LOS ANGELES (AP) – MF Doom, a masked rapper who impressed hip-hop fans and other musicians with a complex wordplay, died. He was 49 years old.
The British rapper has rarely appeared in public in recent years without his signature mask, modeled after Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom. His death was confirmed on Thursday by Doom representative Richie Abbott. Jasmine Dumile said in a statement that her husband – whose real name is Daniel Dumile – died on October 31.
The cause of death was not disclosed.
Jasmine Dumile posted a photo of the rapper and a heartfelt message on his Instagram page and. She called him “best husband” and father and thanked him for showing her how not to be “afraid to love”.
“Thank you for teaching me how to forgive beings and give them another chance, not being so quick to judge and dismiss,” she wrote. “My world will never be the same without you.”
Dumile was born in London and raised in New York. He started his rap career in the late 1980s under the name Zev Love X, as part of the KMD group, which included his younger brother DJ Subroc.
The group released two albums: “Mr. Hood ”in 1991 and“ Black Bastards ”two years later. Subroc died shortly before the release of the second album.
Dumile took a step back from the public eye, then returned in the late 1990s under his personality MF Doom. In 1999, he released his self-produced debut album, “Operation: Doomsday”.
Dumile released six studio albums under different stage names, including King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn. He collaborated with producer Madlib on the 2004 album “Madvillainy”, which was considered his most celebrated release.
Dumile’s last studio solo album, “Born Like This”, was released in 2009. His most recent album was a 2018 collaboration with the group Czarface: “Czarface Meets Metal Face”.
Dumile’s death, three years after the death of her 14-year-old son, shocked the world of hip-hop. “Someone stabbed all my chakras,” wrote rapper Pharoahe Monch on Instagram. “I’m hungry. I’m screaming and crying.”
“RIP to another giant MC from your favorite MC .. MF DOOM !! overwhelming news … ”, wrote producer and rapper Q-Tip on social media.
Music industry executive Dante Ross, who signed his first recording contract with KMD, said Dumile’s “life force was a metaphor for black men in this world. You took all the (bad things) sent on your way and created beautiful art with them. Tragedy was his fuel for reinvention. ”
Behind the theatricality of the mask was a technically proficient lyricist. With a monotonous delivery that hid deceptively complex lyrics and rhyme schemes, Doom evolved into a lyricist that hip-hop’s top lyricists deeply admired. Each verse may require multiple auditions to decipher the hidden or multiple meanings of the words.
In an interview last year for Spin magazine, Dumile compared his compositions to “gymnastics on paper” and achieving “triple scores” on Scrabble.
“How many words are repeated in a bar, or two bars? How many syllables can you use that still make sense in a song? ”Said Dumile. “The quality of the word that rhymes: phonetically, as is the tone, in the pronunciation of the word. Regardless of the language … As long as the word itself rhymes, you still earn points for that word. … How many references can you cross and still remain on the topic? And still rhyme? The more complex the subject and the play on words, this is where you get your points. I’m a rhymer, so I look for points. ”