Line #80 Music/MFDOOM


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mf_doom_3_9531.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Just remember all caps when you spell the man name."''
4	-->-- "'''All Caps'''", ''Music/{{Madvillainy}}''
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6	MF DOOM (also known as DOOM, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah, etc.) was a British-American rapper and producer, and a particularly {{troperiffic}} one at that.
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8	DOOM, born [[AlliterativeName Daniel Dumile]] (July 13, 1971 – October 31, 2020), had some success as a rapper in the early 1990s in his group KMD under the name Zev Love X. However, the tragic loss of his brother in a car accident, along with the shelving of KMD's album ''Black Bastards'' in 1994 for its controversial cover art, caused him to retreat from the hip-hop world and sink into a deep depression. He eventually became homeless on the streets of New York; in interviews, he described himself in this period as "recovering from his wounds" and swearing revenge "against the industry that so badly deformed him."
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10	If all that sounds like a {{supervillain}} origin story, well, the similarity didn't escape him, either.
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12	When he recovered and returned to the world of hip-hop, he adopted the identity of MF DOOM, an {{Expy}} of the ComicBook/FantasticFour villain Doctor Doom. DOOM consistently wore a [[CoolMask now-iconic mask]] after he returned to performing, modeled after Maximus Decimus Meridius' mask from ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''; it is nearly impossible to find pictures of him from after 1998 or so in which he shows his face.
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14	DOOM's raps often play with the ideas of the {{superhero}} and {{supervillain}}, or use those tropes to {{deconstruct\|ion}} hip-hop culture. His lyrics are marked by a vast knowledge of popular culture and commonly allude to ScienceFiction, {{Fantasy}}, WesternAnimation, and ComicBook characters. In addition to the ComicBook/FantasticFour mythos from which his identity was borrowed (and from where he got a lot of [[RuleOfFunny hilarious]] {{sampl\|ing}}es of people complaining about "Doom"), he was fond of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', commonly comparing himself to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Worf]]. The potential for {{Narm}} in this is tempered by DOOM's lyrical skill and playfulness as well as support from a range of excellent producers. DOOM maintains a good degree of popularity in both underground and mainstream hip-hop circles.
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16	Throughout the [=2000s=] and [=2010s=], DOOM's name would find further circulation among newer schools of hip-hop through his collaborative projects with producers and other rappers, each with one or two releases to their name. While his work with producer Madlib under the name Madvillain is far and away the most popular of these projects, seeing as the single work they made (''Music/{{Madvillainy}}'') is regularly deemed one of the greatest rap albums of all time, he'd also tag-team with names including Music/DangerMouse (DANGERDOOM), Jneiro Jarel (JJ DOOM), Bishop Nehru ([=NehruvianDOOM=]) and Czarface.
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18	On December 31, 2020, Dumile's wife announced on social media that he had died on October 31, 2020 at the age of 49; this was later confirmed by his representative. Following an inquest in 2023, it was reported that he had died from a rare allergic reaction to medication that he had been prescribed for high blood pressure.
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20	He was a major supporter and friend of Creator/AdultSwim, having worked on several music products with them (namely the aforementioned DANGERDOOM project). In honor of him, the block hosted a marathon of the Music/{{OFWGKTA}} series ''Loiter Squad'', a show he helped work on as he was friends with the collective, on New Year's Day 2021.
21	----
22	!!Discography:
23	* As MF DOOM
24	** ''Operation: Doomsday'' (1999)
25	** ''Mm... Food'' (2004)
26	** ''Live From Planet X'' (Live Album, 2005)
27	** ''Born Like This'' (2009)[[note]]released as just DOOM[[/note]]
28	** ''Unexpected Guests'' (Compilation, 2009)
29	** ''Gazzillion Ear EP'' (EP, 2010)
30	* As King Geedorah
31	** ''Take Me To Your Leader'' (2003)
32	* As Viktor Vaughn
33	** ''Vaudeville Villain'' (2003)
34	** ''Venomous Villian'' (2004)
35	* With Madlib as Madvillain
36	** ''Music/{{Madvillainy}}'' (2004)
37	** ''Madvillainy 2 - The Madlib Remix'' (Remixes, 2008)
38	* With Danger Mouse as DANGERDOOM
39	** ''The Mouse And The Mask'' (2005)
40	** ''Occult Hymn'' (EP, 2006)
41	* With J Dilla and Ghostface Killah
42	** ''Sniperlite EP'' (EP, 2008)
43	* With Jneiro Jarel as JJ DOOM
44	** ''Key to the Kuffs'' (2012)
45	* With Bishop Nehru as [=NehruvianDOOM=]
46	** ''[=NehruvianDOOM=]'' (As Producer, 2014)
47	* With Czarface
48	** ''Czarface Meets Metal Face'' (2018)
49	** ''Man's Worst Enemy EP'' (EP, 2018)
50	** ''Super What?'' (2021, posthumous release)
51	* With Music/AesopRock and [[Music/{{Atmosphere}} Slug]]
52	** ''Barcade'' (Single, 2021, posthumous release)
53	----
54	!!MF DOOM made use of the tropes:
55	* ActuallyADoombot: Was known to frequently use stand-ins for live performances as a deliberate artistic choice, though he occasionally went onstage himself after the stand-in was booed off.
56	* AlliterativeName: Daniel Dumile, also Viktor Vaughn
57	* AlternativeHipHop: One of the {{Trope Codifier}}s of abstract hip-hop (particularly in a boom bap context) and certainly one of its most famous proponents.
58	* CoolMask: It wasn't a 1/1 copy of von Doom's mask due to copyright reasons, but it was still ''badass.''
59	* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: MF ''DOOM.''
60	* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: His first mask, as seen in the ''Dead Bent'' and ''?'' music videos, was a rubber [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Maul]] mask crudely modified and spray-painted to resemble a Doctor Doom mask. All subsequent masks would instead be based off of a metal prop mask from Film/{{Gladiator}}.
61	* FrameBreak: In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc1hixzYPY music video]] for All Caps (which takes the form of an animated comicbook), the main character escapes from confinement by jumping hard enough to break through the bottom of every panel all the way down to the bottom of the page.
62	* HaveAGayOldTime: The clips used in the intro to ''Batty Boyz''.
63	--> Sharpen up your spirit of adventure! The fabulous gay way!
64	* {{Homage}}: The MF DOOM persona to Dr. Doom. Viktor Vaughn is also a Dr. Doom allusion.
65	* {{Hypocrite}}: Viktor Vaughn in "Fancy Clown" angrily renounces his girlfriend for sleeping with another man (one of his other personas, incidentally) in the first verse, only to reveal three instances of adultery on his part in the second, up to and including the woman's mother.
66	* IHaveManyNames: Not uncommon among rappers, but DOOM did it more than the average.
67	* LastNoteNightmare: "The Final Hour" from ''Take Me To Your Leader'' is cut off at the end by a woman's bloodcurdling scream.
68	* MalevolentMaskedMen: {{Lampshaded}} to hell and back. Specifically, in ''The Mouse and the Mask'''s "Basket Case", where DOOM feebly defends himself by saying "Just since some people wear a mask doesn't mean that they did something."
69	* MaskingTheDeformity: MF DOOM's [[{{Kayfabe}} in-universe]] reason for constantly wearing his mask, as an explicit ShoutOut to [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Doctor Doom]], is to hide deformities inflicted on him by the record industry. In keeping with his deliberately {{Troperrific}} style, his StartOfDarkness was driven by a desire for {{Revenge}} for his wounds, and the mask he wears is actually a copy of [[Film/{{Gladiator}} Maximus' mask]]. (A wronged musician turned supervillain who wears a metal mask to hide facial injuries inflicted on him by the evil record industry he seeks to revenge himself on brings to mind [[Film/PhantomOfTheParadise another example of this trope]] as well...)
70	* MundaneMadeAwesome: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL5cun2kQ6M video]] for "Dead Bent" has DOOM going fruit shopping and trying to leave his apartment twice, but is awesome thanks to the song.
71	* MyNaymeIs: "And remember, ALL CAPS when you spell the man's name."
72	* NerdGlasses: He would frequently wear them during his KMD days and occasionally wore them over his mask as MF DOOM.
73	* PosthumousCollaboration: On October 8th, 2021, almost a year after his death, Rhymesayers Entertainment put out "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJD7gMJBiI Barcade]]", with him alongside Music/AesopRock and Music/{{Atmosphere}}.
74	* [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Real Life Writes the Album]]: ''Keys to the Kuff'' came about partially because DOOM was stuck in London and unable to return to the US due to visa issues while on tour in Europe.
75	* RunningGag: "He holds the mic like x" shows up in many of the songs.
76	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Dude dropped some big, big words here and there.
77	** From "Guv'nor"
78	--->Catch a throatful from the fire vocaled\
79	Ash and molten glass like Eyjafjallajökull\
80	The volcano outta Iceland
81	** From "All Outta Ale"
82	--->One for the money, two for the better green\
83	Three four methylenedioxymethamphetamine
84	* ShoutOut: Frequent in his songs.
85	* StartOfDarkness: Several tracks on ''Operation: DOOMSDAY'' expound on DOOM's backstory using sound clips from ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1967''.
86	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: He had a habit of acting like he was about to say something vulgar only to trail off and begin the next line with something that rhymes with the obscenity you were expecting. A couple of examples:
87	** From "Batty Boyz"
88	--->Wrote this lyric from in the bed with a chick
89	--->She had the tightest grip around the head of my...
90	--->Bic, now I can't get my pen back
91	** From "Space Ho's"
92	--->That destructo ray's a played out gag
93	--->And the cape and the pantsuit looking like a straight out...
94	--->Dag! Don't mean to sound crunchy
95	** Not quite the same thing, but from "Great Day"
96	--->Last wish, I wish I had two more wishes
97	--->And I wish they fixed the door to the Matrix, there's mad glitches
98	--->Spit so many verses sometimes my jaw twitches
99	--->One thing this party could use is more...
100	--->Booze, put yourself in your own shoes
101	* SuperVillain: [[PlayingWithATrope Screwed around with]] in every way possible.
102	* ThemeNaming: The titles of all the songs on his ''Mm...Food?'' album have ''some'' reference to food in them. The instrumental series ''Special Herbs & Spices'' took this further, with every beat being named after actual herbs and spices.
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Context Music / MFDOOM