In celebration of its 20th anniversary, MF DOOM’s 2004 classic, MM..FOOD, lauded for its seamless blend of humor, wit, and social commentary that ushered listeners into a bizarre world of food-related metaphors, has been fully repackaged with all new artwork by Sam Rodriguez. The MM..FOOD (20th Anniversary Edition) vinyl and digital deluxe editions will be available on November 15th via Rhymesayers Entertainment. Pre-order at gasdrawls.com and rhymesayers.com.
The digital deluxe version of MM..FOOD will feature the original tracklist plus rare remixes of “One Beer” and “Hoe Cakes” by Madlib, Jake One and Ant, along with unreleased MF DOOM interview clips. Today, you can hear one of the remixes featured on the digital deluxe edition of the album, “One Beer” (Madlib Remix). LISTEN HERE.
A limited deluxe edition of the 20th anniversary vinyl is also available exclusively via MF DOOM’s site, gasdrawls.com. The MM..FOOD deluxe 2xLP picture disc vinyl is housed in a 12″ tip-on case-wrapped matte gatefold jacket with anti-scratch lamination treatment and silver foil stamped numbering. The deluxe vinyl also includes a bonus 7″ picture disc vinyl featuring the rare original version of “Kookies” as well as the Just Blaze remix, housed in a custom kraft paper pastry sleeve with plastic window, and a QR code sticker linking to an MM..FOOD Diner AR experience.
Additionally, the long out-of-print classic “Hoe Cakes” 12-inch vinyl will be reissued with its original artwork, now pressed on a “bug juice blend” colored vinyl. The 12-inch single includes “Hoe Cakes,” “Potholderz” (feat. Count Bass D), and the “Hoe Cakes Remix” produced by Ant, along with instrumentals for all. Taking its name from the sweet, hot water cornmeal patties whose origins can be traced back to pre-colonial America, “Hoe Cakes” is one of DOOM’s finest and most delightfully strange moments on wax.
Alongside the music, an exclusive Super7 Collectible is also available for pre-order. The new MF DOOM ReAction Figure & Cereal Bowl Set is inspired by the album cover from MM..FOOD, packed in cereal box-style packaging that includes a maze of madness puzzle that can be cut out and worn as a mask. This figure set includes a 3.75” scale MF DOOM ReAction Figure with microphone accessory, a 33 oz. capacity cereal bowl, and a spoon with MF DOOM mask and logo details.
Additionally, the DOOM estate is releasing a limited apparel line to commemorate the anniversary, including MM..FOOD inspired shirts, hooded sweatshirts, hats, aprons, tote bags, slipmats, mugs, and more. Everything is available for pre-order now via gasdrawls.com.
Throughout its history, rap music has been primarily concerned with the art of documenting the world as it is. From the genre’s earliest stirrings in the early 70s to Grandmaster Melle Mel’s detailed social commentary on “The Message” in 1982, hip-hop’s first decade set the tone for rap music moving forward. Since then, the core power of rap music has been its utility as a tool to shed light on the surroundings and lived conditions of the oppressed and most vulnerable. Today, legions of artists continued in this tradition regardless of region or arbitrary industry labels like “conscious”, “gangsta”, “underground” or “mainstream”. While there is much that MF DOOM’s extensive catalog can say about the world around us, what separates DOOM from many of his artistic peers, antecedents, and descendants is the fact that while most rappers tell us about the world as it is, DOOM’s work occupies a world of his own creation.
In 2004, MF DOOM released MM..FOOD, a magnum opus that ushered us into a bizarre world of decadence. With its overarching set of food-related metaphors, MM..FOOD finds DOOM painting a bitterly comedic portrait of a life tainted by vice, sex, violence, and jealousy. It’s a brilliant and novel device that gives DOOM plenty of room to explore the album’s themes.
In sharp contrast to the dark timbre of the lyrics, MM..FOOD’s music and sample choices are built around a bright and colorful sonic palette. MM..FOOD opens with a bit of sampled dialogue that hints at DOOM’s use of food as the album’s core metaphor. The brief snippet finds the three young graffiti artists planning to make a quick food run before the main beat for “Beef Rapp” drops. DOOM takes center stage from here, building up a multi-pronged metaphor about beef. The early 2000s were marked by highly publicized rap beefs like Nas vs. Jay-Z, 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule, and the Lox/Jadakiss vs. State Property/Beanie Sigel. In a playful yet cautionary tone, DOOM characterizes rap beef as an unhealthy agent in hip-hop’s cultural bloodstream. Just as the overconsumption of red meat can lead to heart disease, with its real-life violent undertones, rap beef can threaten the health and well-being of artists and the culture at large.
With songs like the breezy, beat-box-laced “Hoe Cakes,” “Potholderz” (feat. Count Bass D), and the loopy, Madlib-produced “One Beer,” MM..FOOD is as much of a feast of aural delights as it is a serious piece of literary art. “Deep Fried Frenz” finds DOOM revealing some paranoid, anti-social shades of his character as he waxes poetic about the darker side of friendship. With some of the best writing of his career, “Deep Fried Frenz” reveals DOOM’s perspective as a humorous cynic as he laments the fake friends he writes off coldly claiming that they “wouldn’t have even made a worthy enemy.”
20 years after its release, it’s easy to see that MM..FOOD has become iconic in its own right. Much like DOOM himself, this album has taken its rightful place in the pantheon of beloved hip-hop staples. From the influence that the album’s rough and loose production style has had on contemporary boom-bap and “lo-fi” to how his artistry and pen have opened up bold new creative possibilities for MCs, DOOM’s work continues to shape our music today. For artists and appreciators alike, the examples that can be drawn from DOOM and this masterful album are numerous. At its heart, MM..FOOD shows us that imagination is not just an instrument for us to catalog the world in which we were given. DOOM left us with an example of how art can point the way toward what is possible.
One of Hip-Hop’s most beloved anti-heroes, the ever-inventive MF DOOM (often referred to as simply DOOM) has received widespread praise for his sharp, candid rhymes, as well as his choppy, sample-heavy production style. Initially known as Zev Love X, a member of the short-lived but influential Golden Era rap group K.M.D, the MC/producer born Daniel Dumile re-emerged at the end of the ’90s with a persona inspired by the Marvel Comics super villain Dr. Doom. He reinforced his enigmatic presence by donning an elaborate metal mask during all of his public appearances and creating numerous alter egos for specific projects and collaborations. MF DOOM’s music has been described as, “the fine line between insanity and genius”. Unconventional, abstract, unorthodox; these words merely scrape the surface of defining his approach musically, conceptually, even rhythmically.
Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com
