Simultaneously hailed as an
underground
classic and cast aside as poorly produced backpack
rap
,
Operation: Doomsday
inaugurated the reign of
MF Doom
in
underground rap
from the early to mid-2000s. The pretext for the album is very similar to that of
Marvel Comics
supervillain
Dr. Doom
; after
, then known as
Zevlove X
, had been devastated by the death of his brother and
K.M.D.
accomplice,
DJ Sub-Roc
, in the early '90s,
Elektra
dropped his group and stopped the release of its second album,
Black Bastards
, due to its political message and, more specifically, its cover art.
Doom
was left scarred with a lingering pain that didn't manifest until the late '90s as
hip-hop
's only masked supervillain on
Bobbito Garcia
's
Fondle 'Em Records
. Carrying the weight of the past on his shoulders,
opens and closes
with frank and sincere lyrics. In between, however, many of the villain's rhymes are rather hard and piercing. On his subsequent material, he developed a more steady and refined delivery, but on this debut,
was at his rawest and, lyrically, most dexterous. The out-of-left-field edge of
's production -- which features '80s
soul
and
smooth jazz
mixed with classic drum breaks -- is indeed abstract at times, but his off-kilter rhymes are palatable and absent any pretentiousness. In fact, the album arguably contains some of the freshest rhymes one might have heard around the time of its release. There are more than enough obscure but fun references (i.e. "quick to whip up a script like
Rod Serling
" on
"Go with the Flow"
or "MCs, ya style needs Velamints" on
"Dead Bent"
) and quotable jewels from the "on-the-mike
Rain Man
" to feed on. Nevertheless, one would be hard-pressed to overlook the low-budget mixing that mars some of the LP's presentation. For the hardcore
fans, the recorded-in-the-basement quality is appealing and representative of his persona as the underdog who "came to destroy
." In contrast, given his contributions to
during the 2000s, the masked villain offers this explanation on
"Doomsday"
: "Definition: supervillain/A killer who loves children/One who is well-skilled in destruction as well as buildin'." Even though this album is certainly not for everyone, you can easily respect from where the man is coming. ~ Cyril Cordor