Above the Clouds: "A villain my idol? No. He's a super-villain!"

Around my freshmen year in high school I started to become a true sneakerhead. I became infatuated with Nike SBs and over the course of the year I learned to identify every single shoe released under the line. My sneaker knowledge as a whole tripled in the course of about four months. Also around this time, my friend Daniel started skateboarding again. With my newfound love for Nike SBs it seemed only right that I started skating too. Daniel urged me to become what my favorite shoes were supposed to service: a skater. I pushed around on his board for a while until I saw my first skate video (even though it was truly a promo), Nike SB’s “On Tap”. I was blown away by Shimizu’s style and Danny Supa’s technicality. I was introduced to skateboarding on a whole other level. The next day I bought my first skateboard.

It’s safe to say that that video introduced me to skateboarding that changed my life. It also introduced me to music that changed my life. The one song I’m talking about specifically is “All Caps” by rapper MF DOOM played during P-Rod’s segment in the video. MF DOOM’s flow was heavy and lumbering. The beat was grimy yet intricate. It was a sound of hip hop I’ve never heard before and I was instantly hooked. I ran to my computer as soon as I plucked the song name and artist from the credits and downloaded the song. From there, my journey to find out who DOOM really was began. I found his biography on the Internet and learned everything about the man behind the mask, Daniel Dumile. I learned about the early days with KMD, the death of his brother, Subroc, and his retreat into the shadows of NYC. I discovered his other aliases like King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn. But during the early days, all I cared about was the character DOOM. I downloaded DOOM’s first two albums one track at a time (don’t worry, I ended up buying the re-releases later) and burned them to two CDs. I played those CDs all the time, nonstop. He became my idol, DOOM that is, because he allowed me to escape to a world of superheroes and super villains but with gripping lyricism.

The first DOOM album I actually bought was “Madvillainy”, a collaboration DOOM did with producer Madlib (Madlib would later become one of my favorite producers after I purchased the album). The cover image is epic and I had the case propped up on my stereo for at least three months. The booklet inside contained all of DOOM’s lyrics in written form, which made me marvel even more at his skill and technique after I was able to read the passages I might not have caught while listening. Soon, I could recite DOOM’s verses like an old church going grandmother could quote the bible. He was my favorite rapper no matter what.

Now years later, I’ve heard and own everything DOOM’s put out. I also own all the albums of the people DOOM introduced me to like Madlib and Count Bass D. So, this post is in honor of my idol, DOOM, and his new album “Born Like This”. Keep trying to take over the world my brother and keep lacing us with this hip hop gold.