It’s hard to decide where to start
writing about MF Doom’s 2004 hip hop masterpiece MM…FOOD. Do I start by
introducing MF Doom, an artist who spent the better part of his career
cultivating an enigmatic presence? Or do I kick this post off with grandiose
statements regarding the influence of MM...FOOD on contemporary hip hop?
Both options seem to stand at odds with the rapper’s mission, which has always
seemed more concerned with digging up obscure samples and crafting a character
than elevating the man behind the mask.
The only way that I feel like I can really honor this album is to
compare it to a really fucking good meal. MM...FOOD is like good
barbeque; it’s messy, with lots of sides, but rich with flavor. Every time you
get tired of the sides, there’s always more of that tangy, delicious Doom that
convinces you - just one more bite. By the end of your time with the album,
you’re too full, thinking that maybe you’ll never eat at this restaurant again,
but three months later, you’re back, salivating for more. All of this is to say
that MM...FOOD is not full of itself. It seems designed to be served and
enjoyed on a paper plate, thrown out, and linger on the back of your palate for
days to come.
Doom’s bars are never showy, with a
flow as tender and easy as slow-cooked pork. Across his entire career, Doom
spits some of his hardest verses on this album, making food-based insults that,
taken out of context, could sound like a corny warning from the FDA; “I suggest
you change your diet / It can lead to high blood pressure if you fry it / Or
even a stroke, heart attack, heart disease / It ain’t no starting back once the
arteries start to squeeze,” he raps on album opener “Beef Rap.” Reading this
verse, I can only imagine that you are unimpressed; hearing these words from
Doom sound so utterly vicious though, weaponizing the all-too-real (and very
uncool) threat of a bad diet into something genuinely intimidating. His lyrics
feel somehow familiar yet off the cuff, like turning Mom’s leftovers into
something new.
And yet, Doom’s rapping takes a
backseat to his production. MM...FOOD is sublimely produced almost
entirely by Doom himself, with only the occasional assist from longtime
collaborators Madlib and Count Bass D. Songs on MM...FOOD are typically
constructed around a single sample, a jazzy track that’s been chopped and
screwed and layered with drum fills; Doom’s a chef working in a fully stocked
kitchen. He saves his strongest production for the back half of the album,
replicating that deeply complicated feeling of eating something delicious too
fast. The back-to-back tracks “Rapp Snitch Knishes” and “Vomitspit” highlight
Doom at his most accessible, with deeply groovy and intriguing samples that
wiggle their way into your head relentlessly. The early album cut “Potholderz,”
meanwhile, is one of the most impeccably produced rap songs I’ve ever heard,
comprised in equal parts of turntabling, an earworm-y bass line, and hard
verses from Doom and Count Bass D. This album is painstakingly catchy,
sometimes standing at odds with the monotone - and sometimes intentionally tone
deaf - cadence that Doom raps.
This being an MF Doom album, there
are countless references to supervillians, comic books, and radical politics.
These are the sides that populate the album, and to many listeners, they might
come as a take-em-or-leave-em characteristic. These fit into a larger tendency
across Doom’s discography, which is filled to the brim with mythos and
world-building, sometimes to the detriment of the album; here, though, you
can’t help but laugh at the exasperated screams of civilians shouting their
need for food. MF Doom, the character, is a villain; he’s hoarding all the
food, only serving the civilians when he sees fit. To me, though, this man is a
hero, a genuine innovator in the world of hip-hop. If I could award him a James
Beard award, I would; I think he’d hate that, though.
-
Harry
Todd
