MF DOOM Has Died | Hacker News Reader

MF DOOM Has Died

consequenceofsound.net

466 pointslaurex99 comments

Can we get the title updated to MF DOOM has died?

> Just remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name

So much this. Man's the GOAT. And learning about his death months after is so DOOM. Condolences to the family. I like to think he was a legend at home like he was in the booth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc1hixzYPY is the music video.

Madvillainy is maybe the best hiphop album of all time. I go back and listen to it often and always find something new.

+1 on changing the post title to all caps. This news also probably deserves a black bar. MF DOOM was the greatest lyricist in hiphop and influenced a generation or more of artists.

RIP MF DOOM, Viktor Vaughn, and King Geedorah.

Agreed. And Madlib was always promising there'd be a sequel, but from what I understand MF DOOM always flaked. So all we have is that one perfect album.

Why all caps? Is it an acronym?

The traditional comic book style lettering is also ALL CAPS which may have influenced his preference https://i.imgur.com/Po3IJAa.jpg

I think it's part of the aesthetic of being a comic book villain, because comic books are typically in all caps.

Because he wrote it that way.

Because it's a scream, and all caps are a way to express screaming in text.

it's from his song All Caps.

"Just remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name"

I think part of the all caps thing thing is world building and relates to the graffiti influence in hip hop. All caps being and hand style used in many graffiti tags (and the MF DOOM tag). With DOOM a lot of the time you have to infer the meaning of a rhyme from what you know about DOOMs influence and his other works.

"He write "VIK" in a sick demented handstyle" -Viktor Vaughn (another alias), Raedawn.

Or ‘Monkey Suite’

“DOOM, all capitals, no trick spellin'”

“Got what it take to get it through your thick melon”

“All big letters but it isn’t no acronym” - DOOM, _Ballskin_

MF DOOM used language in such a unique way. Whenever your thoughts seem to settle into well-worn ruts, you can listen to some MF DOOM and all those weird bars and rhymes will stir things up in your noggin. There's nothing quite like it :) Glad to see the man appreciated here on HN. RIP!

I've been relistening today.

Some lyrics like 'Living off borrowed, the clock ticks faster' from Accordian stand out more or take on a different meaning to me now.

Yeah I can’t remember any rapper who trended on HN. Made me glad as well.

"Your favourite rappers favourite rapper" is the best description I ever heard of him.

I love that video where mos def is just reciting DOOM lyrics like a kid in a candy store: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTBIvIDnnv8

A lot of folks mentioning Madvillain here but he went by a couple of other monikers too, also producing incredible albums:

King Geedorah - Take me to your leader [2003] https://open.spotify.com/album/1mrhahrlJu5JfzgeV6Cy8t?si=KqY...

Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain [also 2003] https://open.spotify.com/album/7HPjcPD2cr8E5oHvVAmBp7?si=sJM...

If you haven't heard these yet I highly recommend checking them out.

His music was a huge part of my early adult years and this news was a surprising and sad way to end the year :(

Vaudeville Villain is possibly my favourite work by him and i didn't like it on release. It was very much an album ahead of it's time and has grown on me massively with time.

It also has the only unmasked music video DOOM appearance I'm aware of (and on a total banger) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyiB-lkQBFY

The extremely distinctive MARTA train sample in 'Lickupon' actually makes me cri evrytiem as a native Georgian who misses Atlanta a lot https://youtu.be/gupcleKD5dw?t=144

Huh, I always thought that sample was from the BART in the Bay Area. The two sound really familiar. Thanks for sharing, that’s my favorite track of his.

DOOM lived in Atlanta from the time of Operation Doomsday until he got deported to UK in 2010. Cheers :)

Just to add to this list -

Dangerdoom - MF DOOM and DJ Danger Mouse https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjyAiNZYWkGYdV_OWY3n9...

KMD - Zeb Love X (MF DOOM) and DJ Subroc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckprPLMXj5Y

Thank you DOOM for your unique and creative views on life and your perseverance through unforeseeable tragedy. Listening to Black Bastards and then Operation Doomsday is like watching a person's sanity snap in a moment before your eyes - but from the ashes emerged the Metal Faced master. We all wear our masks, some are just shiner than others.

Some personal favorites-

Gorillaz - November Has Come https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGc9mgpvtxU

MF DOOM - Microwave Mayonnaise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHmiQvNzLdc

OMEGAH RED ft. MF DOOM and RZA - Books of War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTCp0kJYF30

Czarface Meets Metalface - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQtbkM715fg&list=PLKNFTFe6yx...

For those unfamiliar with MF DOOM, this video is a pretty good introduction to why he was considered to be technically brilliant.

https://youtu.be/QWveXdj6oZU?t=571

(Skip to 9:31 if the link doesn't take you there automatically)

MF DOOM brought me and so many others joy over a long and mind-blowing career. He had a varied set of collaborators, and just so many artistic achievements. So much of his work is now seminal in underground hip-hop (Madvillainy, Operation Doomsday, King Geedorah are just the first to come my to mind). It’s hard to overstate the impact he had with his meticulously constructed rhyme schemes and lyrics, and his unique tone and artistry in production. I also greatly appreciated the humor and liveliness he brought to his work.

I have to admit that this was really hard for me to process at first, and it will probably be that way for a while. I think this is the first time an artist I love so much has passed away. His music buoyed me through hard times and gave color to happy times.

Best wishes to his family, and those who knew him and worked with him closely. Undoubtedly he has left a beautiful and inscrutable mark on this world, and the world is better for it.

> On Doomsday!, ever since the womb ‘til I'm back where my brother went,

> that's what my tomb will say

> Right above my government; Dumile

> Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say?

> To the gone and lost forever like "Oh My Darling Clementine"

> He hold his heart when he telling rhyme

> When it's his time, I hope his soul go to Heaven

> He nasty like the old time Old No. 7

It hits even harder when he repeats and switches it up :(

> Doomsday

> Ever since the womb ‘til I'm back to the essence

> Read it off the tomb

> Either engraved or unmarked grave, who's to say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayfv0SOjvRs

He is responsible for one of Wikipedia's more persistent edit wars. He preferred his name to be styled in all caps, but Wikipedia's style guide requires names to be capitalized more conventionally.

His Wikipedia page therefore suffered fairly persistent revert-wars until it was recently made semi-protected.

Sounds like it's straight out of a "falsehoods programmers believe about names" article. I was going to pose my opinion on the topic, then realised WP being WP, that horse has already been flogged by committee.

This is a knife in the gut right now. I had listened to him on and off since 05 or so. Just recently, I rediscovered "The Mouse and the Mask" and have been humming the bars to Sofa King for the last week or two.

RIP DOOM.

Now repeat after me... I am... sofa king...

Not so fast, loses meaning :)

This was my most listened to record of 2009 and it always brings me immediately back to that time. I still love it. Real sad.

I think it's one of his most underrated albums- at least I never hear about people talk about it. I had it burned to a CD because my college car was too old to have anything else. I would only go through the effort of burning CDs I loved front to back and this was one of the most-played. The Space Ghost song near the end used to make me feel nostalgic. Now I feel nostalgic for that nostalgia... meta-nostalgia?

MF DOOM is the name I would give when asked my favorite artist, across medium. His beat tape Special Herb is the name I would give when asked my desert island album. You brought immense joy to me and my friends, thank you.

Wow, very sad. I remember listening to Accordion[1] for the first time and thinking it sounded like no hiphop I'd heard before (no chorus, really unconventional song structure, dense lyrics, an accordion providing the hook). That was the gateway to the rest of DOOM's discography for me.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpaonSDPw7Y

Trippy to have read this news here first, and not elsewhere.

for real...

When I was a student, I remember listing to his collaboration with Madlib, 'Madvilliany' and loving it.

Here it is if anyone is interested.

https://youtu.be/zQ0yXh_ADlQ

Greatest rap album of all time IMO

On the bright side, at least 2021 is guaranteed to be better in that the GOAT can't die.

His music helped me find a big part of who I am.

This really is hard man, its hit me harder than I'd like to admit. MF DOOM really was one of the greats and it's humbling to see so much love on hn for him.

Really sad news.

For me Four Tet's remixs of Great day and Money folder were as close to perfect as I've heard.

https://youtu.be/xD4g2Mg4AJc https://youtu.be/dFis_o-QpD8

Saw his "Doomposter" show in Chicago back in 2010 when a little person lip synced his songs in costume. Kind of irritating at the time but it's one of my most memorable shows and I remember Mos Def trying to calm down the crowd. RIP. Love all the Doom stuff, Madvillainy, Metal Fingers Special Herbs, and more.

Mm Food and Doomsday, all time greatest hip hop albums. He's the most brilliant rappers to exist. Not even an exaggeration. From concept, to title, to lyrics, to album as a whole cohesive piece of work... you'll have a hard time finding anything that comes close (maybe Quas or Jay Electronica... maybe)

An underrated DOOM favorite of mine.

https://youtu.be/xmPmtYRB1TE

That whole album. I can listen to it on repeat and never bore. I don't think I've ever managed to sit through a whole album by anybody but DOOM, and here he is, looping to no end.

You should really give more whole albums a try. A lot of great artists put a lot of time into making there whole albums cohesive experiences.

Deeply hurts knowing I'd specifically checked twice to see if there's info on anything new in the works while he's been dead.

MF DOOM created great music that I'm sure a decent bit of HN users who haven't heard of him would enjoy.

This one hit me today. One of the most original dudes. Doomsday was my favorite album of his but they are all amazing.

Heartbreaking. And here I thought the pain of 2020 was over already. RIP

Reality is, years don't mark anything. People have been saying "x year is the worst" increasingly for the last 4 years, and 2020 is the only recent one that actually fits. Tomorrow isn't going to shift anything, it's just how we keep track of time. Expecting a year to contain itself is what leads to this yearly disappointment everyone seems to experience. What I find frustrating, is that all people can say about most deaths now a day is "this year is the worst". No sentiments, nothing about the person who's passed. Just self absorbed focus on how this year sucks (they all suck apparently if I were to listen to people yearly). I wish we'd celebrate the person by default instead.

MF DOOM was one of the greats. One of the only reasons I could get into hip hop. Really heartbreaking.

I like to take the other perspective and take some time to appreciate what they gave to the world.

It's not so much a loss as it is a chance to celebrate what still remains, and to not take it for granted or keep expecting more.

For anyone reading this news, MF DOOM's work takes on a new life as people come to experience it for themselves, for the first time.

> Expecting a year to contain itself is what leads to this yearly disappointment everyone seems to experience.

This thought reminds me of Utah Phillips in Ani DiFranco's song "Bridges":

> Fifties, sixties, seventies, nineties, that whole idea of decade packages. Things don’t happen that way. The Vietnam War heated up in 1965 and ended in 1975. Well, what’s that got to do with decades? No, that packaging of time is a journalistic convenience that they use to trivialize and to dismiss important events and important ideas. I defy that.

(And I say this having myself just told a family member that I'm sure people everywhere are happy for 2020 to be over.)

“The past didn’t go anywhere” - great album, I haven’t played it in years but some lines come to mind regularly.

RIP to one of the most genuinely innovative (both musically and personally) musicians for decades.

Crazy to think MF had passed away when I wrote this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25026544

Fuck, this hit me hard at 00:49 2021 :(

I don't think there's any genre of music that gets even close to the potential expressivity and depth of hip-hop. It's words on sick beats. And there are some amazing wordsmiths out there.

RIP MF DOOM

One of the true greats, very deeply saddened to hear this. Growing up he meant a lot to me. It was just the other day I was trying to find out if he was going to drop a new album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayfv0SOjvRs&feature=emb_titl...

It's kinda appropriate (not in a bad way) to wait until 2021 to announce this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tElMTHRV2f0

I don't want to speculate on causation but his son died a couple years ago too :( https://www.xxlmag.com/mf-doom-son-passes-away/

MF DOOM did a song called "Iron Rose" with Cannibal Ox that, per Spotify, I listened to more times in 2020 than any other song, and I listen to songs I like on repeat a lot.

R.I.P.

Mine was Hoe Cakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNB5eIiIsUc) at #4.

I was a little surprised how much DOOM I listened to on Spotify in 2020. I two tracks from MM...FOOD in my top 20 (the other was Guinnesses (feat. Angelika & 4ize) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MW4d-Cp19E), and some collaborations (J Dilla, Avalanches/Danny Brown) farther down the list.

This is sad. I didn't even know his real name (Daniel Dumile), nor that he was actually British (mostly raised in NY). Weird to mourn the passing of someone you've never met and barely knew anything about, but he was only 49. Like a friend of mine once said in response to another artist's death: "something that brought me joy has disappeared from this world." He will be missed.

Supa!

MF DOOM was a master of his craft. Sad to hear he's passed.

Very sad news. Quite interesting that exactly two months after his death passed before it was revealed. Perhaps it was a wish of MF Doom?

Seems like very suitable for his character. Anyway, this is a big loss...

I think back to the line "MF DOOM, he's like D.B. Cooper" off of Hoe Cakes on the album MM..FOOD. He always was an enigma, and I guess having your passing be a secret for that long, for someone that influential, in the age of social media, just goes to show that it wasn't just an act.

I can't believe he's been dead for months, the Instagram post that announced it says he passed away on Oct. 31st.

That is so MF DOOM, though

There's probably a worse way this year could have ended, but for me, right now, I don't see that universe

Not unmarked. Never the gas face. Something to remember like the Alamo. Soul gone to heaven. Only played the games that he won at.

Class ical slapstick rappers need chapstick

Only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self destruct.

A villain in your land, in his land, a ruler.

Off to get our wigs twisted back, within reason.

2020 is a terrible year, RIP Dumile.

Long time MF DOOM fan. Saw him live 3 times. One time was almost certainly an impersonator which people got angry about. I personally felt it was an innovative and funny move which played into the whole persona. He brought a lot of innovation to the genre.

RIP: I didn't know DOOM's fanbase crosses platforms in this way. I am thinking of creating a website just for dedicating a poolside.fm like website just for DOOM's music.

Wait... He died in OCTOBER? Hiding that fact in itself, is a big story.

There was a rumor on Twitter that he died on Halloween and I don't think anyone thought anything of it.

His SADEVILLIAN album is great.

See: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RZSY9lO0S-I

An amazing arist. I will have One Beer for him. RIP

https://youtu.be/wNGnCLod-qg

RIP. Definitely one of my favorite artists.

Heard about him through some music searching. He's "my favorite rapper's favorite rapper".

:( u could never guess his lyrics when listening to his songs. S uch a great artist.

There won't be another artist like him, his rhymes are legendary.

According to a seemingly verifiable cousin he died of an embolism. Man, is that shit.

https://old.reddit.com/user/Avinson1275/comments/

My favorite rapper's favorite rapper.

RIP, Doom. You will be missed.

word to el muerto cucaracha exoskeleton

RIP

MF DOOM...

God damn, cancer the likely culprit?

While speculation is mostly bad, I'm just seriously hoping it wasn't suicide. Given the fact he had his wife and another child I'd presume it's highly likely that it wasn't though.

I remember finding out about his kid dying a bit after it happened. Mainly because every few months I'd check in to see if there's any word on anything new coming out - things had come to a bit of a lull. Then around a year after his kids death, once again checking back in for anything new - I'd seen somebody say something along the lines of "His teen son fucking died man. For all we know, he could seriously want nothing to do with rapping anymore after such a big and shitty life event"

For whatever reason, that logic definitely struck a chord with me. Pretty much cut my expectations for new material and left me with being thankful for everything he'd made.

While I'd enjoy knowing the cause of death, I respect the privacy of his family more and understand it may never come out.

Wow, what happened?

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