The Witzard

Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "This post is from DOOM's [wife], Jasmine. If Jas wrote it, it's legit. I'll tell some DOOM stories a bit later, for now, I need to process... Dude made me laugh and made me furious, almost got me fired and I STILL loved him. Rest In Power to one of the greatest to ever do it. Okay, here's a DOOM story or two: Daniel Dumile AKA MF DOOM...

CREDIT: Arturo Torres (@arturodraws) Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. As tribute, Ron Gallo shares a remix of MF DOOM's "[GAZZILLION] EAR," along with this personal statement: "To date, I don't think an [artist's] death has hit me as much as MF DOOM and I did not expect that until it happened. That feels like the DOOM way—he's like a shadow lurking genius, a...

KID ACNE is a UK-based artist, illustrator, print-maker, and emcee. Many of you may recognize KID ACNE's name from Part II our recent Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique 30th Anniversary All-around Breakdown , AKA #PB30 . KID ACNE submitted a blurb on Track 12. "What Comes Around" and supplied original artwork from Beck's Music Inspired Art series. "CREST OF A WAVE" is KID ACNE 's first release, under his own name, since 2007's Romance Ain't Dead (LP) & Romance Ain't Beats (EP.) He has, of course, issued a number of releases since Romance Ain't Dead/Beats as MONGRELS with beat-maker Benjamin "Benjamin" Hatton , including 2016's critically-acclaimed Attack The Monolith . "CREST OF A WAVE" features New Kingdom emcee NOSAJ , as well as Westside Gunn, Vic Spencer & Conway producer Spectacular Diagnostics "behind the boards." It's the first official offering from KID ACNE 's upcoming...

DOOM XMAS (MF Doom remixes) by Cookin Soul "Why spend X-mas Eve waiting for some extra-fat white dude to come bursting through the ceiling... when you can spend X-mas Eve with yours truly, The Super-Villain , DOOM !!? HO, HO, HO!" DOOM himself proclaims within the opening bars of "Xmas with DOOM (Intro)." It appears as though the holiday greeting stems from [adult swim] 's 2006 Christmas with DOOM holiday special, which was used to help promote either Danger Mouse & MF DOOM AKA DANGERMOUSE 's THE MOUSE & THE MASK or its follow-up, Occult Hymn EP . DOOM 's jolly refrain has now been re-purposed as part of Spanish beat-maker and producer Cookin' Soul 's latest creation, DOOM XMAS (MF DOOM Remixes) a collection of re-works of The Metal Face Villain himself. DOOM XMAS serves as a quasi-follow-up to Cookin' Soul 's like-minded 2012 Ready for Xmas (Biggie Remixes.) Earlier this year, DOOM reunited with "Ka-Bang!...

"Back in 2005, super-producer Danger Mouse and Hip-Hop super-villain DOOM came together for THE MOUSE AND THE MASK , a collaborative album released under the name DANGERDOOM . Among DOOM 's most successful projects both critically and commercially, the album was inspired by Cartoon Network 's late-night [adult swim] programming slate and includes appearances from Aqua Teen Hunger Force , Space Ghost, Harvey Birdman , and more. THE MOUSE AND THE MASK also features guest spots from Talib Kweli , Ghostface Killah, and Cee-Lo Green ," METALFACE Records wrote within a villainous statement; they're gearing up to unleash a 3xLP and deluxe CD edition of DANGERDOOM 's critically-acclaimed first and last album, THE MOUSE AND THE MASK this upcoming May 5th. Let me make an attempt to best convey the musical climate THE MOUSE AND THE MASK was released into (albeit, on Punk/Hardcore label Epitaph Records )... prior to forming DANGERDOOM , Danger Mouse 's las...

"In "Rushing Forever," it starts me trying to impress this girl with my game. We thought it would be cool to incorporate tennis because they have the love term "and... sometimes relationships can be a back-and-forth thing." Obviously, from my reaction at the end, I didn't win her over. I then take her to the park for a little... one-on-one picnic that seems to break through. There's an hour glass showing my impatience and some clips in the woods during the final performance where she's... showing resistance, but in the end, we find each other and walk off... "Rushing Forever" is produced by HulyOnTheBeat and I actually recorded this six years ago." Palm Beach rapper-producer Eric Biddines wrote the above statement within a series of texts he sent me over this past weekend. Biddines released three albums and two EP's-worth of material on his own planetcoffeebean label imprint between 2010-12, before signing with Juggerna...

"Previously unheard vintage Thom Yorke remix of DOOM's "Gazzillion Ear." Thom sent us this nasty re-working back in 2009. It was marked "Man On Fire Remix," but no one heard it until last night when he dropped it on an epic [installment] of Benji B's BBC Radio 1 show," LexRecords wrote within a brief statement attached to their Thursday, September 8th Soundcloud upload of DOOM's mysterious "Gazzillion Ear (Thom Yorke Gazilli Remix)." It seems as though DOOM and long-time Radiohead frontman have maintained a mutual admiration for each other's work and wildly different aesthetics since around 2008-09—Yorke has included not only DOOM , but countless J Dilla , Madlib, Flying Lotus , Quasimoto, and MADVILLAIN tracks within numerous BBC Radio 1 DJ sets. Thom Yorke 's latest nearly 3-hour Benji B BBC Radio 1 DJ set included everything from Frank Ocean and Sampha to James Blake & Vince Staples' "Timeless...

" Fudge came together during several sessions in the summer and fall of 2015 at Nick Hook 's Green Point studio. Prefuse 73 [Guillermo Scott Herren] brought along a hard drive full of beats. [Michael] Christmas wrote to the instrumentals in the studio, and recorded the vocals the same day, as friends swung by to check it out; some of the drop-ins at the studio ended up joining in the recording, not least D.R.A.M. who brings lifted soul vocals on the album track "All Points South,'" Lex Records wrote within a comprehensive on-site Fudge press release earlier this past week. Although this is Herren's first full-length recorded alongside an emcee, he's previously worked with a number of revered Hip-Hop legends including, but not limited to Ghostface Killah , Jewel-runner El-P, Mos Def , Aesop Rock, fellow Lex label mate DOOM , GZA, Death Grips drummer Zach Hill , and RJD2; while Michael Christmas is "a 22-year-old Boston emcee, who has...

Fresh on the heels of their forthcoming collaborative Jazz-Rap album with Ghostface Killah , awesomely titled Sour Soul , Canadian -bred instrumental trio BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) have spearheaded an unofficial GHOSTDOOM/DOOMSTARKS "reunion;" Ghostface and infrequent rapping partner/producer, [MF] DOOM have been teasing their mythical tentatively titled "Swift & Changeable" album for about 10 years now. BBNG recruited Ghostface Killah & DOOM for their third Sour Soul pre-release track, "Ray Gun," which as a recently released statement reads, "was inspired by 1960's and [70's] music, taking inspiration from the recording techniques and production of that era." While "Ray Gun"' s companion retro-fitted Rob Schroeder (Lodger Films) -directed video doesn't appear to feature BBNG, Ghostface Killah , or DOOM , "the video instantly transports you into a bizarre retro-futuristic world as "The Mask" ...

It's pretty wild to think that 17-year-old emcee Bishop Nehru 's major label debut is entirely produced by mysterious rapper-producer MF DOOM and will likely see a release on Nas' newly-established Mass Appeal Records imprint. While he's currently touring across Europe with Nasty Nas himself, Lex Records unleashed "Darkness" (sub-titled HBU ) late Monday afternoon, the first taste of Bishop Nehru & DOOM 's long-rumored NehruvianDOOM LP. It's seemingly a dusty horn-assisted beat culled from DOOM 's expansive 10-volume Special Herbs instrumental series, which @BishopNehru recently told a Twitter follower is "the only one" harvested from the nearly 90 track collection; Nehru promptly replied, "of course he raps" when brazenly asked by another fan if " DOOM [is] gonna be spitting on the album or just producing?" Bishop Nehru self-directed "Darkness"' s companion under his birth name Markel ...

"WE REMIXED THE BEAT FOR "GUV'NOR" AND DOOM SPAT NEW VERSES ON THE TRACK," BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) Tweeted almost immediately preceding Noisey's world premier of the JJ DOOM remix, which was lifted from Keys to The Kuffs (Butter Edition) . Lex Records plans to unleash the expanded and remixed album version on August 21st, but sadly the 12" picture discs won't ship until the end of October; The 2-CD set includes the original 14-track album, plus 4 BRAND NEW tracks and a gaggle of all-star remixes, 2 of which make use of expanded DOOM verses, too. In addition to BBNG and in-house producer Jneiro Jarel , Butter Edition features glitched-out remix contributions from Beck , Clams Casino, Radiohead members Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood , and TV on The Radio mega-producer Dave Sitek . Chester Hansen, Alex Sowinski & Matt Tavares AKA BADBADNOTGOOD previously recorded and self-released a blazin' instrumental Jazz cover titled "DO...

I read some fragments from a partially disjointed Noisey interview with Jeff Broadway and Peanut Butter Wolf , the director of forthcoming documentary "Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records" and the Indie Hip-Hop label's co-founder the other day. One particularly interesting [tid]bit dealt with the film's star-studded interview section; when the interviewer said, " Kanye must've been a hard get," Broadway quickly responded, "Actually, as far as who took the most convincing, that'd be DOOM ." Yep, 1/2 of MADVILLAIN , the walking enigma formerly known as MF DOOM was hard to track down - Go figure! ha Preceded by a behind-the-scenes making-the-video segment the other day, Noisey UK ( DOOM currently resides in South London ) released the Steve "ESPO" Powers -directed "BOOKHEAD" clip late Wednesday afternoon. Lex Records must really have DOOM in a tight nut-hold, cause they're already r...

It's a collaboration that no one really expected, but everyone secretly dreamt about and longed for: [MF] DOOM & Clams Casino ! We're talkin' about the most mysterious man in Hip-Hop and rising Cloud Rap beat-maker, Mike Volpe (Clams Casino). The Nutley, NJ native's self-released Instrumentals 1-2 mixtapes (2011-12) are arguably right up there with classic DOOM albums Operation: Doomsday , Mm.. Food, and MADVILLAINY , and MF DOOM Meets Clutchy Hopkins. @clammyclams Tweeted early Monday morning, "new track (feat. DOOM ) available now at new site CLAMMYCLAMS.COM ," which in turn, linked to Soundcloud . "BOOKFIEND" essentially features DOOM spitting wordy, dense rhymes about occult leader Alistair Crowly , Kindle tablets, allusions to "November Has Come," whatever the Hell Tetragrammaton is, and Netflix over a spaced out Clams Casino beat... "It's Netflix to the head, second best trick to get chicks to the bed....

I wonder if [MF] DOOM ended up making an appearance @ The London Olympics a couple weeks ago... or could it have the fine doings of a skillfully-trained " DOOM-poster !?" Either way, DOOM has been living "across the pond" due to a scattered details exile since about 2010, which was when/where he originally linked up with Jneiro Jarel . KEY TO THE KUFFS is the resulting album that was slowly pieced together, recorded under the dual-moniker "JJ DOOM," and featuring guest verses from Damon Albarn, Khujo Goodie , Beth Gibbons, and Boston Fielder - members of Gorillaz , Goodie Mob , and Portishead aided fame (respectively). DOOM is a very left-field, mysterious [prolific] kind of guy and KEY TO THE KUFFS really seems like a fitting album to be released in his 25th year as a performer! Ninian Doff directed the highly- Experimental , split-screen music video for "Guv'nor" as part of Rizlab Project #4 , which was ultimately unveiled late W...

They say that some of the best collaborative results come out of mutual admiration and friendship. Daniel Dumile AKA Zev Love X [MF] DOOM and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) managed to form their own professional bond around 2007-09. First off, Yorke featured a few DOOM -affiliated tracks within his various DJ mixes/playlists. He then proceeded to concoct a remix of "GAZILLION EAR," a track from DOOM 's very own Born Like This (2009). Talking to the press in March 2011, Dumile seemingly revealed plans to lay down a full album's-worth of material of material with Thom Yorke . Lex Records has now liberated what appears to be the preliminary fruits of DOOM & Yorke 's labors. Diligently produced and melded along with the technical assistance of Radiohead guitarist-producer Jonny Greenwood , "Retarded Fren" was quietly released late last night (11/1-2). Serving as Track #1 from Lex Records' upcoming 10-year retrospective compilation "Complex,...