Hopefully by now, a lot of you may know what I’m talking about here, but for those of you not in the know, I’d like to touch on the subject of the best comic-book themed musician ever: MF Doom. MF (Metal Face) Doom is a guy who’s been a big figure in underground hip-hop for well over a decade now, and is best known for appearing everywhere with a Dr. Doom mask. Like the guys in Kiss in the 70’s, Doom is rarely ever seen without the metal mask.

Perhaps his best known album is 1999’s Operation Doomsday, which put him on the map as the most quirky music producer and boldest sampler. The album has something of a concept as it takes samples from the Fantastic Four cartoon from the late 60’s telling the origin of Doctor Doom and turns it into MF’s  tale of “taking revenge on an industry that left him horribly disfigured.” If you love comics, and you love hip-hop, then Operation Doomsday is an essential album. I saw Doom open for Talib Kweli back when Mississippi Nights was still around, and to be honest with you, his albums are far superior to his live performances which are still pretty entertaining nonetheless. in 2004, Doom teamed up with one of my favorite musicians, Madlib, to produce an album that easily makes it onto my all time top 5: Madvillain’s: Madvillainy. Out of this album came an animated music video for the track All Caps that pays homage to Jack Kirby in it’s artistic style, and the main characters resemblance to a cross between the Hulk, the Thing in his trench coat and hat disguise, and Doctor Doom.

Not to be limited to just everyones favorite Marvel villain, Doom is also a member of the Monsta Island Czars and went by the moniker King Geedorah on  the album Escape From Monsta Island released in 2003, as well as a solo King Geedorah titled Take Me to Your Leader. The albums features numerous samples from the Toho Godzilla films of the 1960’s and 70’s and also features the stylings of MF Grimm (aka Jet Jaguar) who is the subject of the biographical graphic novel Sentences from Vertigo (available at Star Clipper by the way.) which I can’t recommend enough. All this is proof that underground hip-hop and comics are inseparable.

-Jim

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