5 Favorite (MF) DOOM Verses

Hi everyone Anthony Fantano here the internet's busiest music nerd and I'm going to talk about in this video, Mister MF DOOM AKA Daniel Dumile. In my opinion one of the most enigmatic rappers of all time, distinct and original in just about every way a rapper can be

With his kind of redundant trademark flow that he recycles over and over throughout songs, though he does break away from it often enough so that you don't expect it on every track. His voice is raspy and deep is wordplay, always clever, some deep heady references in his wordplay. An then what he raps about, his references are consistently obscure, kind of nerdy, and in his songs he's constantly building this narrative about himself as this character based upon the Spider-man comic villain Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom

I've been listening to this guy for years and I think he's one of the best modern emcees out there period. I love numerous projects of his like Madvillainy, his solo albums, DangerDOOM, Viktor Vaughn. And in this video I'm essentially going to trick back a little and go over a lot of his older songs and uhm sort of talk about what I think are my five favorite MF DOOM verses

My first favorite verse comes from what I think is one of DOOM's most underrated full-length projects Born Like This the song is "That's That" DOOM sings on the song, not something he does all that often. It was one of the first tracks if not, not I believe the first track to drop from this full-length album when it was about to come out, and when I heard it I was floored

Mostly because right ad the song starts, DOOM kicks it off with so many relentless rhymes, throwing so many internal rhymes within a bar the words are essentially dizzying. And not only that but the words and the references are completely nutty too. But as the lyrics draws on it becomes apparent not only is this song a bit of a "hey hello, how you doing? I'm back" kind of tune for MF DOOM but it's also a bit of a slight against people to people who enlist in the military

Already woke, spared a joke, barely spoke, rarely smoke
Stared at folks when properly provoked, mirror broke
Here, share strawberry morning, gone an more important spawning
Torn in, poor men sworn in
Cornish hens switching positions, auditioning morticians
Saw it in a vision, ignoring prison
Ignoramuses enlist and sound dumb
Found 'em drowned in cow's dung, crowns flungMost definitely one of DOOM's most fiery moments, the dude can see kind of lax at times, but he totally goes in when he needs to. Now it's, it's not really DOOM's speed or flow that attracts me to him necessarily, though when he does go that route it does end up good. It's really his punchlines, his references that really wow me, and this next track which comes off of Vaudeville Villain is loaded with some of my favorite one liners of his. The song is called "The Drop" and my highlights from the track are as follows:

Yep listening to nothing, taking no suggestions
Or destructive criticisms, that can't improve on perfection Don't let the drama getcha
In the only genre of music where the fans shoot the messenger
Bitch niggas talk behind your back like a catcher
Either M-Y-O-B or B-Y-O stretcher
M-Y-O-B meaning mind your own business (laughs)

Remember me God, clean timbs with emery board?
He only came to save the game like a memory cardAnd

...Write a rhyme like a book report
And sell it to a rookie you could tell by the hook he bought
You ain't know he sell hooks and choruses?
They couldn't bang the slang if they looked in thesaurusesHmmm...funny, that's pretty funny. This next verse comes off of the opening to one of MF DOOM's most popular albums MM..FOOD. The song is called "Beef Rapp" it fits right into the concept of the album with a load of food references in the songs themselves and the song titles. And this track also works into an ongoing narrative where MF DOOM is making fun of the current state of hip hop, specifically in this track, the time honored tradition of the "rap beef"

Beef rap, could lead to getting teeth capped
Or even a wreath for ma dukes on some grief crap
I suggest you change your diet
It can lead to high blood pressure if you fry it
Or even a stroke, heart attack, heart disease
It ain't no starting back once arteries start to squeeze
Take the easy way out phony, until then
They know they wouldn't be talking that baloney in the bullpenBut maybe my favorite moment on the entire track comes right at the start of the third verse:

To all rappers: shut up with your shutting up
And keep your shirt on, at least a button-up
Yuck, is they rhymers or strippin' males?
Out of work jerks since they shut down Chippendales
(Laughs, throws paper) Raw as hell and funny. DOOM is just such a weird outsider, and, and yet he just, he just writes so well, and, and he's so imaginative and vivid with a lot of the stuff that he says. Especially as he dives into these songs where he is trying to build this back story about his character

Considering that his character is based on a villain and that he follows superheroes, he follows villains, he follows comic books - the origin story is something that is really important to MF DOOM and the songs that he writes

Namely on songs like "Curls" which features one of my favorite verses off of Madvillainy. And this track, I think, is one of the best tracks when it comes to DOOM building up that origin story, and sort of putting an image of his past in the mind of the listener

Villain get the money like curls
They just tryin' to get a nut like squirrels in his mad world
Land of milk and honey with the swirls
Where reckless naked girls get necklaces of pearls
Compliments of the town jeweler
Left back now-schooler tryin' to sound cooler
On the microphone known as the crown ruler
Never lied to ma when we said we found the moolah
Five-hundred somethin' dollars layin' right there in the street
Huh, now let's try and get somethin' to eat
Then he turned four and started flowin' to the poor
That's about when he first started going raw
Kept the 'dro in the drawer
A rhymin' klepto who couldn't go up in the store no moreYou get this image that he is sort of the ruler of the world. Everybody else is smaller, lesser, tinier, squirrel-like being. And then we (Chuckles) get reckless naked girls getting necklaces of pearls

And then he's saying that he's a "left back now-schooler tryin' to sound cooler" instead of an old-schooler but he's graduating right now because his career was sort of put-off so he's not quite an old-schooler, he's a now-schooler

And what's interesting with DOOM is that we constantly get these references to this cartoony, made up, very strange past, and also his reality too. To the point where it kind of becomes hard to tell when he's telling the truth about his true self, the man behind the mask, or if he's kind of building up the character that he's constantly portraying

But on the song "Doomsday" it's one of the rare moments where it feels like DOOM is, is st-still being himself. He's not quite 100% into the character as we know him as today

And right on one of the opening tracks to the LP, the title track to the LP, Doomsday he essentially delivers a few bars that I think are very telling of himself

Ever since the womb ‘til I'm back where my brother went
That's what my tomb will say
Right above my government, Dumile
Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say?
I wrote this one in B.C. D.C. O-section
If you don't believe me, go get bagged and check then
Cell number 17, up under the top bunkEssentially, DOOM here talking about the death of his brother. If you're familiar with MF DOOM's career, you know he used to rap in a group with his brother named KMD, until the unfortunate passing of his brother

This kind of delayed his rap career, not only that but the fact that the groups last album Black Bastards had been shelved

Further in this group of lines he talks about his tombstone and how it's going to have his government "Dumile" on it we get his real name being referenced in a song

And then we get a few lines where MF DOOM starts off a lot of lines, start of his career saying "I wrote this one duhduhduhduhduh" and then he'll talk about a funny situation in which he wrote the line he is rapping you right now. But on this particular track we are maybe getting the start of this trend with him talking about how he wrote this one while in jail

And if you don't believe him go to this particular jail, and this particular cell and check under the top bunk, and check under the top bunk, he must have left something up there for you to verify that it was him

It's stuff like this that get me listening to DOOM songs, really listening to DOOM songs. Picking up new things and anticipating everything he's going to do for the foreseeable future

He's so funny, he's so clever, in my opinion, incredibly creative, and on top of that he sort of has this ability that other emcees out there just don't. And that is he's created this character that he can truly become and mold, in any way that he wants to mold him. He can have this character go out and do anything that his mind can create and then he can rap about it

And not to say that there aren't emcees who totally make shit up, there are, but DOOM clearly takes advantage of this advantage in possibly the best way a rapper ever could, and, and maybe ever will

Those are my thoughts, those are my five favorite MF DOOM verses. All caps when you spell the man's name, remember that, okay? Okay

**Transition**

What are your favorite MF DOOM lyrics or verses ever? Let me know I'm totally curious. Let me know down in the comments, come on buddy, come on let me know

Anthony Fantano, Mr. Dumile, forever