MF Doom 1971-2020

On the December 13th edition of "The New Shit Radar", we very inaccurately described his new song with BADBADNOTGOOD using the statement "DOOM's 2020 worldly contributions seemed to kick some ass across the board." For whatever reason, we incorrectly misremembered a few stray collaborations earlier in 2020, because the whole point of this feature is that it's stream-of-consciousness - written and posted very quickly.

Meanwhile, only his immediate family knew that he had actually passed away back on Halloween. His mysteriously anonymous trademark masking kept his identity unknown to most fans. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that his death was only discovered by fans earlier today, two entire months later -- not exactly typical for name as high profile as MF Doom, arguably the most lauded of any backpack rapper throughout the 2000s. Most hiphop fans who didn't care for backpack hiphop still usually gave Doom a free pass since both his bars and his anti-image were so undeniable dope. And he never broke character. He didn't need to.

Perhaps "Great Day Today" is the jam for this New Years Eve. A lot of people are anticipating the end of 2020, in hopes that at least a handful of the world's largest messes might reveal some hints of clarity. 2021 won't be a great year, but the goal is to shoot for a much happier New Years Eve one year from today.

2000's Jams (+5): Madvillain "America's Most Blunted" (2004)

It's simply too difficult to choose just one song from Madvillainy, an album full of "10 out of 10's" that ultimately all sound very similar, and work best within the context of the LP. Where to turn? There's "Figaro" (with MF Doom's strongest and most memorable lyrics to date) and "All Caps" (with a classic once-sung refrain). We strongly considered the unheralded tripped-out jazz-funk surge "Shadows of Tomorrow," with Quasimoto interpreting Sun Ra.

We ultimately decided to run with P4k's choice. ("America's Most Blunted" has an entry in the book The Pitchfork 500 and also placed on their 500 best 2000's jams). It doesn't necessarily tower over everything else on Madvillainy, but its warpy disjointed production (filled with 10 or 12 samples not unlike the sprawl throughout Paul's Boutique) best encapsulates the essence of Madvillain, who wisely chose not to release any other LP's. Their legend is best left untainted by a follow-up.