The only reason MF DOOM became a rapper: “I don’t listen to hip-hop music”
Even when someone is at the top of their profession, it doesn’t necessarily mean their job means everything to them. Arsenal star Ben White once admitted he doesn’t watch football, despite playing in the Premier League. Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto said he only plays football for an income, stating it wasn’t his passion. MF DOOM is one of the best MCs to ever touch a mic, but similarly, hip-hop didn’t consume him.
The London-born artist made a career out of carefully crafted rhymes that set him worlds apart from most other rappers. He did so while shielding his identity with a signature mask that only added to his persona as a supervillain.
DOOM, who passed away in 2020, was always a fan of rapping, make no mistake about it. But he wouldn’t partake in hip-hop if it weren’t for profit. Once he realised he could make a career out of his witty bars, there was no going back. Hip-hop, however, was never part of his life outside the studio and stage.
“I would go to work and do the work,” MF DOOM admitted. “I don’t really do music at home. We listened to music, but I do that shit just to get money. I write rhymes and shit to get money. Other than that I don’t listen to hip-hop music. I listen to jazz music and instrumentals and shit like that. I only do this for the simple fact of points-per-rhyme, the point game.
“It seems to be a profitable thing these days, and nobody else is really paying attention to it. You can be about your points, and if nobody else can do it, you can get some change off that joint, because you’re the only one doing it like that. That’s what I get out of the rhyming.”
DOOM was initially unaware of how far his lyrics could take him. Rapping was just something he did for fun, putting words together in a similar way to Scrabble. Before he knew it, he was spitting over beats and turning a pastime into his full-time job.
“I didn’t know it was gonna be such a popular thing,” he said. “It’s something we used to do for a side hobby, to keep your mind fresh. Word games. You might be walking down the street, playing with words in your mind, so you throw them back and forth, and words that rhyme just come to you. It’s something we did as a hobby, like practicing thoughts, brain exercises. Word searches and things like that, studying different languages, where words come from.
“A practice to keep your mind sharp, is how we used to see it. But then it turned out to be something—if you put it to music, in a rhythmic way, and you know how to bring the point across, then you can turn it to something that’s real profitable. I’m blessed to be part of this whole thing, from this hip-hop experience.”
When someone is that good at their craft, who are we to judge their approach? Especially when they’ve provided timeless material for decades. MF DOOM’s life was cut short, but his musical legacy will live forever.