Before being known as MF doom he went by his regular name Daniel Dumile who was born in Hounslow, London, island and grew up at in long island, New York. He was the son of Trinidadian mother and Zimbabwean father and was eldest of five children. He grew up in long beach  and has British citizenship but, never gained any American citizenship. During the summer after third grade he started DJing and got the nickname Doom for his  collection of comic books

In his early career Dumile when by the rap name Zen love X with his brother and went by the hip hop group name KMD and had a debut album Mr hood.Before the release of the second album Dumiles brother was struck by a car which killed him, Dumile decided to finish the album alone,but before its release it was dropped due to its controversial art depicting a Sambo getting hanged.Since the album was dropped Dumile had to move to Atlanta where he was poor but said he was planning on getting back at the industry

Dumile started to freestyle incognito at open-mic events at a cafe in Manhattan and used a mask similar to Marvel comics super villain Doctor doom but would later change the mask based on the character Maximus from the movie Gladiator.With the record Lable Fondle 'Em records.Where he released his first album Operation Doomsday which was his first LP as MF Doom