DOOM, “Back Like That” [Online Exclusive Feature Story]

WORDS BOGAR ALONSO (@blacktiles)

The Voyager spacecraft carry golden records that contain the sights and sounds that best depict life, as we know it. If aliens were ever to receive them, it would be like cycling through a ‘70s version of Google. Had the spacecraft been launched today, one DOOM album might have done the job. And they certainly wouldn’t just listen to it once.

Hip-hop for all its glitter, capitalist tendencies, and militant roots, has been something of a musical Wikipedia. Not only do its lyrics circumnavigate the pop culture sphere, it presents our media exploits in sampled snippets of forgotten records, overlooked joints, and Kung Fu shenanigans. No man, or supervillain, has contributed more to this musical collage than Daniel Dumile better known as DOOM, whose schizophrenic production was born in the days of KMD. “Not your traditional hip-hop shit,” asserts the masked rapper.

His most recent release Key to the Kuffs, under the newly formed JJ DOOM moniker, carries on the usual DOOM torch (which might just burn green, for all we know). As a unit, JJ DOOM consists of producer/vocalist Jneiro Jarel and the masked villain, who now goes simply as DOOM, minus the “MF.” Since the group first unveiled "Banished" in February, the anticipation for Key to the Kuffs grew, and with its release last week, it certainly doesn’t disappoints. The album operates in a chrome sullenness that hasn’t come out of DOOM since his days as Viktor Vaughn. Although the MC didn’t set out to build off his criminally underrated Vaudeville Villain, he can see how the two projects could be fraternal twins as he considers Jneiro Jarel “one of his brothers.” Asked if he could picture his latest musical partner being part of a potential Vaudeville Villain 3, DOOM roared, “Oh, definitely," DOOM told XXLMag.com. "Once you put it in the air, someone’s going to come up with a budget. All I need is a budget, and I get busy.” The man certainly has done so, working on the album for the past two years despite being forced to live away from his family. Although he was raised before the boom bap years of hip-hop in Long Island, New York, a recent passport mishap clipped his wings, and had him grounded in London.

If Born Like This consisted of DOOM’s nightmares, Key to the Kuffs is his plasma. Not blood plasma, because villains don’t bleed, but the kind of plasma stars are made of. While Dumile has been through worse, tracks like “Winter Blues” bring insight into his current state of seclusion. The space age reverbs provided by Jarel must do the bleeding for DOOM, who “only needs one warm hug to keep from turning off.” He laments, “I need a handful of melanin/ Feelin’ like the lambs wool beard on your tender skin/ Eat’er up like a Snack well/ We could live forever like Henrietta Lacks’ cells.” Who would have known that the mad villain’s kryptonite was love?

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Ultimately though it’s his patented humor that cuts like a light saber which keeps DOOM going. According to the MC, hip-hop has lost its humor over the years. “Everyone is trying to follow the next guy. Somehow it just turned into straight gansta shit," DOOM told shared with XXL. "It’s supposedly―quote, unquote―gansta music, so everybody is trying to out-gansta the next guy. Testosterone fest is what I call it.” Though he admits that some MCs can keep gangster rap funny and upbeat in their own way, hip-hop has ultimately turned into a “circle jerk.” “Everybody talking about killing everybody, comes off as unrealistic.” Although he wears his villain persona like he wears his metal mask, he confirms that he’s “never murdered one nigga in a whole record.” Though some of his bitter fans that got duped in the past by his concert stand-in’s, might think DOOM could care less of how he comes off, that couldn’t be further from the truth. “You have to be conscious of what you’re putting out to the public and who’s hearing it," says the Villain. "Because the children are hearing this!”

He went on to praise the work of another MC. “That’s why I respect Masta Ace; how he came with his record [MA_DOOM: Son of Yvonne],” which saw DOOM sign off on his Special Herbs beats for Ace’s use. “That brotha…very creative. When he came to me with that idea, that concept―I’m like, ‘Yeah, yo. Ace is on it.’”

In terms of collaboration, MF goes about it in Wild West fashion. No Twitter, no “my person will call your person” merrymaking. He says, “It’s hard to get at me," he says. "Especially back then, in the days of Doomsday, people would have to find me the hard way. You know, it’s like the streets. Just like the streets.” If Key to the Kuffs seems like the placenta leftover from Madvillainy’s birth, it might be because working with JJ turned out to be very much like fraternizing with Madlib. Although, working with Jneiro Jarel was a little less of a “telepathic” process than it was with the Beat Konducta, the two work off each other well. Their friendship also picked up steam when they ran into each other years ago in L.A, after collaborating on a Shapes of Broad Minds track. “I was working on the Madvillain record, and we got mutual friends out there, so we would all be kickin’ it, talking about beats and equipment and shit. So I had more of a chance to hear his style, to hear his music and get to know him. We became friends.”

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Although another collaboration with Jneiro Jarel seems certain for the future, DOOM has too much on his plate at the moment. Once having said that he has 100 albums in him, it seems the former Zev Love X is getting overwhelmed, if at least a bit. “I have so many starting points, I have to be careful," DOOM explains. I have to, like, put in an order, or else I’ll get lost in it. And one will ever get anything from me ever again; you’ll have the Super Villain going in circles.” He certainly seems to have no time to brush up on his contemporaries. When asked if he respected label mate Homeboy Sandman and the tour-de-force that is Action Bronson, for their humored hip-hop, he simply said, “Never heard of them. I don’t get a chance to listen to new stuff.” He did have nothing but praise for BDP’s Criminal Minded.

Since his mind seems always in the music, he quickly diverted back to talking about his slate of upcoming projects. “The second Madvillain album is almost done―it’s coming out ill," he revealed. "That’ll be done this year.” Though the word “done” seems to be a relative term for the prolific MC. “Then it’ll be DOOMSTARKS―I know everybody’s been waiting for that on," he offered. "I just kicked it with DOOMSTARKS in Australia for five days. We worked on a lot of little odds and ends, we’ll be wrapping up on that one soon too.” And in what might be a XXL exclusive, because “to this day it’s [his] favorite hip-hop magazine,” DOOM revealed murky details about another unannounced album.

Due to label constraints he could only say, “Let’s put it like this: I’m doing some work with a New York style producer, right. Someone who produced mad hits and shit," he said. "Hardcore hits. Shit that―it’s totally unexpected but I’m not going to reveal it at this time.” After a little more prying, “Can I give a hint? Ugh, I would say―nah! I can’t even give a hint. New York hit-maker! ‘90s, and it’s not Primo. Try to figure it out.”

“The concept is based around the end of the world. 2012," DOOM explained. "The Mayan calendar. I’m making fun of it from a DOOM point of view. At one point in a song, DOOM talks about throwing a three-day rave in the middle of the park. 2013 is going to be when we’re counting the cash off this whole end of the world shit. The album is going to show that the world is what we make it, yo. If you don’t want to see a 2013, a 2014, or a 2015, then you won’t. Calm down, it ain’t that critical.”

Abandoning the testosterone fest, copping Key to the Kuffs, and figuring out what ‘90s hit maker he’s secretly collaborating with, are definitely much more critical. Who knows, 2012 might spell doomsday after all. Might as well go out a DOOM fan.