MF DOOM, Rap's Masked Iconoclast

Related Organization: Kansas City Public Library

British American rapper, songwriter, and producer Daniel Dumile Jr. – aka masked supervillain MF DOOM – passed away four years ago. S.H. “SKIZ” Fernando tells the stories behind the hip-hop legend in the new biography, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast. 

Fernando is the author of several books and is a former music critic with bylines in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and others. He discusses DOOM's life against the backdrop of East Coast rap, dissecting the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his successful career and legacy. Fernando is also a rapper, record producer, and founder of the label WordSound. 

DOOM first performed in the 1980s as Zev Love X with the hip-hop group KMD. After the group disbanded, he reemerged, performing at open-mic nights in a metal mask resembling the one worn by Doctor Doom, the Marvel Comics villain. He recorded six solo albums under various pseudonyms, as well as numerous collaborative projects including Madvillainy (with producer Madlib), Danger Doom (with producer Danger Mouse), and with the Wu-Tang Clan spin off, Czarface.