14 Rare MF DOOM Songs and Features You Should Know

Album: The Anti-Album

Year: 2003

Semi Official's I Self Divine trades fours with DOOM to open "Songs in the Key of Tryfe," but DOOM takes control in the second verse. He's at his split-personality best, adopting several voices and committing lyrical violence over flutes and muted trumpets.

Best DOOM line:

Eat 'em like mango, follow how the slang go / It's like a flurry, now who bloody on my furry Kangol?

Album: Take Me to Your Leader

Year: 2003

Though hip-hop quickly evolved beyond the original DJ and emcee duos that decorated its early years, the battle mentality that dominated the rap scene in its golden age has continued to inform rapper’s attitudes today.

A lot of rappers are braggadocios, but DOOM’s bold boasts have always separated him from the rest of the pack. Of his various personas, King Geedorah is the most misanthropic. Why? Because he’s not a human.

Based on the Japanese movie villain of the same name, King Geedorah is a villainous monster from outer space. In a sense, this character is the ultimate brag; by elevating himself to extra-terrestrial status, DOOM grants Geedorah a privileged perspective unmatched by any Earth-bound MC. Geedorah is an alien sovereign who only deigns to bless the mic four times on his lone solo effort Take Me to Your Leader—of those four, "The Fine Print" is the most devastatingly dope.

Best DOOM line: 

The most slick-talking of burly guys / Get caught early and boiled in oil like curly fries

Album: Ritual of the Molemen

Year: 2001

This guest list is a rap head's dream—Aesop Rock, Slug from Atmosphere, and DOOM on the same track?! Inconceivable.

But Molemen made it happen in 2001 on "Put Your Quarter Up." The video game-themed verses bounce off one another, and DOOM closes it out with a head-spinning verse that invokes pinball, spitballs, and DOOM's old favorite Slobodan Milošević.

Best DOOM line:

Before the end, I save the world like Defender / There's no time for curling up to hurl from a bender.

Album: The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Year: 2005

DOOM hooked up with his partner in crime Madlib on "Closer"—except it wasn't just Madlib. The legendary producer's rap alias Quasimoto shares the mic with DOOM and Madlib here, helium voice and all.

Yes, Madvillain returned for a moment on this track in all their sample-happy glory—this rip is especially haunting, and it comes from Doris' "You Never Come Closer." The whole thing is alien and frenetic, "kind of like a wild cat out of his habitat," as Quas says.

Best DOOM line:

Put so much heat out on the street / He lock his self up and put the beat on repeat

Album: Keys to the Kuffs

Year: 2012

On "Winter Blues," DOOM reveals his romantic side. An ode to his wife, this track details the pain the rapper feels when he's on tour, working hard in the studio, or otherwise separated from his love. The haunting sample and poignant lyrics make this track a standout in DOOM's oeuvre.

Best DOOM line: 

The phenomenal melanin bio-polymer / Followed with a glass a merlot, I could swallow her

Album: Vaudeville Villain

Year: 2003

"Change the Beat" is a bonus track off 2003's Vaudeville Villain, but it sounds like a lead single. In keeping with his reclusive character, Viktor Vaughn must have hidden this song at the end of his debut record to avoid the acclaim that it would garner if it had been marketed more aggressively. Read the lyrics as you listen to this one—the bars here are as complex as the ever-changing beat.

Best DOOM line: 

Blew the whole shit up on some, "What this button do?"

Album: Politics of the Business

Year: 2003

Perhaps the most responsible place for a DOOM feature is at the end of a track. Put it at the beginning and you run the risk of losing listeners halfway through—such is DOOM's ability to outshine his peers. Metal Face stands out even alongside titans like Chubb Rock, whose opening verse sets the tone of this wacky Prince Paul track. DOOM's verse is decorated with references to his debut solo effort Operation: Doomsday—can you spot them all?

Best DOOM line: 

And when he not in the lab doing flows and vocals / He out in the streets throwing bones with the locals

Album: Demon Days

Year: 2005

Gorillaz have consistently demonstrated their refined taste in hip-hop. With features from Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, De La Soul, and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien decorating their discography, it comes as no surprise that they'd want to work with DOOM as well. The beat they crafted for him, a bizarre rhythm with an eclectic mélange of instruments and samples layered atop it, suits DOOM's flow perfectly. This track plays like the soundtrack to the cartoon crossover special of our dreams—here's hoping these two masked acts collaborate again.

Best DOOM line: 

Can you dig it like a spigot?

Album: Black Bastards

Year: 1993

Before DOOM was the masked villain that we know and love today, he was one-third of the influential hip-hop group KMD. Though the group achieved moderate success in their time, controversy surrounding their lyrics and cover art got them dropped from their label before the release of their 1993 sophomore album Black Bastards. The record has since been uncovered and released, and "Plumskinzz" finds DOOM (then known as Zev Love X) just as playful and metaphorical as the rapper that would take the underground hip-hop community by storm half a decade later.

Best DOOM line: 

A rooster a-booster, vickin all the hens (with a grin) / Thick chicks, and even sticks got friends (least ten)

Album: Operation: Doomsday

Year: 1999

Another DOOM verse, another Slobodan Milosevic reference. This one arrives as part of "I Hear Voices Pt. 1," a one-verse wonder off DOOM's breakout tape. He's in top form here, rapping at speeds we rarely see from the masked man.

Best DOOM line:

Yet tight flow to make her bad ass stutter / Or even crack a smile from a mad fast cutter

Album: Ohnomite

Year: 2012

Though his verses are usually sprawling and verbose, sometimes DOOM only needs a few bars to tell a story. In this fire sixteen, DOOM memorializes blaxploitation legend Rudy Ray Moore by narrating a simple tale of a night at the bar turned violent. Oh No, brother of the one and only Madlib, laces the beat with Dolemite samples to make this cypher complete.

Best DOOM line: 

It's super mother frickin' villain witchin' through thick and thin

Album: Adult Swim Singles

Year: 2013

"Between Villains" is a delightfully strange collaboration between hip-hop's most lovable weirdos: Flying Lotus (as Captain Murphy), Thundercat, Earl, and of course DOOM. Rapping as Viktor Vaughn, DOOM's verse is laced with more internal rhymes than you could find in an English textbook; why this man's work is not being taught in schools yet remains a mystery. Skip the Dr. Seuss—play this track for your kids so they can learn from the best.

Best DOOM line: 

He get some looks, some bullshit bull-over, a dusty pullover and a Pulitzer

Album: Look Mom... No Hands

Year: 2004

2004 was a wild year for DOOM. In addition to releasing two solo albums and the acclaimed Madlib collaboration Madvillainy, the Super-villain managed to find time to produce and rap over this cartoonish track with Vast Aire. Utilizing a sample from Fat Albert (which has since been blessed by New York newcomer Joey Bada$$), the beat clanks along as the two rappers trade inter-referential verses about their firm grasp on the New York underground scene.

Best DOOM line: 

Villain have your fake man quakin' in his Vans

Album: Sous Le Signe Du V

Year: 2004

In this ultra deep French cut, DOOM goes in over a twinkling beat alongside Fuzati of Klub des Loosers (who, coincidentally, also wears a mask most of the time). Even if you can't understand the second half of the song, you won't be able to get this beat out of your head for a while. Only the most loyal DOOM-heads know this one—smash that play button to become one of the chosen ones.

Best DOOM line: 

If at first you don't suck let's not spoil it / Villain get a shot at a guest spot and soil it