36you bring brighter daysOoh you're like the sun, chasing all of the rain away, when you come around
REMEMBERINGMFDOOMWORDS BY CALEB JAGODA ART BY EMBER NEVINSIdidn’t believe it when I first saw it. He couldn’t die; supervillains don’t die, they evolve, disfigured with newborn penchantsfor world destruction. Surely this was a trick, another gaff pulled by the ultimate huckster, just another hoodwink from upthe sleeve of hip-hop’s most infamous villain.On December 31, 2020, Daniel Dumile, world-renowned underground hip-hop artist of many aliases but most commonlyreferred to as MF DOOM, was announced dead by his wife Jasmine on his Instagram page. In a heartfelt note, Jasminethanks her husband for a beautiful life and explains his passing took place on Halloween two months earlier. For two wholemonths, the world’s most notorious supervillain had been dead and nobody had the slightest clue. The greatest trick the devilever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist; DOOM convinced us for a short time that he hadn’t died, even releasingseveral feature verses from beyond the grave. Not only that, but Dumile, maybe the first rapper to consistently wear a mask,passed on a day where people everywhere spawn masks to conceal their identities and cosplay as characters. The villain’sskullduggery never seems to end.MF DOOM is one of hip-hop’s most important, talented, enigmatic, influential,and hilarious figures to ever grace and impact the genre, and is bydefault my favorite rapper. His footprint on today’s musicallandscape cannot be overstated. From having an influenceon three generations of musicians (from Odd Future toJoey Bada$$ to Mos Def to Questlove to Lil Uzi Vertto Drake to Thom Yorke of Radiohead), DOOMconcocted a legendary career from the cavernsof his own mind and forever altered the musicindustry. None of my favorite current-day artistswould exist without him. But even beyond hisimpact, DOOM’s music stands on its own asstartlingly imaginative, cerebral, whimsical,and inimitably original. Many make musicthat sounds like DOOM’s, but DOOMmade music that sounded like nobodyelse’s. DOOM is a one-of-one, the stuffof Stan Lee comic books, scienceexperiments gone wrong, stoned studiosessions spent guzzling beer, penningrhymes, and watching Adult Swim. Mylife and so many others would not bethe same without DOOM.This is an ode to the metal-fistterrorist who holds heat andpreaches nonviolence; the killer wholoves children, and is well-skilled indestruction as well as building; Mr.Bent, who’s at where your sisterwent; the man who stretched theboundaries of creation with his metalfingers, silver tongue, and evil charm.This is an ode to MF DOOM, one of themost creative minds to grace the planet.
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