Even over other talented and lyrical rappers like The GZA and Big Boi, metal-masked rap villain MF DOOM reigns supreme in my hip-hop collection just because of how original and totally cool he is. He possesses that underground, underdog charm that I like, but that's only part of my reason for placing him above all other rappers. He (almost) disposes of rap cliches entirely, such as opening and/or closing tracks with shit talk, rapping about hood life and how much weed he can smoke, and he subdues emphasis on bitches and money. Oh, and he's also responsible for Vaudeville Villain, one of my top three favorite hip-hop albums of all time, as well as the almost-as-awesome and most critically acclaimed album Madvillainy. His monotonous and symmetrical flow is instantly recognizable and his masked villain persona just completes the package for me. In short, I love the guy.
Just today he released a new song called "Bookfiend" produced by "cloud rap" pioneer Clams Casino, and I was very eager to hear it and had high hopes for what it had offer my ear holes. But, alas, I was disappointed
The beat here is loose, clunky, and sounds cheaply and hastily pasted together and did nothing to pique my interest or convince me to deem it "good" whatsoever. The overall clumsiness and lack of cohesion of this beat would obviously make it hard for someone to rap over, and behold, not even the mighty DOOM can do this beat justice. He does his best, but the combination of a slow, lackluster instrumental and DOOM's rapping style just doesn't gel. To further dampen this effort, the mastering is all wrong. DOOM's vocals don't blend in to the music like oil doesn't blend in to water, leaving the vocals too loud and the music too soft. The end result is as I mentioned before; clumsy and hastily put together, and it seriously left a scowl on my face.
But this didn't make me lose faith in DOOM at all. More music from this team is scheduled to be on the way later this year and I'm honestly looking forward to it despite how underwhelming this song turned out to be. "Bookfiend" is obviously a demo, so I can't judge the finished product until it comes out. But still, I'm hoping for DOOM's other collaborations much more than this one. A new Madvillain album is supposed to come out this year as well (which would be wonderful) and after that, DOOM is supposed to release a collaboration album with none other than the Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah (which would be even more wonderful). Here's to hoping. Oh, and listen to the song below and share my disappointment.
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