A petition was launched Monday to get a street in New York named “KMD-MF DOOM Way” in honor of the late rapper and producer.
The KMD-MF DOOM Way Committee is requesting that the Long Beach City Council consider renaming the block on East Hudson Street between Riverside Boulevard and Long Beach Road, and has already received over 150 signatures in support of the change.
The petition highlights how Long Beach influenced the trajectory of DOOM’s life and rap career. Following the death of his brother Dingilizwe “DJ SubRoc” Dumile in 1993, DOOM became embroiled in a dispute with his label Elektra one year later. These two events caused him to pull back from the spotlight as he battled homelessness. In that time, he “called on his youthful experience in Long Beach to reinvent himself as MF DOOM,” the petition says.
DOOM passed away on Oct. 31 at the age of 49. His wife Jasmine released a statement on Instagram two months later confirming his death. “The greatest husband, father, teacher, student, business partner, lover and friend I could ever ask for,” Jasmine wrote at the time. “Thank you for all the things you have shown, taught and given to me, our children and our family. Thank you for teaching me how to forgive beings and give another chance, not to be so quick to judge and write off. Thank you for showing how not to be afraid to love and be the best person I could ever be.”
DOOM was far from finished with leaving his mark on hip-hop when he died. Flying Lotus revealed the two were working on an EP that presumably never got finished, while Stones Throw Records founder Peanut Butter Wolf disclosed that a follow-up to DOOM and Madlib’s 2004 project Madvillainy was “85 percent done.”
Last month, Billboard reported that on-demand streams of MF DOOM’s music had risen by 870 percent following his death. There was also a 2,879 percent increase in purchased song downloads that same week, compared to the previous five-day span.
