The Man, The Myth: MF DOOM

In this article, Joshua will tell you about the personal life, and rap career of MF DOOM.

MF DOOM

By: Joshua Miranda

Many have heard of MF DOOM, also known as The Illest Villain, and his impact on the music and rap industry. The rapper has revolutionized the rap genre, becoming one of the most successful underground rappers to ever live. He is famous for his albums MADVILLAINY, Operation: Doomsday, and MM…FOOD.

Image from: Earl Sweatshirt

DOOM was born in London, in the year 1971, under the name Daniel Dumile. According to DOOM, he was born in London due to his mother visiting family in England. However, he was raised in Long Beach, New York, in the good ol’ US of A. In the summer after his third-grade year, he started DJing, along with being a fan and collector of comics. He earned the nickname Doom among family and friends (as a play on the name Dumile), as told by Hip Hop Scriptures (a site containing biographies of many hip hop artists, like an archive of hip hop knowledge).

Now that we’ve gotten past his early life and basic knowledge about The Man and Myth, let's examine his career and impact on the underground hip hop genre, and rap as a whole. MF released his first song “Checkmate” in 1994 and from, there on, it was a wildfire. He soon went on to make Operation: Doomsday, one of his hardest-hitting and most influential albums. Operation: Doomsday fueled the beginning of his career with songs like "Doomsday", "Rhymes Like Dimes", "Red and Gold", and "Gas Drawls", as stated by ratings on Album Of The Year, which they claim as a must-hear album, along with MADVILLAINY, MM...FOOD, and Born Like This. The Metal Face Doom gained a very impressive discography with his time as a rapper, including many collaborations with a copious amount of producers.

Image From: Flood Magazine

Image from: Illuminidol

Speaking of collaborations, one of his largest collabs was with Czarface. Together, DOOM and Czarface released three albums: Super What?, Czarface Meets Metal Face, and Man’s Worst Enemy. He could also be found with Madlib, who helped in the production of MADVILLAINY and MADVILLAINY PT.2. If you are curious about how many collaborations DOOM has had, the list is as follows: Jneiro Jarel (JJ DOOM), Danger Mouse (DANGERDOOM), Czarface, Gorillaz, KMD, Your Old Droog, BADBADNOTGOOD, FloFilz, Rejjie Snow, DJ Muggs, Freddie Gibbs, Westside Gunn, Ghostface Killah (DOOMSTARKS), Cannibal Ox, MF Grimm, and many more. Along with those listed collaborators are some of the Monickers that DOOM has taken, along with the name MF DOOM. Some of those aliases are unlisted and not under artist collaborations, such as Viktor Vaughn, and King Geedorah. Most of such collaborations and albums can be found on Genius

If we look past his fantastic and outstanding career, we can find the man behind the chrome mask, Daniel Dumile. Dumile was raised as a Muslim, and was heavily educated on Pan-African history and historical figures such as Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad. These are ideas that Dumile imparted upon his peers as a member of KMD, which had participants belonging to the Ansaar Allah Community, later known as the Nuwaubian Nation. Dumile had a family of his own, in addition to the family he made while performing his music. His biological family consisted of his wife and three children. At one point on his second international tour, he was refused re-entry to the United States. Upon said refusal, he did not see his family for two years except over calls. His family later moved to London in 2012, with Dumile saying he was done with the United States. DOOMile’s reason for being refused was due to him living in the US for most of his life but never claiming citizenship, after being born in London; however, whilst sounding reasonable, this was his second international tour. He was allowed back on his first. It seems reasonable to be shaken and annoyed by such an experience. Dumile lived the rest of his life in London and, in 2017, one of his sons passed. He continued to make music under the name of DOOM until his death in 2020, in Leeds, England. A sad goodbye to a true legend, and inspiration to many.

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