From the underground to the cult: the saga of MF DOOM

An essential name for any rap fan, MF DOOM has a unique ability and a tremendous dedication to the art of rap. The favorite rapper of your favorite rapper. He was never the most popular — thriving in the underground scene, being extremely prolific both in his own releases and his hundreds of collaborations.

He didn't care about appearance, status, or popularity. His music was not made to be commercially easy, and he never compromised his artistic integrity to please the public. He was a true master of the game, always true to himself and his art. He was as pure as it could be.

MF DOOM was about the art — and only about the art.

In this article, we dive into his entire journey — from his childhood and attachment to comics, to his connection with hip hop, KMD, his solo career, and his varied personas.

The spark of hip hop

Daniel Dumile was born in England but grew up on Long Island, New York, in a home marked by cultural and intellectual discipline. His mother was a religious and highly politicized woman, who encouraged her children to study black culture, African history, and Islam. The family even adopted the principles of the Nation of Islam and later the Ansaaru Allah group, an African-American Islamic sect that directly influenced Doom's lyrical imagination.

He started by listening to the radio, participating in graffiti and breakdance crews on Long Island. “My first experience with the sound we now call hip hop was listening to the radio. Back then, it was WBLS, with Frankie Crocker, playing songs like Grover Washington Jr. and others that had that vibe.”, he recounts.

Even as a child, he and his friends had older brothers who were already involved with parties, DJs, and played records at home. Looking at the older guys, he wanted to learn that. It was, in fact, feeling ‘belonging’ when he started in a graffiti crew called KMD from Freeport. They drew, created art, and breakdanced. Over time, the crew became more involved with music, recording tapes, practicing rhymes, until the musical aspect became the main focus.

In neighboring Queens, lived a young man named MC Serch. Serch and Dumile quickly became friends, and when Serch and his group 3rd Bass signed a contract with Def Jam, he asked Dumile if he wanted to do a verse on one of their songs.

The result was “Gas Face”, from 1990. Built over the piano of “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, the track became one of the most iconic singles of what is now known as the Golden Age of hip hop. “I kind of came up with the concept idea. We used to have a lot of fun, so I made up the term ‘gas face’ — it's just that face you make when you're shocked or surprised. Like when someone catches you off guard.”, Daniel remembers.

Shortly after, KMD signed with Elektra Records and began working on their debut album, Mr. Hood (1991). They had changed the meaning of the name — now it was “a Positive Cause in a Very Damaged Society” — and added a third member, Onyx The Birthstone Kid. Dumile and his brother were still teenagers and would go from Long Island to the Chung King studio in Manhattan every night. “We recorded the whole album at night. The record is exactly how it was: me at my mom's house, making beats, cutting hair to earn some extra cash, trading records and such. Fun times, you know? It was adolescence, that young phase.”

Maturation in “Black Bastards”

Mr. Hood was KMD's first album, released in 1991, after being discovered by Dante Ross, who heard them on the “The Gas Face” track by NY group 3rd Bass. At the time, the group identified as part of the Jund Ansar Allah community (armed Islamic organization) and the album in question addressed black racial issues in the U.S., religion, pan-Africanism, and racism — balancing the weight of the themes with samples from Sesame Street. Light and vibrant, the album was just half a generation behind De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest but seemed to belong to someone much younger.

But it was in 1993, with the album Black Bastards, that the tone changed radically. “The second album really comes from a lot of experiences we went through after the first one. I was about 18, 19 when I made the first one, so I was still maturing, learning about life and the industry.”, DOOM comments. Over time, it became necessary to grow, to understand society better and deal with the challenges of the music market, which is reflected in the more aggressive tone of the second album.

The criticisms and controversial imagery led Elektra to shelve the album and terminate the group's contract. “I think it was considered too controversial for the label. They didn't know how to sell it, so they preferred not to release it.”, DOOM comments. The album was bootlegged and gave the group a cult status, being officially released only in 2000.

Still in 1993, a tragedy would forever mark Daniel's life: DJ Subroc, his brother, was fatally struck by a vehicle while trying to cross the Long Island Expressway on foot. This was the end of the group.

RIP Subroc

Dingilizwe Dumile, DOOM's brother, died at only 19 years old on April 23, 1993, the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Subroc was the other half of KMD (Kausing Much Damage) and the two brothers were the brains behind it. Rodan and Onyx also briefly joined the group, but their participation was short-lived. Subroc's death was one of the significant early tragedies in Daniel's life — he passed away a year before the first KMD album was released, which was almost finished.

“We were almost done with the album, and then the accident happened where Sub lost his life. I finished the album anyway, because it just needed a little more. If it had happened to me, he would have finished it too.”

DOOM had to be strong and take responsibility at that moment, as he was the oldest. Besides the loss of his brother, the album was also not released and the contract with the label ended, with some weak justifications. Black Bastards featured on its cover the Sambo — a character synonymous with racial offense — being hanged and with a punch to the eye (drawn by DOOM). The hanging itself was just a way to put an end to a character.

The attachment to KMD's first album was so great that, at Dingilizwe's funeral, Daniel stood by the coffin with a Boombox, playing the unfinished songs. After that, he disappeared. He went to Atlanta and, there in 1997, he reappeared masked. It was his rebirth and, in 2000, he officially released his album for the first time.

“It was summer, a beautiful day, and I was trying to think about things… then it hit me. If I was going to come back, it would have to be as DOOM. It came to my mind out of nowhere: if I ever get the chance to do this again, it will be like this — at this more public, surface level.”

The rebirth as MF DOOM

DOOM recounts, in an interview with Red Bull Music Academy, from 2015, that his resurgence as MF DOOM was planned since the time of KMD. Furthermore, while still working on Black Bastards, he and Subroc were already thinking about pursuing solo careers, each with a different character. “Even while we were working on Black Bastards, Sub and I were going to make solo records, each with their character. I was going to do Doom from that time, and he was going to release his too.”

After Subroc's death and the end of KMD, DOOM continued developing the MF DOOM character and the music until Bobbito heard the material and decided to release it. Bobbito Garcia was a close friend of DOOM, worked at Def Jam at the time, and was starting his own label (Fondle ‘Em Records). He realized that DOOM was making music, heard some of his tapes, and invited him to release some sounds. “That reignited everything,” he states.

In 1997, Fondle ‘Em released Doom's first single, “Dead Bent”. They sold a thousand copies in a month, and he was impressed, seeing that it could work. Operation: Doomsday was then released in 1999. It was around this time that he began to hide his face in public. He would show up at New York hip-hop clubs during open mic nights wearing pantyhose over his face.

Regarding the mask, Doom explains, “The real reason is that I’m so ugly I don’t want to distract the audience when I get on stage. I don’t even know if I could finish a song — they would start throwing tomatoes.”

The masked villain

Zev Love X was the original stage name, used still during the time of KMD. But Zev and DOOM are not completely separate characters, but rather different aspects of his artistic identity. Zev is his earlier phase, younger and lighter, while DOOM emerges after difficult experiences, bringing a deeper and more serious perspective. “The DOOM character is more serious, more reflective, while Zev was lighter. Doom went through things that Zev hadn’t yet experienced.” They include the death of his brother, the “disappearance” of KMD, the cancellation by Elektra that gave him the mask.

Since 1997, DOOM has performed masked. In the beginning, it was pantyhose covering his face, to maintain anonymity and symbolize an “artistic rebirth” after the traumas of losing brother Subroc and the cancellation of KMD's album. Shortly after, when he released his first solo album (Operation: Doomsday), he adopted the metal mask inspired by Marvel's Doctor Doom, which became his definitive visual signature.

The mask comes from the movie Gladiator, which was sold as replicas from the film. DOOM recounts that a friend (Lord Scott 79), a graffiti artist who also raps, saw it and said it would be perfect for the character. It was like a collector's item, with a wooden stand for display. “You know those work helmets that have an internal plastic adjustment? He took one of those and adapted it to the mask. He set this up for me. After that, I chromed it, even added a ruby. That’s how the mask came to be.”, he comments in a 2004 interview.

At that time, hip hop was becoming increasingly visual and commercial, with the industry placing more importance on artists' appearance than on the quality of music. The mask symbolizes rejection of the focus on appearance and values music above image. “What I did was come up with the idea that it doesn’t matter how I look, it doesn’t matter how the artist looks, it matters how he sounds. The mask represents that rebellion against selling the product as a human being. It’s more about the sound.”

And of course, theatricality is also present — the show becomes more interesting, but without losing focus on the message. Ultimately, it’s a symbol of authenticity and a resistance to the superficiality of the industry.

Your creative process

MF DOOM's creative process begins with the beat, which inspires the lyrics, and involves a lot of experimentation with samples and sound collages. According to him, it starts with producing the beat before thinking about the lyrics. The beat serves as a foundation and inspiration for the rest of the song. “What I generally do when I’m producing an album is create the beat first. Then, the beat inspires the lyrics.”

DOOM prefers not to overdo the production, keeping the music close to the original and leaving space for the listener's imagination. “I don’t overdo it too much, I like to keep it as close to the original as possible, leaving something for the imagination, but enough to get the message across.”

“Sometimes, I set it aside for a few months and then come back to find that last piece that was missing,” he comments. The process can be long and nonlinear, with him putting the music aside for a time and returning later to add details or find the missing element.

His references come from old radio shows, audio collages, and production styles from the 80s. The sources are countless — old VHS tapes, vinyl records, radios, movies, and even comedies. It’s a process that makes the listening experience rich and unpredictable. For him, finding and mixing obscure sounds is part of the art.

For writing, Bukowski is, surprisingly, his main reference. Calling himself a writer numerous times, Daniel does not get influenced by what others were doing, essentially like real writers. “If really good writers were not authentic, they wouldn’t be interesting. His writing style always surprised me. I’d read thinking I knew where he was going, and he would turn left and flip everything upside down. Many times. Each story was unique. Even today, when I feel stuck or want to relax, I pick up Bukowski and read a short story. His things are so weird that they make me feel normal. I can’t be weirder than that guy [laughs], which is great, because when you understand where the extremes are, you can do anything.”, he states.

Music is only ready when he feels it's complete, but he admits, in an interview, that he could keep tweaking indefinitely. “I know it’s ready when I feel that it’s complete, but I could keep working on it forever.”

He defines himself, above all, as a writer, even being an MC and producer. “I want my songs to be like a classic book, well-written, that you want to hear again and pass it to a friend.”, he comments. His rhymes are always one or two steps to the left, keeping the story interesting and surprising the listener.

“There’s hip hop done any old way, just for fun, and there’s the really well-crafted stuff. I try to make that second type, the quality one.”

The varied personas

His numerous personas aim to enrich his narratives and keep his music interesting. Each has its own characteristics and stories. MF DOOM, Viktor Vaughn, and King Geedorah are them.

For him, MF DOOM is inspired by the villains of comic books, especially Marvel's Doctor Doom. “He’s the typical villain in any story, often misunderstood, seen as the bad guy, but with a heart of gold. He’s like a Robin Hood, loved by the people, but not necessarily by the authorities.” He represents someone who doesn’t care about fame, but rather about the message and the art.

Viktor Vaughn is the young rebel, a more impulsive and bold version. “Viktor is younger, like 18 or 19, thinks he knows everything, often disagrees with DOOM, but still admires him,” he claims. With Viktor, DOOM can explore themes and styles in a more experimental and even conflicting way.

King Geedorah is from another world: inspired by the three-headed monster from Godzilla movies. “Geedorah is not even from Earth, it’s an ethereal being, a golden reptilian 300 feet tall, that transmits messages to DOOM.” He serves as a kind of inspiration channel, bringing “other planet” ideas to DOOM.

DOOM states that creating these multiple characters is a way to avoid monotony in the narrative and to bring different perspectives to his songs, like in films with multiple characters, for example.

“Having several characters allows me to tell stories from different perspectives, even with conflicting opinions.”

He has moments: depending on the time, one persona may be more highlighted than the others, but they all coexist and can resurface at any moment. He considers himself, above all, a writer. The most important thing for him is the writing, the construction of intelligent rhymes and narratives, always surprising the listener. “I always describe myself as a writer, even being an MC or producer. What I do is write. I have notebooks to prove it, a lot of writing, more than I thought I would do.”

DOOM mentions in an interview that he has even thought about making an album with all his personas interacting or “battling”. “Actually, there’s a little rap beef going on now between Vic and DOOM. Vic is a bit jealous because DOOM is shining more, so he’s thinking about releasing a diss track,” he jokes.

The most interesting aspect of all this is that the rhymes rarely reveal the narrator's identity. DOOM's characters appear as guests on each other's albums; they help each other in production; and Dumile floats above them, unafraid to use the second or third person. He emphasizes that all these characters are characters, not facets of his (or Doom's) personality. “I never get in the way,” he states. “I stay out of it — I think I’m too boring, it wouldn’t be fun. It has to be these guys.”

The two Ms: MF DOOM and Madlib

DOOM recounts that he received a call from Peanut Butter Wolf, from the Stones Throw record label, introducing Madlib and saying that he wanted to make a record together. They had similar views on music but unique styles. The collaboration between the two was natural, with both respecting the other’s creative space.

Daniel ended up going to LA to meet him and felt he was “good people, kind-hearted, a true record digger, beat maker.” During the production of Madvillainy, they worked in the same house, at the time of their own record label, but they hardly saw each other, each focused on his part. Madlib would stay in the studio and DOOM on the deck, writing. He says that Madlib would give him a CD with beats and he would write. “We hardly talked, but the music was the conversation. It still is.”, he shared in an interview.

The focus was intense and they were working quickly — but without sacrificing quality. Since they hardly saw each other during the process, when the weekend came, they got together and listened to what they had made. The album became a classic of experimental hip hop, with innovative beats from Madlib and complex rhymes from DOOM.

A fun fact is that most of the instrumentals Madlib created for the album were during a trip to Brazil, working with a minimal setup in his hotel room (Strange Ways and Rhinestone Cowboys, for example. His arrival is one of hip hop's legendary stories. In 2002, he came at the invitation of the Red Bull Music Academy and, of course, crate digging.

The then art director of Stones Throw Records, in 2003, Jeff Jank, was the one who came up with the cover of Madvillainy. At the time, Doom did not have a public image, in a way. And Jank wanted the cover to truly be him. The photo was taken by Eric Coleman, who one day arrived at the house where they all lived (and where the album was being recorded) in Los Angeles, and photographed Dumile.

Jeff recounts that one cover marked him a lot as a child — In the Court of the Crimson King, by King Crimson — and that was the feeling he wanted a villain with a metal mask to evoke in a 5-year-old child out there. Another fun fact (that is almost an inside joke of the art director) is that the cover reminded him a lot of the cover of Madonna's first album. The little piece of orange in the corner was added to distinguish it and also to match.

[An even more fun fact: when I saved the photo from the Stones Throw site that compares the covers of the two albums, the filename was: beauty-and-the-beast.jpg — The Beauty and the Beast.]

Finally, the cover was only approved when Big Benn Klingon (a longtime friend of Doom and collaborator since the time of KMD) looked and understood the concept right away. “Look at this guy, what’s his story?! This is perfect!”.

The great merit of Madvillainy lies precisely in the unpredictability of its protagonists: we never know what sonic experiments Madlib will present or what surprising verses DOOM will drop. The album manages to be both meticulously crafted and entirely spontaneous.

It is not a conceptual album. But it was created to become legendary, starting with the iconic cover, which features its protagonist hidden behind a mask — as if he already knew, during the process, that he was creating a cult object. If there is a rap album dedicated to the art of rap, it is this one. Unlike many, Madvillainy has no other artistic intention besides expressing a declared love for music while having fun.

Metal Fingers

Most of the time masked under the pseudonym MF DOOM, in 2001, Metal Fingers emerges. With the intention of differentiating the Special Herbs project from his rap albums, he signs with another name. In fact, production has always been a central link in his career, and this series was born from his desire to share his instrumentals — made both for himself and for other artists.

“This is what unites all DOOM's albums: the production — the technique of mixing hip hop with rhymes. I had some of these; I kept bumping into new ones. Like in the mixtape circuit, I could end up with them with the ideas I had, with hip-hop instrumentals mixed with slow songs from the 80s.”, he comments.

Each track is named after an herb or plant, and the albums were released by different independent labels over the following years, showing that, in the end, his work was for the love of art. Here, he establishes himself as a producer and shows that his experience as a DJ, back at the beginning, affirms him as versatile and broad.

King Malachi

Daniel has always been very private about his family. In his hiatus — between KMD's last release and 1997, when he reappeared masked — Daniel started dating his wife, and his days were basically the same. “Most of the time, I stayed home, harder than anything, listening to jazz and just writing.”

In interviews, he states that when he went to LA to record Madvillainy with Madlib, he couldn’t wait to go back home. At the time, his son, Malachi — “my messenger” or “God's messenger” in Hebrew — had just been born. When he returned, the son had already grown more. “King Malachi. The best little boy I could imagine having. He was a king, a born king.”

His personal and professional life were separate: he didn’t make music at home. According to him, it was always for the money — he didn’t listen to hip hop, only jazz, instrumentals. “I only do this for the simple fact of points per rhyme, the points game. It seems to be something lucrative these days, and no one pays attention to it anymore. You can focus on your points, and if no one else does that, you can earn a little, because you’re the only one doing it that way. That’s what I take from the rhymes.”

Malachi was Daniel's only child, out of 5 children, about whom he spoke publicly. He mentioned in an interview in 2019 that he ended up becoming a young writer, just like his father. “He was a master of words. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say. He was always a very articulate young man. Eloquent in words, in the way he spoke, in the way he expressed himself, in behavior, those things.” He even mentioned that his son was working on a short storybook and was about to organize everything for publication.

King Malachi Ezekiel Dumile unfortunately passed away in 2017 at the age of 14. The cause of death was not disclosed. But Dumile went to social media to pay tribute to him. “The best son anyone could ask for,” DOOM wrote on Instagram, captioning a photo of Malachi in his arms. “Safe travels, and may all our ancestors welcome you with open arms. One of our greatest inspirations. Thank you for allowing us to be your parents. We love you, Mali.”

The influence of Islam

One of the fundamental pillars in shaping his artistic thought and lyrical identity was his religion. Born into a highly religious background, his family adopted the teachings of the Nation of Islam. “The teachings of Islam gave me a structure — kind of a project — for discipline, to know myself. It's about self-knowledge, above all. I may not be perfect, but that foundation keeps me grounded.”, Daniel affirms.

Daniel and Dingilizwe grew up in the Ansaaru Allah community, a religious and cultural group founded by Dwight York in the 70s in the US. They emerged in Harlem as a branch of the Black Muslim movement, merging elements of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Afrocentrism, and esoteric beliefs. “My mother raised us in Islam,” says Doom. “And my father, being a teacher, always taught us about our people, about Marcus Garvey and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. But when I started elementary school, I noticed that people didn’t know these folks! So I thought: ‘Let’s spread the word.’ We were real teachers.”

The group promoted the idea that African Americans were direct descendants of the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians. The emphasis was on rebuilding black pride, rejecting traditional Western narratives and reaffirming a spiritual and genetic connection with Africa and the Middle East.

It’s possible to notice in the lyrics of KMD's first album, Mr. Hood (1991), this reflection. Although the lyrics are humorous and socially critical, they show concern with racial identity, language, and self-determination. The visual aesthetic also evokes clothing and turbans worn by members of Ansaaru Allah.

"I'm not tryin' to say I'm somethin' I'm not/But a black man taught me how to act a lot/And when I see a black woman, I know I'm protected/'Cause I respect her, and that's expected"

In Nitty Gritty, with Brand Nubian — a group also influenced by the Black Islam (Five Percenters, especially) — the influence is clear: "Now I'm a Nubian, flippin' a style, and so on/With the KMD crew, so get your flow on" raps Zev Love X. “Nubian” is a common term among black nationalists to express their pre-colonial African heritage.

In Black Bastards, released only in 2000, it was even more explicit. The title, the artwork, and the themes of the album reflect much of the radical thinking of groups like the Ansaaru: denouncing white oppression and the necessity for the black people to dominate their own narrative. In the song of the same name on the album (Black Bastards!), the influence of the rhetoric of the Ansaaru Allah and Five Percenters becomes even clearer. The negative enumeration (what he is not) is a classic technique of these schools of thought — deconstructing imposed stereotypes on the black man and affirming a spiritual and conscious self.

"Yo, I'm a black bastard, not a dumb nigga/Illegal alien, not a drug dealer/A born leader, not a gang banger/A street teacher, not a gun slanger"

When MF DOOM decides to pursue his solo career, what was direct and explicit in KMD becomes a cryptogram — full of clues, symbols, multiple characters, and perspectives. Operation: Doomsday from 1991 is Daniel Dumile's rebirth after the trauma of his brother's death and Elektra’s boycott. Now, as MF DOOM, he becomes a villain — not out of malice, but as a rejection of the system that excluded him. Indeed, there’s a photo of DOOM and Subroc on the back cover, at the Nuwaubian installation — which, like the Five Percenters, share roots in black nationalism and influences from Islam — in upstate New York.

DOOM even attended Nuwaubian installations, like a called Tama-Re, near Atlanta, but was not active in the Order. “What I think is just a projected hunch. I try to look at the facts. The vibe is good—different from anything I’ve ever felt anywhere else. It’s one of the first places I’ve seen where there are more than 100 people and nobody smokes cigarettes. (…) As for how things are going, what he has said, about raising children, keeping people united on a genuine property… Well, I see it as something that is working.”, he stated in an interview when asked about the Nuwaubian experience.

In Doomsday, he claims he is a “villain,” but also someone who cares, builds, and teaches — the same foundation of a “street teacher” of the Ansaaru Allah. The contradiction is intentional, like the parables of black Islam. “Definition: supervillain/A killer who loves children/One who is well skilled in destruction, as well as building.”

Alongside Madlib, in Madvillainy, DOOM reaches the peak of form. His lyricism twists into a web of ideas, samples, and characters. But the same questions that formed him are still there: hidden knowledge, racial resistance, and spirituality, but now in the form of allegories and riddles. In All Caps, the “names of power” of Egyptian gods, prophets, and names chosen by members of the Ansaar appear: “Just remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name” — DOOM, in uppercase.

Charles Bukowski is a true writer

Approaching a prophecy and turning his villain figure into an oracle, it's in Born Like This — the darkest and most hermetic album of his solo discography — that the DOOM persona culminates. Now written as “DOOM” definitively, he reinforces the idea of the name as a symbol.

His raw and realistic lyrics, addressing themes like urban life, marginality, and the daily struggle, coincide with Bukowski's themes. DOOM actually didn’t know who the writer was. It was in an interview with LSD magazine, when the journalist, asking whether his creative process was influenced by being happy or unhappy, compared him to Bukowski.

Daniel didn't know who he was. The interviewer explained that “basically, he was an alcoholic, and he wrote a lot about being stuck in this cycle of depression and alcohol to keep writing, because that was what kept him standing.” Of course, for DOOM, the big thing that mattered was the writing. He responds by saying he would never put himself in a hole just to extract something creative from it, but as any human, he enjoys what life has to offer him, regardless of the moment.

The interview was in 1999. After that, he spoke openly about the writer being his reference. In Cellz, from Born Like This, the track opens with a recited excerpt from the poem Dinosauria, We, by Bukowski, which starts like this:

“Born like this, into this/As the chalk faces smile/As Mrs. Death laughs/As the elevators break/As political landscapes dissolve”

The world is in ruins and the album is a sort of final testament. It’s as if DOOM takes on the role of a prophet observing this decay. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he says: “He’s as good as any rapper out there. He kind of sets the tone of the album, since we're living what he described.”

DOOM's comics

‘DOOM’ emerges even as a child: in third grade, due to his surname Dumile, he was called Doom for short. The Supervillain came later, as a character. Since childhood, Daniel was accustomed to reading comics. He grew up in the 70s and 80s in New York, a time when comics were part of the everyday life of many young people. He was fascinated by the stories and identified with the villains and anti-heroes — often misunderstood or outsiders.

In the 80s, hip-hop culture and comic book culture intersected frequently, with graffiti artists, MCs, and DJs using names and images inspired by superheroes and villains. “Comics are the foundation. That’s how I learned to tell stories. A villain doesn’t always need to lose, and he’s not always wrong. I loved that — the gray area.”, he commented in an interview for the New Yorker, in 2009.

The misunderstood genius identified with characters like Doctor Doom or Magneto. In the end, for him, it all revolved around the mask. Like in comic books, the character puts on the mask and becomes something else. And for Daniel, that’s how art is separated from the ego.