The illest rhyming villain from hip hop’s underground scene, his early life, his rise to fame, and his tragic early death.
Daniel Dumile, more widely known as MF DOOM, was born on July 13, 1971 in London to two immigrant parents. At a young age Dumile moved to New York, Though he remained a British citizen, never gaining American citizenship.
Dumile began DJing after third grade. He used his babysitter’s son’s turntables and it quickly became something he enjoyed, claiming it gave him a rush according to Ambrosia For Heads.
Medium states Dumile had a hobby of reading comic books, this landed him the nickname DOOM after the character Dr Doom from Marvel comic written by Stan Lee, The Fantastic Four.
In 1988, before Dumile rocked the iconic mask and was known as MF DOOM, he was part of a group called KMD or Kausing Much Damage and went by the name Zev Love X. The group consisted of DJ Subroc, Dumile’s brother and Onyx the Birthstone Kid.
The trio eventually signed with Elektra records and created two studio albums. Their album “Mr. Hood” was released in 1991 discussing black empowerment and racism, the album sampled lots of childrens cartoons including, Sesame Street. In 1993, the group recorded their sophomore album “Black Bastards” which discussed more gloomy topics such as substance use and sex.
During the recording of “Black Bastards” Onyx departed from the group, leading Onyx’s verse to be removed from the track “Plumskinnz” leaving only Dumile and Subroc’s verse. Shortly before “Black Bastards” was set to be released Subroc was killed while attempting to cross the Long Island Expressway. The same week as Subroc’s death, Elektra Records dropped KMD from their label due to the cover art for “Black Bastards” being too controversial for their management. The album was bootlegged until it was formally released in 1998 as claimed by Sypher sights.
Dumile left the NYC hip hop scene until he reemerged as MF DOOM in 1997. The supervillian of the underground alternative hip hop scene.
With this new persona, Dumile released a few rough singles under the label Fondle ‘Em records. Eventually, finished versions were released on a full length album called “Operation: Doomsday” completely written and produced by himself. This album cemented MF DOOM as a NYC underground hip hop icon, and quickly became a classic.
After the release of “Operation: Doomsday” Dumile released 2 albums, though they didn’t have as much success as “Madvillainy” by Madvillain, the duo formed by MF DOOM and Madlib. This album would go down in history as one of MF DOOM’s most remembered projects, further solidifying his spot as one of the best hip hop artists. Madlib’s production style is known for complimenting DOOM’s rap style superbly.
MF DOOM’s use of samples really fueled the interest in his music. He didn’t use the samples sparingly and sampled things like older songs or cinema such as The Fantastic Four, Scooby Doo, or Spiderman reported by The Hundreds.
Signing with the new label Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2004, Dumile released the album “MM..FOOD” An anagram for his persona MF DOOM, and each song has a title relating to food or the kitchen. This album was an introduction to MF DOOM for many young people due to his creativity really showing through in this project with his cartoon samples, his double meaning rhymes, and his poignant lyrics left many people coming back for more, according to Sypher Sights
His tragic death
On October 23rd Doom began to experience severe breathing problems after previously taking a new medication prescribed to control his high blood pressure. This medication led to the rapper’s tongue, lips and throat becoming swollen according to The Guardian.
He was sent to A&E department at St James’s hospital, where he was given Adrenaline doses, steroids and oxygen in attempts to help his medical condition get better, The Guardian stated.
On October 31st 2020 his condition had seemed to improve and gave doctors “ False reassurance” said Janine Wolstenholme. This would result in Dumile not getting treatment that was needed.
Jasmine Dumile, Doom’s wife, was not allowed to see her husband until the 31st as covid restrictions did not allow any outside guest permission to enter hospitals with a patient.
That same day his condition would rapidly worsen and the ventilator that was helping him breath would be turned off. Doom would later die due to lack of oxygen to his brain.
Dumile had a history with health issues including kidney failure,heart failure, type 2 diabetes and hepatitis B.