage," but before their first album they changed it to "a positive Kause in a Much Damaged society." KMD were all members of the Ansaar Allah community based in Brooklyn, New York. KMD signed with Elektra Records label under the A&R Dante Ross, who noticed KMD through the 3rd Bass record. KMD released 1991's Mr. Hood as part of a short-lived trend of conscious hip hop outings, along with labelmates Brand Nubian and other groups like Poor Righteous Teachers.
Subroc was accidentally struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross a busy Long Island expressway, before the release of a second KMD album entitled Bl ck B st rds. The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records before the release of the album due to controversy over the album's cover art which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hanged from the gallows.
Birth of MF DOOM
Still dealing with the loss of his brother, Dumile became disillusioned and began to suffer from bouts of depression. He disappeared from the hip-hop scene from 1994-1997, and testifies to living "damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches and shit." Shortly after this time, 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." Meanwhile, Black Bastards was heavily bootlegged and Zev Love's legend grew. In 1997, he began appearing at the Nuyorican Poets Café at open mic events for rappers, although few people knew that the man freestyling with a stocking over his face was the former Zev. The imaginative MC began using new identity MF DOOM, inspired by the Marvel Comics supervillain Dr. Doom, and wearing a similar metal mask which he would not perform or be photographed without. The Dr. Doom style mask was eventually replaced with a replica of the mask Russell Crowe wore in the film Gladiator.
"My partner Lord Scotch came up with the design. Ill graffiti artist. He fabricated the mask out of...it was originally...you know that movie Gladiator? Son had the helmet piece on it with the mask on the front. We found an exact replica of the mask. He takes the faceplate off, attached that to the inside of a construction helmet, where you can tighten the helmet."
(MF stands for Metal Face (and his production name: Metal Fingers). MF Grimm gave the MF title to DOOM. Grimm's stands for Mad Flows. Grimm has since givin the MF title to other emcees).
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 while maintaining the most control over his music.
Operation: Doomsday was received very well by underground listeners and was re-released in 2000. The following year, he began releasing albums of instrumental work, a series known as Special Herbs for several small record labels under the name Metal Fingers. He created an additional alter-egos King Geedorah as a member of Monsta Island Czars, a group consisting of MF Grimm and (currently) 14 other underground New York emcees who released their debut album in 2003.
Mainstream Recognition
MF DOOM was still far below the radar of mainstream press when two albums were released under new aliases by different labels in 2003. The first was Vaudeville Villain, released under the name Viktor Vaughn on Sound-Ink Records, and the second was King Geedorah's Take Me To Your Leader, released by Big Dada/Ninja Tune. Viktor Vaughn appears as solely a rap project - he has no production or executive producer credit on the album, but raps throughout the album - and alternately, King Geedorah is a conceptual production project. Although he raps on few of the songs on Take Me To Your Leader, the album is produced entirely by MF DOOM. Several of his long time collaborators appear as MCs.
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 4-date U.S. tour followed the release of Madvillainy. An additional video for "Rhinestone Cowboy" and a segment from the tour are shown on the DVD Stones Throw 101.
DOOM was featured on the 2004 De La Soul release The Grind Date, MF DOOM rapping on the track "Rock Co.Kane Flow", which was also released as a single. Late in the year, DOOM's second solo album MM..Food was released by the Minnesota-based label Rhymesayers Entertainment, using various food items to metaphorically explain life and his own complex personality. As Viktor Vaughn he released his sophomore effort Venomous Villain (also called VV2), an album which received mixed reviews mostly critical of production values considered inferior to DOOM's recent work, and its short 33 minute length, with only 10 minutes featuring DOOM.
In 2005 MF DOOM took another step towards the commercial mainstream (while maintaining his independent artist status) with The Mouse and the Mask, a collaboration with producer DJ Danger Mouse released under the group name Danger Doom. The album was released on October 11, 2005 and frequently references characters from Cartoon Network's [adult swim]. He also voiced the giraffe named Sherman in [adult swim]'s Perfect Hair Forever; not coincidentally a song on The Mouse and the Mask called "Perfect Hair" references the cartoon extensively. Perfect Hair Forever did not debut officially on [adult swim] until a month after Danger Doom, so many listeners might not have gotten the references to Coiffio and Mt. Tuna. Also on this album, MF DOOM dissed M.I.C and MF Grimm in a song called "El Chupa Nibre" when he referred to the group as "midgets into crunk". MF Grimm released a retaliatory track titled "The Book of Daniel", which will appear on his album, American Hunger.
In 2005, MF DOOM appeared on two other Danger Mouse-produced projects: the Gorillaz album Demon Days, rapping on the song "November Has Come", and Danger Mouse's remix of Zero 7's "Somersault".
Current & Upcoming Projects
MF DOOM's creativity continues in 2006. DOOM produced several tracks on Ghostface Killah's Fishscale album released in April, and the two are currently at work on a collaboration album called Swift & Changeable due sometime in '07 on Lex Records (UK) & Nature Sounds (US). A new Danger Doom EP Occult Hymn was released via download on Adult Swim's website. The EP included new tracks: El Chupa Nibre Remix (again dissing the MIC with Monkeys Into Crime), Korn Dogz, Perfect Hair II, Sofa King Remix, Madlib's version of Space Ho's and a couple skits. DOOM is also planning to make another Madvillain album with producer Madlib, with one song first appearing on the [adult swim]/Stones Throw Records album Chrome Children, which also contains the first-ever live show by DOOM released on DVD.
He also plans to make another Danger Doom album with Danger Mouse.
Also in the works is his own record label Metal Face Records. Upon launching of the label, DOOM will release Hassan Chop's debut LP The Pen & The Sword. Another LP to be released on the label is The John Robinson Project - Who Is This Man?, due early '07, which is a collaboration between Lil Sci (of Scienz Of Life) and DOOM. Sci will handle the vocals and DOOM the production.
Personal Life
Dumile is rarely seen in public without a mask or hood on, and there exist no promotional photos or videos of his face post-KMD.
In an interview conducted on Independence Day in 2006 and published on his Myspace page, he stated that he is married, with two children, one of them teenage.
He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
HEY!
Daniel Dumile Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And stay the same with more rhymes than there's ways to skin cats
As a matter of fact, let me rephrase
With more rhymes and more ways to fillet felines these days
Watch the path of the black one
Supervillian he wrecks clubs for dell
In a drunken stupor chillin
Ready and willin to inadvertantly foil that plan of any rhymer, whiner or
Who got more snottier flows than snotty nose?
And holds mics like he knows karate body blows
Nobody knows the trouble I see
from the MPB fly dirty tailin the eye bubble eye thirty
For the record this is some shit I just thought of y'all
Science fiction that's not admissable in no court of law
I live to rock mics 3-D
The only reason I seek to stop to snuff the TV
I heard beats, they sound like karaoke
With monkey rhymers on a leash like don't have this fairy choke me
Hit 'em with a penny so we can get these peanuts
And I thought we was nuts, I used to get free cuts
They locks Lex Luthor up in green haven
Since when a nigga never really been to clean shaven
Misbehavin rap stars need mistament
Call me Mista Bent
I'm at where your sister went
Intelligent, used to write and be well spoke
Now all a nigga wanna do is fight and sell, tell a joke
This could lead to catastrophe
Bout to stop the violence right after these last three shots from the black
bat got me at headlock
Holdin on to sanity while stranded at dreadlock
She told me get off I said
Bitch, let me set this shit off so I could get rich right quick
Then it hit me like the point of intoxication
Nigga come out and rock this nation like oxifacen
A lot of niggas out is rusty like oxidation
In the world's most strangest most dangerous occupation
But you could do it, you the Super like in your building
Villian like trife kingdom wear and all my children
Plottin and it sure to pay ends
With some more mature womens and more of they friends
And when bad men roll tight, it's actual true
Like a pack of big bamboo with natural glue
Who grip necks of becks next to triple X
He just came before D followed the ripple effects
And it'll lead you right to him
Oh snap, it seems you walked into a trap do wrap
Zoinks, this place is filled with pretender willies
One false move and get broke off like end of phillies
True believers ain't nothin new to a
Crook with special powers like how to tell the future uh uh
Rhyme of the month two page long
Bustin off two gages with my cake gone wrong
Son it's on remind me of a Raekwon tape song
With a fleet of super bad status Rae Dawn Chong
Let me know if y'alls with me y'all
Nasty yo and geographic down to the titty bar
Rap monster outer city y'all
To all my brothers who is doin' unsettling bids
You could have got away with it if it was not for them meddling kids
In "Hey!", Daniel Dumile, also known as MF DOOM, shares his thoughts on the contemporary music scene, and how he rises up as a supervillain in it. The lyrics start by stating his approach to music, which is to only play games he can win at. He emphasizes his rhyming skills with the line "more rhymes than there's ways to skin cats." He also mentions his ability to fillet felines, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for his skill in lyricism. Then he introduces his alter ego, the supervillain that wrecks clubs, and how he is always ready to take on any rhymer, whiner, or spoiled brat he encounters.
As the song progresses, DOOM shows his contempt for the music industry's commercialization of music, stating that the only reason he stops rocking the mic is to "snuff the TV." He criticizes the beats that sound like karaoke, and the rappers who hold mics like they know karate body blows. He also mentions Lex Luthor, a common reference in his songs as a metaphor for the corrupt government and media. He refers to himself as Mista Bent, a play on the word "misbehaving," and mentions how his intelligent and well-spoken past has been replaced by a desire to fight, sell, and tell jokes.
The song ends with DOOM's uncanny ability to predict the future, and how he is like a crook with special powers. He drops a reference to Raekwon, a fellow rapper, implying that he is on par with him as a lyricist. The final line, "you could have got away with it if it was not for them meddling kids," can be interpreted as a reference to his detractors and critics, who he sees as annoying, meddling figures that try to stop him from doing his thing.
Line by Line Meaning
I only play the games that I win at
I only engage with things I have a chance of succeeding in.
And stay the same with more rhymes than there's ways to skin cats
I have a lot of rhymes and I stay consistent with my style.
As a matter of fact, let me rephrase
Actually, let me clarify my previous line.
With more rhymes and more ways to fillet felines these days
I actually have even more rhymes than previously stated and even more ways to lyrically destroy my competition.
Watch the path of the black one
Pay attention to my journey and my art.
Supervillian he wrecks clubs for dell
I am a supervillain who dominates and conquers music venues for the sake of art.
In a drunken stupor chillin Ready and willin to inadvertently foil that plan of any rhymer, whiner or spoiled brat
Despite being drunk, I'm always ready to accidentally destroy the plans of any weak rappers who complain or act spoiled.
Who got more snottier flows than snotty nose?
Who has more disgusting and unappealing rhymes than someone with a runny nose?
And holds mics like he knows karate body blows
In addition to my lyricism, I also have great stage presence and performance skills.
Nobody knows the trouble I see
No one understands the difficulties I face as an artist.
from the MPB fly dirty tailin the eye bubble eye thirty
I've been followed and watched by the police from the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) and I'm feeling nervous about it.
For the record this is some shit I just thought of y'all
I'm improvising this verse right now.
Science fiction that's not admissable in no court of law
My artistic expressions and ideas can't be used against me in a court of law.
I live to rock mics 3-D
I am deeply passionate about performing and engaging with my audience.
The only reason I seek to stop to snuff the TV
I only take breaks from music to silence the TV or other distractions in order to fully immerse myself in my creative process.
I heard beats, they sound like karaoke
I recently heard some less impressive beats that sounded like they were from a karaoke machine.
With monkey rhymers on a leash like don't have this fairy choke me
Some weak rappers are like untrained monkeys on a leash, barely able to keep up or be tolerated.
Hit 'em with a penny so we can get these peanuts And I thought we was nuts, I used to get free cuts
I'm hoping to get paid enough to afford basic necessities, but I remember a time when I struggled so much that I would get free haircuts.
They locks Lex Luthor up in green haven Since when a nigga never really been to clean shaven
Even villains like Lex Luthor get sent to prison, but I've never been one to maintain a clean-shaven look.
Misbehavin rap stars need mistament Call me Mista Bent I'm at where your sister went
Disruptive rap artists need discipline, which is why you can call me Mista Bent, and I'm currently at the same place as your sister.
Intelligent, used to write and be well spoke Now all a nigga wanna do is fight and sell, tell a joke
I used to be intelligent and articulate in my lyrics, but now I'm more likely to focus on violence, money, or humor.
This could lead to catastrophe Bout to stop the violence right after these last three shots from the black bat got me at headlock
The violence in my lyrics could have dangerous consequences, but I'm about to try and stop that with my next few verses even though I'm currently feeling a bit out of control in my creativity.
Holdin on to sanity while stranded at dreadlock She told me get off I said Bitch, let me set this shit off so I could get rich right quick
I'm trying to maintain my sanity during tough times, and when someone tried to stop me, I pushed back and focused on getting rich quickly.
Then it hit me like the point of intoxication Nigga come out and rock this nation like oxifacen
I had a sudden realization while I was drunk that I need to continue making music that will move and inspire people.
A lot of niggas out is rusty like oxidation In the world's most strangest most dangerous occupation
Many rappers are now irrelevant and outdated, but being a rapper remains an unpredictable and potentially risky profession.
But you could do it, you the Super like in your building Villian like trife kingdom wear and all my children
But despite the odds, you could still become a successful rapper, especially if you are confident and unique like a superhero, yet also embody the darkness of a villain.
Plottin and it sure to pay ends With some more mature womens and more of they friends
I'm planning and strategizing to make money and be surrounded by older, more experienced women and their social circles.
And when bad men roll tight, it's actual true Like a pack of big bamboo with natural glue
When dangerous individuals come together, it's as formidable and undeniable as a group of tightly-packed bamboo stalks held together with natural glue.
Who grip necks of becks next to triple X He just came before D followed the ripple effects And it'll lead you right to him
These bad men are capable of murder and violence, and they'll continue to send devastating ripple effects throughout their community.
Oh snap, it seems you walked into a trap do wrap Zoinks, this place is filled with pretender willies One false move and get broke off like end of phillies
It appears that you've been tricked, and this situation is crawling with fake and weak rappers. One misstep and you could be completely humiliated.
True believers ain't nothin new to a Crook with special powers like how to tell the future uh uh
I'm used to being surrounded by people who genuinely believe in my talent, but I also know things about the future that give me an edge as a lyrical criminal mastermind.
Rhyme of the month two page long Bustin off two gages with my cake gone wrong
I'm the artist of the month and I've written two pages of rhymes. However, things aren't going according to plan given the chaotic and violent circumstances in my environment.
Son it's on remind me of a Raekwon tape song With a fleet of super bad status Rae Dawn Chong
Things are heating up like in a Raekwon track, and I'm accompanied by the beautiful and talented actress Rae Dawn Chong.
Let me know if y'alls with me y'all Nasty yo and geographic down to the titty bar
Let me know if you're supporting me as an artist, I will continue to make music that's raw and honest, taking inspiration from real-life places and events.
Rap monster outer city y'all To all my brothers who is doin' unsettling bids You could have got away with it if it was not for them meddling kids
I'm a monster in the outskirts of my city, and I'm sending a message of solidarity to my incarcerated fellow artists. We could have been successful without interference from doubters and haters.
Contributed by Nora H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.