MF DOOM - Interview with the Masked Villain | Red Bull Music Academy

all right everybody thanks for hanging out we're joined today by um in my opinion one of the most creative artists that hip-hop has ever generated we're very very excited to have him here so please won't you welcome mf doom please hola how's everybody going good to see y'all thank you for joining us today sir how are you brother i'm good i'm good all right um we usually like to start at least i like to start these things but playing a little bit of music last week we had um a gentleman by the name of young guru here who does um quite a bit of work with jay-z he was talking about some of his favorite artists and some of his favorite productions and mcs and he talked quite a bit about you and he mentioned an album um food and i thought for those of us in the room who may not be as familiar as others with your work that maybe we might hear a little bit of that is that cool with you yeah all right so let's start out with that we can get into our conversation hold on just a second folks yeah don't wait for her man don't wait for her i'll tell you what man come with me now and you know i'll get you some lunch i'll hook you up with something i gotta go back you know no problem i hear you that's cool all right it's cool can't you guys just wait here about a half hour mint yo i'll be back man i'm just gonna munch up a little bit man i'm pretty hungry here you will find food for your body as well as comfort for your troubled mind i'd really like some soup the same as the other next morning i went to the store to get some food thanks for the drink but the prisoner oh yes the young traitor who has tried to turn my people against me watch him i have special plans for that one beef wrap could lead to getting teeth cap or even a wreath from on dudes or some beef crap i suggest to change the diet it can lead to high blood pressure if you're fried or even a stroke heart attack heart disease it ain't no starting back once arteries start to squeeze take the easy way out phony until then they know they wouldn't be talking aboloni in the bullpen so disgusting part itself as i've discussed this they talk about this [ __ ] and ain't never seen the justice bust this like a cold milk from out the toilet two batteries a rather ugly brother with flows that's gorgeous drop dead joints hit the whips like bird [ __ ] they need it like a hole in their head or a third tip her bra smell his car say ah hell barred from all bars and kicked out the carvel people took her where the jar fell and keep a cheap hooker that's off the hook like marbelle top bleeding maybe fella took the loaded raw deer stop feeding babies colored sugar coated large squares the hard pair swears and guard fears even when it's rotten you've gotten through the hard years i wrote this note around new year's off a couple of shots and a few beers but who cares enough about me it's about the beats not about the streets and who food about to eat a ramen cannibal who's dressed for killing cynical whether is it animal vegetable or mineral it's a miracle how he gets so lyrical and proceed to move the crowd like a old negro spiritual for a mill do a commercial for mellow yellow tell them devil's hell no cello we hollow krills she swallowed pills he followed three call of three dollar bills and squealed for halalville if y'all appeal dig the real that's how the big ballers deal twirl after every meal what up to all rappers shut up with you shutting up and keep your shirt on and lisa button up yuck is the aromas are stripping nails outta work jerks since they shut down chippendales they chipped the nails doom chipping scales let alone the pre-orders just counted off shipping sales this one goes out to all my people skipping bail dip in jail whip and tail and sipping ale like to do until it glow like a ruby after which they couldn't find a villain like scooby he's in the lab on some old buddha monk [ __ ] overproof drunk [ __ ] who'da thunk it punk try and ask why ours be better could be the iron mask or the cosmic sweater yes you who's screwed by the dude on the cd nude we need food thanks thanks so i guess just as this as a reference can you talk a little bit about um you know your process as far as you know when you make a song like this yeah that's a good example to that particular song um haven't heard in a while sounds good in here uh what i usually do when i'm producing a record i'll come up with the beat first you know then to be to inspire the lyrics you know what i'm saying so in that particular example uh you know it was it's really like the that's like i would say is the um like the main song that song defines the record you know saying title cut if you will and um you know so i i came up with that particular song first and everything i was spawned from there uh you know i just typical typical joint i heard the loop first caught the loop put the drums to it you know polish it up with the 808 just you know i don't really i don't really overdo it too much i like to just keep it close to the original as possible leave something for the imagination you know but enough to get the translation across and then just write to it keep it simple you know what i mean now was that something you sampled off of um a tv or video this music or uh yeah it came from a it came from an old vhs copy like my man sent me like you know i mean yeah and what kind of equipment are you using on something like this or is equipment relevant well it really you know what you used to record really i don't think is that important but just for reference i use the mpc 2000 excel i believe um at that time for the sampling part then the recording was on uh it was pre-pro tools this is a vs 1680 or 1880 i believe you know um like i say the the medium that we record onto you know really it is not that much of a big deal it depends on the quality like there's a way to keep the quality but you wouldn't be able to tell if it was two inch or uh you know pro tools or you know sometimes you could record something onto pro tools or coming out of something that's an analog machine and it'll sound like you might have put it to cassette for us you know so you know i try to keep it as clean as possible though for uh for what i was using i mainly try to just capture the the way you hear it i try to capture that same sound no matter what yeah and how long does it take to do this this the kind of audio collage you know that's what it sets up the track you got a few different things going on here at the intro of this song yeah you know it varies it takes like you know it's an ongoing process sometimes months of gathering pieces you know sometimes i leave it alone for a few months and it'll come back to my mind i'll go back to it and find that one last piece that it needed you know i mean and then when it's done i'll know it's done by just the it'll just be full but i mean i really i could work on it forever you know i can still i'm still finding little samples and whatnot i can add to that but i pretty much know when it's done when it's it feels like a complete you know you know complete piece yeah it doesn't always have to follow a complete linear storyline does it or you know do you you need do you sit there and go well i need to find a voice that that says this type of line and then i'll you know you'll put it in the back of your head and then look for it later i mean yeah that's pretty much as as it progresses that's how it ends up being at first it's kind of it's kind of like if the piece is telling me the story so i don't really know the story i find like one or two things that reference uh a subject matter a topic you know what i'm saying and then what happens is it will start telling me more and more then i'll join the conversation towards the end of the process and i might need that one cherry on top of that one like that one word you know but i find it once i start looking for one last word that's when it starts getting tricky i gotta like just uh it's done you know you know yeah that's that's been a recurring sort of um point of conversation this last week or so i think with folks here just knowing when you're done with something you know knowing when to walk away and leave something alone you know um you know i talked to you about five years ago and i asked you what your reference points were to come up with these kinds of ideas um can you can you recall um you know how you got the idea to what influenced you to start doing these types of things as far as audio collages i think it's a real unique part of what you do yeah um the first time i heard something like that must have been like and what year was it was like 81 or something like that maybe 82. you know um we used to listen to these old um late night radio shows like you know same thing like how you got barbito and then them cats you just have the late night video shows this is before though this is like yeah 81 w hbi there was a station um out of new jersey i believe and uh it was the zulu beach show that's what it was you know i mean and they should just spin breaks you know i'm saying but they'll have voice over pieces on top of it but then you have like funky drama or you have like apache rocking you know and you you have something like something from uh like an old comedy joy to be on there or like a monty python piece to be playing you know and um and i always found that real bugged out you know what i'm saying is i ain't know where it was coming from i never you know sometimes you have to like another layer of digging you know i'm saying so not only did you have to find where the brick was was from you got to figure out okay wait what is that what think of that voice you know so it it you know it always was interesting to me so i always like to put a little something like that just to trip you that style you know what i'm saying yeah we had a little bit of that plan before you walked in just just for kicks let me see if i can cue up something that has the essence of that what we're talking about as an example this friday and don't forget you can't bet as we continue and don't you fret this is what's happening next this is zulu beats from back in the days went to the mountain and god spoke moses moses moses moses moses this is the lord thy god moses went to the mountain and god spoke unto him yes seven so that gives you a little bit of an idea that's that's kind of what you're talking about right yeah that's a good one i i don't remember that particular show you got to give me a copy of that yeah okay um so i guess um you know this is so much a part of you know your performance your persona um you know not only sonically but obviously you know physically appearance wise you know maybe there's some folks in here who are not don't fully understand can you explain a little bit about the different personas there's mf doom there's also victor vaughn there is also king ghidra can you can you break that down a little bit for folks yeah well the idea of having different characters to you know different characters really just to get the the storyline across you know coming from one particular character all the time makes to me the story boring i get that mainly from from like novels and that that style of writing you know i mean or movies you know saying where there's multiple characters to carry the storyline it all might be written by one one writer you know i mean or directed by one director but there's multiple characters in order to you know you need it you know i'm saying so the more the better with me this way i could come from one point of view or another point of view they might even disagree on on on certain things i think a lot of times in hip-hop especially get kind of pigeonholed into being like if you're the guy and that's you know it's kind of limiting in a way so i look at like i'm a writer like the same way with the skits you know like have the the record tell a story you know i'm saying like you know have little intervals where you know it's like cut scenes you know what i'm saying to where you know yeah to me everything just flows better when i got multiple characters to portray the uh you know the story you know how would you define um you know how would you define doom's character then what is what is doom's sort of um you know what's his perspective what are his characteristics in the character doom in particular he's more like the old school you know o.g old timer uh um villain you know like he's the typical villain that you have in any story where you know a lot of people misunderstand them you know but he's always looked at as the bad guy but he really got a heart of gold you know what i'm saying and you know he's for of children and you know you know and you know it's like a robin hood kind of character so he's a sympathetic feeling loved by the people but then the powers that be may not really get along with how he get down you know what i'm saying and what about victor von another another character yeah vic is like vic is similar but he's younger he's more like a younger like say 18 19 year old young whippersnapper i think you know it all kind of you know uh a lot of times he disagree with doom but still he looks up to doom you know what i mean yeah and then what about king ghidra guitar is an interesting um is an interesting character you know i mean the the whole direction of giza is like okay he's not even from the earth you know saying from outer space you know and he wants challenge he channels the information to doom in order for doing the produce and whatnot so doing the kind of he gets the message from ghidra so ghijan is not even on earth he's more of a uh like an etheric being you know what i'm saying now what physical form would gideon take then is he is he human or is he human-like or is he something else you're not you're just straight reptilian like he would be like a 300-foot you know three-headed dragon golden like you know it's from the uh it's actually from the whole touhou um godzilla films so he's a again it's just a villain theme you know what i mean the bad guy giger's that classic bad guy and even in those films like you know strong real strong where they had to jump them at the end in order to get them they always end up somehow chasing them away though right you know because you know the whole hero thing the hero gotta win but but if you really look at it ghidra is really stronger than all of them you know i'm saying but he's still at oddball you know sam so why is doom then more of your dominant persona or maybe not dominant but the one that is more around the forefront is it because because you've said that doom in some respects is doing ghidra's work right he's more like a emissary or something like that right yeah so why doom why is doom in the forefront um as opposed to these other characters well i think it's just for right now you know and what you know what i had a chance to let the public hear and just it just happened to end up that right now in this in this time frame doom happened to be the the one that's in the forefront but i mean in the next 12 months giger might take to take the stage again and you know and you know do my fall back for another two years or so you know i mean so it varies it's ongoing story you know i mean you know i guess obviously um the mask is a huge part of doom can you just for those who you know are new to this can you explain a little bit of why doom wears the mask why he's only seen with the mask yeah no doubt yeah the whole mass thing really alright it's a time in hip hop where things from my point of view started going more to what things look like opposed to what things sound like you know i mean before we ain't know what emcees look like until we went to the party and seen them rocking you know so you know seeing them you know most time you see them rock on i had a show before you even knew you know what i'm saying yeah before video three video you know so you know you really was going off the sound of the record straight skills see once you started getting more publicized and you know started being hip-hop started to be more of a a money-making thing then you get these corporate ideas where you want to put what it looks like to sell what it sounds like we're dealing with music so what i did was i said all right look i'm gonna come with the angle of it don't matter what i look like you know it don't matter what the artists look like it's more the artists sound like so the mask really represents the the whole like to rebel against the trying to sell the product as a human being you know i mean it's more of a sound so you know and at the same time you know it's something different you know i'm saying and it fits with the theme of the rebel the villain where you know to him he don't care about the fame and all that [ __ ] that [ __ ] is there's no consequence you know i mean it's more of the message of what's being said so i think it helps people focus more on what's being said and it's still entertaining it's like the theater and it has the appeal of uh you know something that could be considered entertaining but that message is still there that yo you know villain represents anybody anybody in here could wear the mask and be a villain male female any race so-called racial i mean it's about where you coming from from your heart you know what i'm saying like what is the message what you got to say you know what i mean so that's that's mainly why i chose to bring the mask into the fold now uh can you talk a little bit about just you know you just mentioned your first sort of encounters with hip-hop a little bit can you talk a little bit about um you know how you got into the music initia initially what do you mean like going to the music hip-hop in general like just uh i think it was just from you know what it was my first my first experience with hip-hop hearing the sound that we call hip-hop now that could be considered hip-hop it would have to be just listening to the radio uh at the time was wbls like frankie crocker but he'll be playing he'll be playing joints like george from like um grover washington jr and it just got that feel certain records just got the field you here to break all good times she good times you hear it even if this is not being spun you here you hear it in there right then you know at the time he was young he was like i think i want something like 10 11 years old something like that you know and uh we should you know go down the block and a lot of our people's had older brothers so this is back when it was two turntables and cats had afros and we used to look up to them like oh you know go peeking down in the basement like what they doing you know but i would never be able to really get on the wheels until it must have been like a year after and he finally invited us down to try to just get on you know i mean so that's my first uh experience with what we would call hip-hop now you know [ __ ] oldest running spinning you know just seeing how the record feel when you're spinning back how to fade or feel when you hit it you know what i mean so yeah now this is uh this is in long beach or freeport well right now let's just listen on long island freeport long island you know is where we first started i would say and and kmd uh started out as a graffiti crew yeah that's right well it was really like a crew basically back then we saw a cruise that was just cruise you know i mean that would listen to music maybe be artists in general break dancing anything that was like at the time we didn't really categorize it like that anything that was fun you know a crew that you would walk home from school with and that's just the crew you know and everybody in the crew might add one thing to it or you know bring a different angle to it so graffiti was like something that we just did you know doodling and art in general you know so yeah it turned more into a graffiti crew first and then the brick dancing came into it as i became more popular you know and then music was always there hip-hop was always there let's play as far as the music aspect and then you know just turn out the hip-hop part sound wise music-wise got more popular and it started to be you know something that we i guess we more practice that more and it became to where he was making tapes and took it from there how did you meet mcsearch oh big search well i mean search i meant search at a talent show it was like a outdoor um you know how to be having those like uh like an outdoor daytime party though it's not even like a night party it's like a a fair like a um like a like you know like a gathering in the community where you know people be selling different items and whatnot but they had a stage you know where um you know they had singers and anybody could just go up there and do their thing you know i guess there was some kind of structure to it but he he had a performance that he was doing up there you know so i'm out there just wandering around checking out stuff one night and um i was with my other partner and i you know we peeped this cut you know really we heard them first before we seen them you know saying somebody was robbing someone anytime somebody's driving is interesting so it's like oh robin so then we keep this dude here up there doing his thing you know saying by himself solo so i think i met him later on that day like you know through my man my man knew him already then you know he had to do some tools that's how that's when we met and how's how how long before you met search or initially rather um to when he actually asked you to appear with him on on a record because you guys have been doing your thing you know amongst yourselves um developing your sound working on demos for fun and things like that right yeah that time we was just yeah time was funny back then interesting you know i mean but uh it seemed like it was all within the same year yeah from summer and around again to the next summer maybe like 11 months after okay you know all right well the first record that uh you appeared on is with m c search and p nice for third base uh a hip-hop classic called the gas face we hear a little bit of that yeah you know wow all right cool hey yo man my label made don newkirk man step to him thanks search and now for the prime minister a grin shows a trick up was real death man but i got to get serious now hey yo don step to him again everybody mc search black cat is bad luck bad guys with black must have been a white guy who started all that make the gasp for those little white lies my expression to the mountainous blue eyes dip for my face and shake my skull cap dismiss the myth that evil is not black but opposite spectrum this done by red man with horns on his head lay down the ill plan got all his helpers said make it snappy tell all the people that their hair can't be nappy blind and blue eyes a dark skinned half a g a disease created by leprosy don't speak of bleach spend them to write say it was night wave before the light put aside spooks search leaves a trace of set up correct with the effect of the gas face next up don a special appearance by kmd's sev love x a gas face can either is phase hey yo good looking out don man peace punji yo who gets a gas face tony dick gets a gas face no gas shut the [ __ ] up but p.w polta gets a gas face face so we'll go through your mind when you hear that now after all this time man it's like a snapshot from back then it was fun fun times back then you know you know you could tell like there's a lot of humor and a lot of spontaneity you know things got a lot you know nowadays i think things kind of got more serious with hip-hop to where it's like it needs more of that wouldn't y'all agree a little bit of humor you know i'm saying it adds more of a to me that's how i was back then and it was comfortable it's not as tense so everybody's not so hung up on who's the best and you know it's it's more of a fun thing so yeah man you know it's like a snapshot like a you know old picture you know but you know that said you know i think it's interesting because there is a lot of humor and a lot of looseness in a song like this but yet you know you guys are actually saying some kind of profound stuff too you know and i think that was one of the trademarks you know more or less or is one of the trademarks of what you do especially so for like the kmd stuff which you you know we'll get through in a second but um you know can you talk a little bit about zevlov x this was you before mf doom what's the relationship between zev and and doom well really i would say that both well they both really exist simultaneously so it's not like a change from one to the other one it's more like one of them came more to the forefront now you know what i mean like these are shifting positions like it's still back to the whole character thing you know so zevlovx still still exists somewhere as that character you just don't hear him too much right now he's playing the background out of the story kind of like so um there's a lot of similarities you know but again i made it to where i needed another way to to to get a different point across you know i'm saying a more i think the doom character is more it's a little more serious you know i'm saying more seriousness is you know i mean it's a little more a lot of people described it and describe it as dark i would say it's just a deeper hue like a kind of more reflective like he might teach things deeper into things you know i mean well doom has has gone through things that zev hadn't gone through yet though you know as well right i mean doom's perspective is going to be different yeah definitely definitely i mean you know uh you know our imitates life kind of thing so it's it's loosely based on you know experiences of course everything is going to be based somewhat on experiences but at the same time like i say doom always existed is this when was his chance to grab the mic and actually make that debut you know what i'm saying you know the other thing with zev and the kmd era um you know not to stay on it too long but um also represented something you know that was very prevalent at the time which is five percent nation and hip-hop at the time and you know those things you and brand nubian you know were dubbed yourselves the god squad you know was a very interesting time for all that stuff to be so prevalent um you know any reflections on that now looking back well yeah you know uh really a lot of influence to put information and to get like uh different aspects of the culture into the music comes from influences like uh like i would say like pe and when they was you know who was heavily influenced by pe or bdp you know and they would uh they would speak on different things that you wouldn't really hear anywhere else besides maybe like you know old gathering like you know went to a gathering with an uncle or something like that but when you got the old timer sitting around just talking about back then it's something that you would hear more from family members or like to passing on stories like culturally you know so in order to keep that keep that alive and to keep these messages out there for the youth you know we put it in the records you know it was kind of like unintentionally kind of like just to be like pe kind of like you know like if would he say you know i remember that what could i add on and drop a jewel about you know or be like how uh how krs used to come with with different information that you know that you wouldn't necessarily hear right you know i mean right but also adding this element of fun too yeah and playfulness right i want to play a little bit of kmd i'm actually going to play let's play something that's not one of the singles maybe the intro from the album because it kind of sets things up is that kind of cool is that cool okay this is something from kmd's first album mr hood um which can kind of you can kind of tell us may set the stage for some of the stuff that came after let's enter this jewelry shop come on mr pickle man hook it up 14k death bracelet you can't beat it no i cannot do that this is not a porsche this is vehicle jewelry ah mr hood my favorite customer what can i do i would like to see some gold ring ah yes we have these stupid fat gold rings perfectly a masculine some earrings from my wife how about these elephants studded diamond earrings perfect for the woman of your dream and the watch for my cat yes we have a rolex 1792 no two thousand three hundred and seventy six people many thanks for your help sir people my name is mr hood what is your name yeah i'm someone's actually kmd i am pleased to meet you oh yeah likewise uh yeah how are you doing anyway perfectly well thank you and you oh i'm just chilling you see uh but i got one problem i come in here to pour this bracelet see because it's ramen for nickels business ain't making it what i need is a job where you work at hiring follow this avenue yeah turn right at the corner uh-huh go to the left when you reach the square yeah it is the house next to the theater yeah would you care for a spoon they are not too expensive as a matter of fact this reminds me of the david dwelling with those who killed off the week for fancy clothes and hoes too not opposed to the fence stream but both lie on the same side of the gate it seems that it's all coming to collect unknowns of muscle bubbles and stones to throw rocks sisters see someone suddenly in early physics like the two atoms can't occupy the same space at the same time acknowledged by the playground's bullying weapon who felt pots rock than crackpot's face considering his aim i warned he could hurt dreamer or a crackpot would you have seen the scientific intellectual creative genius in a small ragged negro boy no you don't set it off so uh well if anybody has heard this album it's it's this mr hood character um is present through every skit what how can you talk a little bit about how this was all constructed because obviously this is the same source it's the same voice for mr hood right where did you get this from if you can talk about that and how did it come together yeah ironically the record was is a language record right it was a spanish language record you know when you when you travel to different countries you have you know records where you know and it was on vinyl vinyl where they'll repeat a phrase and then say it in the other language but it was spanish so it's funny down here now right but um it was from maybe like that record was it was an old record it was like yo recorded in maybe the 60s early 60s right and um you know i'm listening to the joy i'm listening to the wreck and i'm noticing the phrases that he's saying he's just saying some joints that's just funny phrases in general you know like why would you even want to translate that like i guess you know at that time was the way that the people spoke in like a slightly different different way you know so it was always funny to me listen to josh just listen to the whole record you know by itself with the spanish translation on it but then i noticed you know you can you can even mix match words like all right you know edit there and kind of cut and paste different phrases in between it so it starts to we where i could see a storyline evolving out of it you know something that matched what was going on in the current current days you know i mean what's going on in the street but based around this character he's like a stiff like he sounds like real like like a corny old dude but he's like a real real thug like her dude you know i mean so the whole record was based around us kind of schooling him from being you know drug dealer type you know you know just dropping little jewels on him and schooling them bringing them into the crew kind of kind of thing and by the end of the record you know we get him down he kind of he gets it through his skull he he starts being more you know like aware of what's going on more conscious towards the end of the record right yeah yeah it's funny because even just using that you know spanish instructional record it just it generates this like vibe of inclusion you know what i mean that um i thought was really unique to this um to this record into the group um skip into the next record even though there are songs off of this album that were hits um this album was very well regarded spawned a few hits um peach fuzz and whom me and things like that that are in the same spirit um the next record you guys did um is entitled black bastards this was recorded a couple years later um this album of course for those who know um actually was not released when it was supposed to be released um but it has a different vibe that i think is is really interesting um it's it's got uh a certain amount of i don't say a little more aggression in it musically even though it still maintains a playful side of it and i liken it in a lot of ways i don't know if anybody else has said this to you but all the groups that came out in this era seoul tribe called quest um brand new being groups like this came out with very very acclaimed debuts and a lot of them came back with a little bit more jaded sounding records um but yet classic records and i feel this is um one that is very much in the same league with those records even though it doesn't get talked about the same way i wonder what your perspective on on it is yeah well all right uh you know this the second record really comes out a lot of the experiences that we went through after the first record you know i mean and that was our debut record of course mr hood where we were kind of like still wet behind the air so to say in the game like we you know business-wise there's a lot of things we didn't know and a lot of there's a lot of growing up you do i think i was 18 19 when i did the first record so that's the age where you know it's real formative years where you're going into manhood and whatnot and it's like you know there's a lot of things about society in general that you you find out and you don't come to grips with so the next record maybe two or three years after that so all those new things that we were learning and you know a lot of the awareness that came out of being in the business went into that record mm-hmm you know what i mean so i think that's where you get a lot of the uh you know the little edge on it it's like almost like a little bit of bitterness i would say you know like kind of like it's like a talk shitty kind of record kind of yeah well whatever like to the industry kind of like a little bit like yeah well [ __ ] y'all we still gonna do all the things following me you know i want to play a little bit of the intro to this album if that's cool um garbage day number three i haven't seen you two in years kind of a late visit i was getting ready for the hay something to wake you up i'm gonna kick his ass [ __ ] oh oh everybody take that is a little more intense yeah that yeah that joint like you see he's in the same vein with the voices but it's just a little more edgy there right a lot of that influence also came from um the black exploitation films you know that's all the time we just bumped into those you know my brother sub rock god bless he really brought a lot of this material to me like yo yo this movie is crazy you know it was sweet backs badass song that that that particular film yeah um yeah mother van people joined he brought that and that that kind of set the tone for this record you know subtly but that was kind of the whole black exploitation thing and then it spun into you know direct the whole record black basses right and the theme a lot of those movies is revenge it's it's like somebody gets right wrong and then they think that they left for dead and then they come back and you know their secret vans yeah and they end up being yeah those in those films the underdog or whoever was the guy who probably didn't normally make it in hollywood or didn't make it in those movies ended up being the hero so it was it was cool to see for a change you know those type of themed films you know i'm saying and at the time when they were filmed and the texture of the sound was real real memorable you know i mean and there's also like a poetry record that um is used throughout this this album too um from one of the last poets yeah that's right that's right the blue gorilla yeah the blue gorilla gillen kane it's a real interesting record yeah now let me just play one short piece of the single from this because we want to get through this part but um you know this is your radio single and this is how it starts it's like thanks good thanks good thanks so that's you and sobrock your brother yeah yeah that's my brother my parliament so yeah um yeah that record was a fun record again you know but uh that's when he started coming more into the vocal part you know i mean sub was nice like you know he brought my skills up you know i mean he was started doing styles i'm like dad kid you know you know it's always good when you got a partner to kind of reflect off you know it brings more out of the out of the duet out of the group when you know you got a good partner like that so you guys are sharing production and vocal duties at this point yeah at that point yeah it took a lot of weight off me you know because at this point this record the the third member of the group onyx who was on the first record he kind of left the group at this point so the vocals was kind of on me but then he just took the you know took the play like bowed i'm ready caught wrecked um this record like i said didn't come out when it was supposed to come out in um there was a controversy um that those who follow hip-hop probably are familiar with um that caused this album not to come out um what do you want to say in retrospect of of all that if anything well i'm not i don't know the controversy there's a couple of different things that was going on and some of the things was behind the scenes some of the things was more upfront you know but it all kind of culminated into into the agreement that we had with the label to be severed you know it was kind of mutually agreed you know i mean that we just you know it was kind of conflict and interest in like creative differences kind of thing you know so then um that's really what led to you know the record being shown as they say or what have you but you know to me it's no big deal it's like a process that you know it happens in the game where you know relationships come to a point where you split and then you do something else you know everybody grows and you know so it's that kind of thing we just got to to me we just got too big and too outspoken for the situation you know yeah because the original artwork to this has been reissued since with the original artwork but it's the the character the symbol kmd which is the quote-unquote sample yeah the sample face you know drawing like you know drawn out but then with the like the no sign like the no smoking or no right you know with the slash yeah which will represent the ending of any stereotype or any kind of you know any type of false representation of of anything really of any race many people or any anything that's falsely represented end of that that was the logo you know and then um we took it a step further with the black bastard cover and uh and uh i made it to it okay now we got this this character on a hangman's loop so we hang the character which represents the same thing it's the ending or the deading of that stereotype you know i mean at the same time this represents like the hangman game like where letters are missing out of the so it's like a puzzle you know what i mean so the whole record is like a puzzle but at the same time still with the um the message of uh no more stereotypes you know what i'm saying so i guess it was a little bit maybe too uh i don't even know i can't even look at it from their point of view to to think what the uh the reason was why they couldn't it seems like it was misinterpreted or whoever decided they were offended by it or it was too controversial misinterpreted the meaning of all that yeah but then you know what at the same time we have records out of the same label like like cop killer ice t-shirt and like a lot of controversial records at that time i think it was more like okay is this is this product marketable can we sell this you know what i mean if they could if they found a way to sell it they would have it wouldn't have been a problem there was even some rock groups on africa the name of the rock they had something same yeah they gotta cover with like a cross with uh like jesus christ with a goat head and was real bugged out that maybe might some people might see as offensive or you know blood all kind of looking crazy but but you know they selling millions of records at the time so it wasn't as offensive as you know you know so like i say it's a lot of behind the scenes things that that go on with this thing then they have a front story that you know as the main story as in everything they do even nowadays you know there's always a front story but there's also a backstory the real story you know i mean it happens a lot in politics it happens a lot and you know and and how this world is run in general these you know anytime there's money involved and a lot of you know it tends to be that way you know what i'm saying so kmd gets dropped from elektra this album doesn't come out and then you know something obviously even more tragic happens your brother passes away how did you cope with that what got you through this this time in your life yeah actually what happened was we almost was just about done with the record you know and then um the accident happened you know i'm saying where where sub lost his life or not god bless and then i finished the record you know i still went ahead and finished the record despite you know there was only it was a little bit more to do so you know just for the i mean i'm gonna finish it one of us is gonna finish it anyway if it happened to me he would have finished it you know i'm saying you know but then that's when they decided to uh um several agreement with us you know saying like in that water kind of thing so i mean a lot of things going on at that time you know so the way i dealt with it i just kept kept it moving you know i mean at the time it was it just seemed like another thing another obstacle to to kind of like maneuver around you know i had you know i had my mother and everybody i had to like kind of be the be the one to be strong at the time you know what i'm saying i'm the oldest out of all of us he's my brother younger than me one younger so i had to kind of like just take the reins at that point i couldn't really think about it too much you know especially with the whole thing with the deal being different you know had to kind of like regroup and figure things out so the way i dealt with it just like how we deal with it like keep it moving you know what i mean yeah um you wound up resurfacing but a few years later um with some with some singles with your friend barbito on his label um what else were you were you you were you were trying to keep it moving you were trying to um maintain obviously during that time that interim but yes just on the day-to-day what was that what was life like during those those years for you it's almost like how everything was before we started getting into the whole record i mean professionally into the game like back to being a civilian you know so to say where you no longer you don't have a deal so it's like you you gotta figure out ways to make ends meet you know but still doing music you know i'm saying just like before we had the deal so it wasn't too it wasn't like unfamiliar you know i mean um music is really what now i think back to it music and having equipment and always just finding a way to a place that you could just play your music and do your thing whether it's my aunt's basement or you know wherever i could get something plugged in at and plugged it you know at the time it was the fz1 and the fz10 was the rack mount version a sampler made by casio so we we had that we still had our equipment so find a way to plug it in and go continue on it's not i think about it music was the well this thing that really kept kept kept us and kept me going through the whole thing um you know and by continuing to just do the craft it caught the air of barbito you know but he's always been there as like this my partner one of my good friends from back when we first signed with uh elektra i met him to pete and search actually he was working at def jam at the time you know so uh me and bob was always cool you know so um he noticed i was still doing music i'll play some tapes for him you know go kick it with him here and there and uh he was just starting his label up or had the idea of this label that he was going to start you know so uh he asked me to to do a couple of joints if you know if he could put out a couple of joints and that's that's what kind of started it you know that's that respawned the whole thing but i think i would have still been doing it even now if if i never had a chance to come out professionally you know so at this time did you guys did you come up on your own um re-emerging as mf doom or um is it something you discussed with anybody um at that point because you was evil of x with kmd before these singles with barbito or circa 1997 for his independent label fondling yes see right after we finished the album black basses even while we were working on black bastards me and sub were both gonna do solo records respectively so i was gonna do the doom thing since back then and he was gonna come out with his his joint as another character you know and uh really i just continued on with the ideas i had in my head and i developed the doom character and developed the songs and more of the concept around the character and uh until it just culminated to enough that when bob heard it he got it you know i mean and you know the style was different i came with a different lyrical style of different i try to really make it distinctly different from the devil of x character like how you would have the characters in the book like you know that different you know uh a different strategy you know like i say it's about what it sounds like more than what it looks like a lot of the experiences in kmd and with the you know that's what people do with videos and everything was about you know so we got a taste of that and how it could backfire on you you know i mean so it kind of made me go back to the lab and regroup that's why i really developed a lot of the doom character you know i'm saying yeah and as we've seen you know musically all this stuff um you know i was really related um just from listening to the early stuff the kmd stuff to what you were doing later let's hear a little bit from the stuff from fondling your early work for them she told me i hold the mic like [ __ ] holding girls type but i ain't not the hub probably your acura pearl white the hook of knives and many times i don't hit it there's mississippi more times than dimes than a prisoner when you broke north i crashed the barbecue like riddick at the garden truth that's the guard in me pardon you cheapest i was told back the whole gang access to my people call back my secretary gatekeeper like i ain't people i said darling he was stupid though i had the style ever since i was a child i got this over style i ain't flipping a to pull a floor [ __ ] far from out in front of him when we were tall we have tons of fun me and my dogs are numb actual drawn living sons of dumb dead planets and guard jewels throwing divine rules to come through we will over charge everywhere to rule you and still drop more jewels than schools do or even tv news that's designed to fool you yeah you who hear the most grimy suggestions from brothers with fly names and id questions that's a sequel like victoria teddy says that's edible guns not ready yet but the incredible team of mcs who broke off fakes who thought they were slaughter proof stomping through like north lake waterproof tac-tac at the end of that after hit the bar with baby girl walked in the at i thank you so these singles operation doomsday considered one of the you know essential albums from this sort of uh independent hip-hop movement in the late 90s mid to late 90s um the thing that i always observed from some of your singles some of your work from this period is you know this is when hip-hop really got super divided in terms of where your loyalties were at least from a listener's perspective it's like if you were uh snapping your fingers in the club listening to bad boy records you were supposedly representing one sensibility and if you were had a backpack on and you were bobbing your head like this and you know in a cipher or whatnot you're representing something different yet the thing that's always been interesting to me is when i hear some of these singles and some of these songs you put together you're actually using some of these same reference points you're just flipping it in a different way you know um some of your songs are referencing atlantic star or james ingram or steely dan or things that are super would not be out of place being used in these other music that's being made that's more popular yet you're using it in a different of different way i just wonder what your opinion is of of me putting that idea out there yeah i mean i think the one thing that differs is uh the recording techniques and recording styles like that's what we'll be making you know i think that's what the where the line is like we like they grew probably listening to the same things we grew up listening to right except their production methods and i guess the direction they they wanted to go in was more of a polished you know um would say you know i don't want to speak for them when i was like a polish sound you could tell by how it sounds like almost aiming for a certain uh like a certain goal like as far as sonically and you know selling selling records wise too to make it a more you know pretty product you know i'm saying where you know we might be using the same sources the same references but i'm keeping it to where it's like yo it's vinyl actually it might have dust on it it might have crackles in it you know i you know i can't get the cds i'ma still make the beat i'm gonna use the one i first made you know i'm using first set of vocals i had a plug-in mic that wasn't maybe the best mic but that's how i did the vocals and that's how you know i'm keeping it rugged you know what i'm saying so and we still use the same methods to this day like however you you do it that's how you do it's done bow you know i'm saying so i think a lot of that and that's an attitude too you know that that that kind of um that became part of the formula you know methodical way we did the joints it still exists you know what i'm saying um this also set off a period for you just being super super prolific i mean after being after disappearing for a while um you know maybe not uh right after operation doomsday but definitely a few years after that you were you know there was a doom record that was coming out every week on maybe 10 different labels was that part of the whole the whole thing what was what was your what was your approach what was your mentality going into that era of things yeah i remember that time it was like more of a um it's more out of necessity at the time and out of the popularity all right you know see like i say you know we learned a lot from the first run going through the game and having you know as well as the business side having too many hands in the pot you know and not having as much freedom as you could have but once you learn it you know that's when you make the updates you know saying so one of the things that we did was made sure we had control over the entities that you know we wrote as a control over the business and you know not too well okay sign you know sign a deal where you could only make records for one company do that out you know i'm saying there's a whole independent movement going on so you can make a deal with somebody like like how i deal with barbito like he's man you know make a deal okay do a one-off record but it's not confining where all right your next record got to be with me it's not all like corporate like that you know what i'm saying and i think it was it was better for both of us like that you know so we both weren't tied down to to unnecessarily you know having to be you know just confined like that so what it would have freed up was it made it possible to solicit work to other other people you know so as much work as you can do now i have the freedom to put it out you know what i mean so with the success of of uh the fondulum stuff other other cats that want me to do maybe a verse here or do a record for them so as many as and many people would come to me he's like i'm like all right yo well i'll do it i'll you know i you know i had to get get back up and get this bread you know what i'm saying so you know i had a family at the time my son and whatnot so i had to make sure he was fed and everything was straight so this is where hip hop started being back like a business where i could sustain and take you know take care of my family so any business that would come to us we would would take it and do it so in the outside it would seem like we're doing a lot of records on purpose maybe just to come out and have a lot of records out which really wasn't the goal you know it was more like as many people that needed a record i would just do the record whether or not they put it out or not you know what i'm saying but i guess on the outside it looked like i was just doing a lot of records which is cool though it worked both ways good did you ever you have a concern about quality control during this time being did you ever feel overextended from doing all this stuff nah not at all like i say i will be doing the records anyway like so whether i just did them and kept them on my shelf and nobody ever heard them or somebody will come and want to put it out it's all see i got the formula from bob babito i call him bob you know what man bob right we call wooden tooth bob right right so so so i heard that you i heard you and mf grim when spock told me once that you guys sent him a a sympathy card can you tell him what the sympathy card was this is diversion sorry oh i forget exactly what it was more there's more grim idea okay i just signed it it was [ __ ] you had something to do with the wooden tooth joke though no bob said it was a sympathy card he got in the mail and he's like wow nobody died recently what is this and you went up and said oh we're sorry for your loss your hairline lost and you guys yeah yeah yeah yeah it was grim i did that it was real funny but uh but yeah man i'm sorry anyways go ahead you're saying you got the idea from bob yeah i got the idea from bob about yo if we just put the record out no picture covered nothing the people you know the dj's will buy a white label record and just play it so once the djs play that people hear it then they they they either like it or they don't like it so if they do like it they gotta go ask the gjo what is that or they try to go look and see what the label is or they'll go looking for the record opposed to trying to force feed somebody a record like yo we got this new record out and then they listen to you know it's like it's almost it's we did it the opposite way where it's up to the people what they like so this way it brings people to people come to you for looking for something that they already is they're already feeling so this way it cuts a lot of the you know you don't get the [ __ ] records like that you get quality records you know what i mean so if i'm doing a bunch of records people know where to come to get the quality that they they looking for so they'll tend to come and you got anything else so this way we it's how we started putting out a lot of records like that so i feel like it's not really uh i wasn't it's not really like an overextended thing it's more of a niche thing it's like certain people you know like certain things it might be thrift store clothes you know i'm saying that's their style so they'll go to the thrift store to get that instead of going to macy's to get whatever's supposed to be the high-end [ __ ] it's a certain uh certain quality that people look for that we provide that same quality how did you and madlib decide to work together yeah i got a call one day from um it was from peanut butter wall up there stone stone wolf was a good friend of mine big up wolf and um he mentioned his cat madly but i wasn't familiar with his work at the time but i guess he heard some of my stuff and he was reaching out to me so that we could do a record together like you know and want to give me some beats and whatnot so at the time it was the same same time when i was doing records for a lot of different companies and whatnot so you know they all have to fly me out to la you know so sounded like good thing flew out there met these cats cool you know what i'm saying got just school from day one you know saying i got along with these dudes you know good spirited good hearted people and um real record diggers like you know saying beat maker you know had the same kind we have the same kind of same kind of vision and how we did records the same you know it's real similar you know still unique though he had his unique style so that's really how it started he reached out ever since then that's with a man you know what i mean they were all living in a house together at the time is that right with the studio and yeah the bomb shelter in the basement yeah yeah they had a little mini mansion up on the hill it was a pretty big crib though it was a lot of space in there you know overlooking the the hills so it was a good good place to work at you know saying real quiet up there so what was a typical day like with you and madlib trying to um put this album together a typical day well where are their typical days yeah i mean yeah i could put it in a nutshell you know saying it was more like okay i'm trying to finish the record so i get back home you know i'm staying in la i'm trying to get back to my children and whatnot so i'm working as fast as i possibly can without sacrificing the quality you know so he's working too like that like i would hardly see him win the same house but he's always in the bomb shelter i'm always up on the deck writing right and then he'll give me another cd i get the cd and i'm writing you know what i'm saying and he's back in the boston so i would hardly speak to him like we hardly ever you know we might stop and he'll burn one and we'll listen to the beat and then that's it and then the next two days i probably won't see him but then i was getting mad work done knocking it out and um and then at the end of like week we will listen to the [ __ ] after the end of the week and be like i you know i'll buy them no yo here's the angle i'm thinking all i need is a first request on this one and it's done and then that's it you know i'll say i hardly hardly spoke really it's more through like telepathy and like we spoke really through the music like he'll hear the joint and that's like my conversation with him did i hear a beat and that's like what he's saying to me you know i mean like it's real bugs still to this day that's how we that's how we do it okay okay let's hear a little bit of something from mad villain which is mf2 and madlib is looks like it's going to be a great day today to get some fresh air like a stray on a straightaway hey you got a light now a bud light early in the morning the face crud from like a mud fight looky hair it's just the way the cookie chair prepare to get hurt and mango like kurt angle rookie here the rocket scientist with the pocket wine list some even say he might need some psychiatrists are you pondering what i'm pondering yes why would the dawn thing be wandering she's like a foundling barely worth fondling my posse is on broadway like mama i want to sing mad lays the bass like the race card billing on the case to break shards and leave a face guard groovy dude not to prove to be rude but this stuff is like what you might put on movie food uh what is jalapenos get it like a whooping when you holler at your seniors dollar he could overhear the hat she's feeling he just came from over there the grass is greener last wish i wish i had two more wishes and i wish they fixed the door to the matrix's mad glitches spit so many verses sometime i draw twitches one thing this party can use is more bruised put yourself in your own shoes and stay away from all the pairs of busted teams you don't use you only keep them to decorate if you want to people select a date and bring a deep check like checkmate i kid you not on the dotted line sign ever since a minor kids consider him some kind of einstein on a diamond mine grind she was dumb fine but not quite the type that you might want to whine and dine couldn't find a pen had to think of a new trick this one he wrote in cold blood with one more one false move and they've done four yeah thanks gold appreciate it um i want to ask you a little bit you always describe yourself as a writer even though you're an mcu producer you've also said i'm a writer you know and the craft of what you do i think you know it's easy to get lost amongst you know the records and the personality of the records and the mask and everything else um you know this craft of wordplay of putting words together in an interesting way um maybe using this song as an example um you know what this song for instance uh you say things like groovy dude not to prove or be rude but this stuff is like what you might put on movie food so obviously it rhymes as most rap does but you know how do you decide like when to say something by not saying something if you know what i mean you could say movie food right yeah i know what you mean but something you put on movie food somebody you know in the past there would say butter or whatever you know it's a reference to something that's just a little bit off one step to the left maybe two and i wonder if you might address that a little bit yeah well as i'm writing it i'm also thinking of it from a listening point of view so i try to make it to where i can catch myself off guard like you want to you want to keep the story interesting like as soon as somebody thinks they know what you're going to say that's part of the essence of ramen is to not is to keep everybody kind of off off guard a little so i i take that and i stretch it with these with these different things like leave one word blank you know knowing that the listener is is following along and will fill in that blank like how you know i'm following along it will fill in the blank but always put the word that that that you would least expect or what they think might be there is not there but it still makes sense in another way it keeps the story interesting you know i'm saying like when you can match wits with you know it's almost like like keeping a good conversation with with the lesson the way you can match with them it makes it more fun to me so i try to keep it as entertaining for somebody else who will be listening to it down the line even and like you know you know it really puts it puts a sense of longevity to the record as well to where you know you never know what what you know what what the dude's gonna say so you want to hear it again and again and then once you do get it you want to pass it on to a friend it's like a good book you know i'm saying so you know again that's why i phrased it as a you know a writer like you know i look at this it means written i got the notebooks to prove it man you know it's a lot of writing like more writing i thought that i'll ever be doing you know so and it takes thought and a lot of like you know it's not just put together loosely like you know like a lot of you know you got you got novels that are put together loosely you even got like tabloids opposed to um like like credible newspapers you know i mean so in the same way you got different hip-hop like the sense of rhyming that's some of it is just you know fun like here and there thrown together not as not as crafty i would say and then you got the real the real crafty good stuff so i try to make that quality good stuff you know saying well you're going to be like wow it's a classic book you know i'm saying well written you know i mean yeah and you did a whole album that we we mentioned earlier food everything is a food title every subject is on the surface we're referencing food right right but then songs are not necessarily about food they might be about something else double entendres yes it's all in there you know i mean um i want to make sure we get time for questions open it up in a second um around 2006 to the last album you did um there were moments when there was a certain amount of unpredictability you you were very prolific but then um there were there was also some inactivity um you know what was going on in that time i think it's more like you know i was still doing work but i kind of laid off it a little bit just to concentrate on family and like you know other children on the way and you know i just kind of took a a took some time off really for family and like just to just to get away from it for a second it started being like where you know i don't necessarily want to do one thing for too long it gets to where it gets boring and kind of overwhelming and you want to take a step back and just reflect so it was really like that kind of thing i didn't think was that noticeable from the outside though i figured it was enough enough work out there for people to still absorb and you know and it comes to a point where if i if i'm i need to get more information as i study and you know and you know i got to do some some in some like to get to give the affirmation i need information so i would do things like you know just leave it alone for a second and just observe the world and you know so i'll have more things to say i think a lot of times people expect us to just be constantly talking and i'm the kind of cat i'll lay back you know i mean the conversation ain't always about what i got to say you know i'm saying sometimes time to listen so that was more like the listening time you know i mean um i want to open things up for questions for folks um even though there's you know there's a few more things to cover um just to kind of make sure everybody has a chance can we get a microphone i have a really obvious question for you um all right when can we expect the next mad villain album good question now uh well it's almost done i'll say that okay but it's been almost done now for maybe like two years you know um i can't say when to expect it but i'll be finished soon i'll be finished by january i say with my part but then it's still mad liv has to put his little touches on it you know so it's still unpredictable but it'll be soon it'll be soon okay thanks oh um first and foremost i just wanted to say that in my opinion doomsday and mad villain are two of the greatest hip-hop records ever made i appreciate it man listen to them all my life but um what i mean i could probably ask you a million questions one thing i've always wanted to know was on mad villainy i always found i would stacy epps a really interesting track because obviously 95 percent of the record is you know yourself a mad lib corresponding to each other but then i always kind of wondered the point of the introduction of that track was it to break up the records give people a a breather i mean or was it just how did that how did that record even how did that track come along to step to the racket yeah that's a good question see the way the way i i i view it you know i i make records based on the hip-hop that we used to listen to you see so this would be like radio shows and like things like that and i noticed the way the dj's doing even at parties did the party be rocking you know and it hit a certain point where you know they playing more more street records then it will slow down with more like funny records and by the end of the night they slow down with the slow jam and have something for the ladies you know i'm saying like just to add that feminine essence to it and it always was a good way to smooth it and even everything out you know i mean so in the same way i would always put something for the ladies on on every record whether it's a female mcu or a song about women or a girl singing it needs balance like that i think everything needs that i mean what would we do without them right right ladies what would we do with our job you know so that's where that came from i said all right uh you know stacey's a good friend of mine she was working on her stuff and uh she she was feeling one of the beats so i said yo go ahead do your thing and it just fit perfectly on there out of music that's currently going through at the moment um is there anybody that i mean you've worked with tom york for example i think even read this morning johnny greenwood as well um i'd just be curious to know out of up-and-coming producers i mean obviously they're more established now your flying lotuses etc would there be anybody that you you know could call that you'd like to call upon to do a record with that if that is becoming quite influential upon stuff that you want to rap on you know i really a lot of i don't really listen to the current hip-hop to the point where i know who is who to say oh i want to beat from this dude i would like to work with this guy i usually hear something and then i'm like yo who did that you know it works that way then i'll find producers like that but um if i have to say anybody i'll say oh my man kanye he's doing his thing that's a good friend of mine too so i didn't get a chance to really work with him yet so i'm like if i had the same producer you know something that people wouldn't really expect i would say khan kanye yeah and last question sorry sorry i'm sorry i'm saying um i always found something really refreshing the fact that you used a lot of 80 samples from bob's gags or anita baker i mean i found that really refreshing in your music i was wondering would that have been stuff that you listen to a lot in general you know if you don't listen obviously to a lot of what's going on present hip-hop which i totally understand because i personally think a lot of it's [ __ ] but i'm just curious is that you know music that you listen to a lot in your spare time yeah i mean that's the stuff i grew up on and stuff where i still go back to that stuff and you know when i listen to these records is like the interesting records to me are records that is hard to decipher like you know technically like i've tried to figure out how they do that what equipment did they use what you know it's different from now the methods that they used to record with you could tell also a lot of times you can't tell you know what they used was it two inch was it quarter inch how do they do it you know what i mean so those are interesting sonically to me enough to stay in that in that in that realm and looking for records of from that era that i still haven't heard you know i mean like records from like say like brazil brazilian stuff that still was recorded in that time it's still new to me you know i mean and it's still just as interesting you know but that's where yeah it comes from that like uh i'm still in the 80s in the 70s and the 60s i'm like stuck there kind of thing right it's a lot of stuff there though that's still unfound you know what i'm saying you and me both anyway thanks word hi i actually have two questions um first of all the questions i'm not sure if it was the reissue of food that had the plastic the silver cover and if you scratch it it smelled like chocolate oh yeah yeah yeah that was great um did you do you actually come up with the concept while you're making the music or is it something that comes afterwards well the concept about the chocolate thing actually my partner from the label rhymes says well man sadiq he came up with that one just to celebrate the the record you know what i mean um you know yeah so really that's how that came out came out after the record was out and like it's almost like an add-on you know from the from you know the food references like we spoke about earlier that's like a reference he came up with that that could make it interesting you know yeah do you when you're making the music is it only audio thing or do you also sometimes have a visual aspect to it as well well yeah i always have a visual i always see it and i hear it you know just you know i always see things you know a lot of us do tools artists you you can see it and hear it things have sounds have colors that accompany you know i mean so yeah it's always both audio and visual to me definitely and then my second question is um reinstall cowboy is one of my favorite um favorite of your songs what um what kind of made you do the record i mean it was did you feed up the the beat or did you have the concept in your mind already or how did that happen yeah that's an interesting that's interesting um record um the way that came about actually the record was a little short right and um uh my ma my man egon he was like yo doom i think we need one more song you know you know the time he was up there stone strolling he was like the a r dude so yeah i was like okay i need one more song all right i had so many beats from madden it was like i could do 20 records like so many so i i went through them picked one out you know the one that stood out the most to me that was the heartbeat stood out it's like it wasn't tricky to run to so really the that song came out of just needing to fill the slot real spontaneous like okay i got like a week to turn the record in here you go e it's done like you know kind of thing so uh that's how it came about but i i a lot of this is one of my favorite records as well you know so a lot of times when i'm under the gun like that it tends to come up with that kind of that kind of thing so yeah i wrote it to the beat you know i mean it was just real quick like oh crunch time you know kind of thing yeah it was a great pick thank you thanks hey do you ever find yourself out of ideas and how to work around that and outside of music whether you look for inspiration yeah yo a lot of times i find myself you know writer's block you know i get that all the time you know as part of the process when that happens i just tend to just leave it alone and do something else and you know and uh that's what i'll do something like i'll read or like uh i get inspiration from a lot of different things though like nature silence a lot of times just um you know playing with my children you know things that people probably do every day some people might take for granted uh you know little little things the smallest thing will inspire something you know i'm saying so yeah when i get stuck i just go back to normal mode and then that's where you find things that come to you you know i'm saying you know when to pick up the just have a pen and a piece of paper handy it's going to come to you never you never know when it'll come to you you know what i mean so you don't just stand there and force it to come like just wait for it that lord knows i tried i tried you know i'm saying but there's no way the way it is the way the creativity works for me it it it comes to you like it's energy stream or something like it comes like in waves kind of thing so you just got to be ready for the wave when it when it comes go back that's when you step back for a second and you know there's no way to really make it happen you know you just got to be ready you know thank you um you haven't spoken much about grimm yet so can you tell us how you guys met the nature of your relationship and maybe why things went sour yeah no i wouldn't say they went sour but i would say like all right we met the same time around the same time without when i met bob like it's the same crew you know what i'm saying all from uptown that curious is around the same time too and we all were like in the in the game somewhere i met george up there he was working up at def jam with bob and then grim was doing demos and he was like winning battles around the same time um you know so and but everybody's from uptown so i used to just be uptown you know with these dudes and um and uh yeah i wouldn't say anyone sour it's just that relationships tend to split like i don't see the same people that you know that you used to see every day you know i mean still my peoples got mad love for all my brothers you know i mean but um yeah that's that's how i go that's how it went cool um got another question about pebbles the invisible girl she did the hook on on operation on doomsday and then on uh on the mic but i've never heard of her like of her since then or on any other records did she write those hooks because like those real girls yeah man she's not whatever changed my life man you know what it is i she was the kind of singer that all right my man knew a girl who could sing and again i had to finish the record so i'm like yo yo you got a girl can sing you ask her could she sing this part and i'll write it or play a reference and she's like all right i can sing by pay to like 25 or something like as a session singer to come in and do it and uh yeah i don't know what she's doing now i haven't seen her ever again i don't think i even know a real name you know you should be able to find it then you know probably maybe who's next uh you said did your characters have conflicts uh have you ever thought about making a record with the different characters battling it out yeah it was uh yeah it was like um matter of fact it's a little rap beef starting right now with um with vicar and doing vickers kind of platinum i think he's getting a little jealous because doom was getting shined like you know so vic is gonna come well he's talking about coming out with like a disc record so it's going to be a point where you know just to make a kind of like a mockery or kind of like a spoof from the you know the hip-hop rivalries that go on you know so vic is going to come he's going to come hard with some [ __ ] you know what i mean nice thanks is doom ready to respond i don't know we got to see he's nice on me i wouldn't go up against him and we shall see um actually i think this is where we're gonna have to uh wrap it but um you have anything you want to say to these young impressionable minds in conclusion yeah you know what i was saying follow your heart that's the number one rule follow your heart like a lot of people might not see your vision yet you know i mean people might call you crazy you'll think it won't make sense follow your heart and just follow it all the way through and that's when you'll see you make a new ground and people are appreciated later on you know i mean never try to do something to impress the next the next man you know you know the next woman like it's really about what you see and you know what you have inside you know everybody's unique individual here you know i mean so you have something to contribute so whatever it is follow that and bring it out and share the table with all of us you know i mean and um i also have to say like just thanks all y'all support you know i mean it's people like y'all that have me continue to do it and see uh you know i see it as valuable when i you know when you guys show appreciation i'm like wow you know somebody out there actually listening and know what my crazy ass is thinking about you know saying so i appreciate that to say thank you guys well let's say thanks to mf doom everybody you

Channel: Red Bull Music Academy

Views: 1,254,490

Rating: 4.9591908 out of 5

Keywords: Red Bull Music Academy (Recurring Event), Daniel Dumile (Composer), MF DOOM, MF DOOM Interview, MF DOOM Talk, MF Doom Red Bull, MF Doom Red Bull Lecture, MF DOOM working with Madlib, MF Doom Madvillain, Re-emerging as MF DOOM, MF DOOM Masked Villain, The Rise of MF DOOM, MF Doom KDM, MF DOOM Red Bull Interview, DOOM Interview, MF Doom Music Lecture, mf doom music, madvillain, mf doom mask

Id: JGu0ao_rdAk

Length: 100min 28sec (6028 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/uncleben137]

Hip hop history

[u/actuarial_defender]

I love how he thinks before he speaks. People need more of that in general, me included

[u/ciaranthedinosaur]

If you get the chance to check this out then please do.

[u/hippynox]

Interesting to see he is/was good friends with Kanye :)

[u/The-Jew-Tang-Clan]

How do we know this isn’t a DOOMposter tho 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[u/cleverusername3k]

Thank u brother/sister... I'm an MF DOOM fan who never watched this and I'm really enjoying it.

[u/yeezusisachristian]

I love this one

[u/NotoriousBigkhi]

the glasses over the mask kills me every time lol