This is Doom's first album consisting entirely of guest productions, and it quickly becomes apparent that he sounds better over his own work. Songwriting doesn't often come this lush, detail-minded or captivating in hip-hop these days, but it's no surprise that the best songs in the genre are coming from an 80s transplant that claims to be "a really big fan of Dan Aykroyd."Īs expected on an album from one of the current greats, the soundscapes on Vaudeville Villain fail to keep pace with the classic lines being dropped left and right. Throughout the course of the song, they buy fireworks and indulge in Guyanese strippers in Chinatown, and Doom finds a guru who teaches him "that the roach is never dead," hypothetically cultivating the future super scientist on which this album is based. Doom claims, "If I don't study, I'ma cheat off Peter Parker," and then teams up with schoolmate Saayid to run and gun on a search for Doom's stolen Donkey Kong game. Saayid for a cartoonish recollection of their education ("Never Dead"). In another example of Dumile's pen prowess, he teams up with former Anti-Pop Consortium rhymesayer M. 45 with "no bullets, no clip" that has "black electrical tape over the hole in the handle" but still manages to cause a fellow citizen to "run his chain like an errand." After detailing clever break-in methods, he plays the fall guy, getting shot by one of his elderly victims and claiming that he "woulda let her have it if he had the ammo." There's no exaggeration made when you hear someone referring to Metal Face as one of the best writers in rap: "Modern Day Mugging" has Doom turning a tired theme like, well, robbing people from a ghetto cliché into a comedic spectacle, delivering a how-to for all aspiring thugs and thugettes: He only carries a. While most underground emcees are content to rhyme about their intelligence, the evils of commercialism, and the general populace's lack of cognizance, Vik finds the perfect balance between complex songs and simple delivery, never hitting you with guilt trips or preaching to the choir. Fly Emcee), a drug deal gone horribly awry ("Lactose and Lecithin"), an argument with a Chinese restaurant owner ("Raedawn") and the hilarious gunning down of a lame open mic night. Situations faced by our favorite masked rhymer this side of '93 Ghostface include the courtship of an underage girl ("Let Me Watch" with Apani B. The pieces here run a larger gamut of topics than the shit-talking he mastered on Operation: Doomsday. Although best known for his more whimsical material, this album has Doom frequently coming off like Wu without the pretension, branching out into more evolved song structures (choruses!) and unusually focused topical and narrative tracks. Not surprisingly, it plays out much like any other Metal Face project: Doom's sick flow is tied to a fractured cadence, a slurry, guttural delivery, obscure pop culture references ("Unfrozen caveman, look over the contracts") and beautifully simple idioms and metaphors. A joint project between Doom and Sound-Ink, Vaudeville Villain's storyline follows the everyday life of super-villain/beat scientist/drug dealer/stick-up kid Vik Vaughn. 2 feat. AJ Ready Wright, Creature, Lord Sear (Prod. by King Honey)Ĭ2 Modern Day Mugging ( Prod. Brother Sambuca, Louis Logic, Lord Sear & Rodan (Prod. by King Honey)Ī5 Lactose And Lecithin ( Prod. Sayyid (Anti-Pop Consortium), Lord Sear, Apani B Fly MC, Louis Logic, RJD2 and more.Ī2 Vaudeville Villain ( Prod. Take a trip back to the origin of the Super Villain- an unanticipated time travel-machine breakdown left him stuck in the early 90s where he has no choice but to battle sucka MCs and carry out side-hustles so he can repair the time machine and go back to the future. It is a concept album with plenty of high comedy, street technology, and hijinks, splashed artfully over next-school beats, which move freely in the spaces between electronica and Hip Hop, by King Honey, Heat Sensor, and Max Bill. Legendary artist MF DOOM (aka Zev Love X of KMD) opened up a lyrical wormhole with Vaudeville Villain, one of the most unique releases in a career packed with nothing but uniqueness.