MF Doom, the cerebral and intentionally mysterious rapper and producer loved by hip-hop connoisseurs for the complex rhymes he uttered behind a metal mask, died. He was 49 years old.
His death was announced on Thursday in an Instagram post signed by his wife, Jasmine, who said that Doom had “made the transition” on October 31. A spokesman for Rhymesayers, the record company that Doom recorded, confirmed his death. No cause was given.
Known for close collaborations with producers like Madlib and Danger Mouse – and for using a variety of alter egos, including King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn – Doom, born Daniel Dumile, proudly opened an idiosyncratic path through rap music in the 1990s and 2000s, diving deeply into a comic-style mythology created by himself, even when hip-hop reached increasingly commercial heights in the mainstream pop.
His music was dense, but funky, somber, but marked by a strange sense of humor; his records helped pave the way for hip-hop kooks like Playboi Carti and Tyler the Creator.
“My soul is crushed,” Flying Lotus tweeted on Thursday, before adding that the 2004 album “Madvillainy” was “everything you needed in hip hop”. On Instagram, El-P from Run the Jewels thanked Doom “for always keeping him awkward and raw”.
Regarding his decision to perform with a mask, Dumile, who was born in London and grew up on Long Island, told the New Yorker in 2009: “I wanted to go on stage and pray, without people thinking about the normal things that people think . Like girls saying, ‘Oh, he’s sexy,’ or ‘I don’t want him, he’s ugly’, and then other guys evaluating you. A look always makes a first impression. But if there is a first impression, I can also use it to control the story. So, why not do something like put on a mask? “
A complete obituary will appear shortly.