(Rolling Stone would later include “Madvillany” on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.) The album saw Dumile enter the lower rungs of the Billboard top 200 album chart, and brought with it substantial press attention and praise from some of the biggest names in hip-hop. Featuring turns that were cerebral and goofy, drugged-out and lucid, the album offered heady, jagged-edged collages of jazz samples and obscure film dialogue, while Doom’s rhymes were as absurd, inventive, hilarious and endlessly quotable as ever. Released via the Highland Park indie Stones Throw, “Madvillainy” united Dumile with idiosyncratic California producer Madlib, and the two established an uncanny chemistry. He aligned with the influential Minneapolis label Rhymesayers for his second album as Doom, “Mm…Food,” in late 2004, but it was another project from earlier that year that truly established him among the uppermost ranks of independent hip-hop figures. Featuring Dumile’s signature plainspoken flow and head-spinning volleys of intricate internal rhymes, off-the-wall cultural references and non-sequiturs, the album gained him a sizable cult following.ĭumile’s career was anything but straightforward, and he followed up on the notoriety gained through “Doomsday” with a flurry of collaborations, instrumental releases and projects under the alternate alias Viktor Vaughn. Produced by Dumile himself under the pseudonym Metal Fingers, the album couldn’t have been more willingly out of step with hip-hop’s mainstream. Now calling himself MF Doom and wearing a metal mask inspired by the Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom, Dumile released his solo debut “Operation: Doomsday” in 1999. After Subroc was killed in a car accident in 1993, the group disbanded, and Dumile retreated from public view, only to reemerge toward the end of the decade with a new name and an extravagant new persona.
alongside his brother DJ Subroc, and the group had a minor hit in the early 1990s.
He began his music career under the name Zev Lov X as part of the trio K.M.D. One of the most celebrated, unpredictable and enigmatic figures in independent hip-hop, Dumile was born in London, but relocated to New York City as a child. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.