2019 — Classics / Canon DiS Hip-Hop Listening Club

Music
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the original thread: The Official DiS Hip-Hop Listening Club

the first classics edition thread: Classics / Canon edition of the DiS Hip-Hop Listening Club

same rules as before but in order to sign up this time just hit the ol’ heart on the first post I’ll place below that says “sign me up” and we’ll go in the order that the likes come in at. However I would like to let anyone new jump the order when possible. so i will monitor all that in the DMs and let you know a couple days ahead of time if you’re coming up.

Classics / Canon edition of the DiS Hip-Hop Listening Club
Learning to love hip hop
Hip-Hop Listening Club: VVV - Bozo Boyz (post 609)
Broaden my hip hop horizons
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Sign me up

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🎵 How Good Are They Really 🎵 OutKast
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Re-cap of picks so far:

The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
@ incandenza

KRS-One — Return of the Boom Bap
@ bornin69x

Cam’ron — Purple Haze
@ thought_dreams

Digable Planets – Blowout Comb
@ shrewbie

The Roots — The Tipping Point
@ Gert

T.I. — King
@ theShipment

Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth
@ CHAIRMAN_LMAO

UGK - Ridin’ Dirty
@ littlebirds

Little Brother - The Listening
@ Antpocalypsenow

Ice Cube – Death Certificate
@ FKA_Adam_Jeffson

Big L - Harlem’s Finest: A Freestyle History Vol. 1 & 2
@ nav

Missy Elliott- Supa Dupa Fly
@ furryfan

Black Moon - Enta Da Stage
@ CHAIRMAN_LMAO

Raekwon — Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
@ FKA_Adam_Jeffson

Killer Mike - I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind II
@ Jamos

2pac – Me Against the World
@ theShipment

Redman – Whut? Thee Album
@ dan_s

Quasimito – The Unseen
@ thewarn

Masta Ace Incorporated - SlaughtaHouse
@ littlebirds

A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders
25th anniversary special pick

Juvenile – 400 Degreez
@ thought_dreams

Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
@ CHAIRMAN_LMAO

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Viktor Vaughn (MF Doom) — Vaudeville Villain

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Our first pick is courtesy of @jhn9kdy

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And here is what @jhn9kdy had to say:

So first of all, I need to admit that I am an MF Doom obsessive. I love his work and the dramatic story of his career. From KMD through to his masked re-emergence after the death of his brother and his more recent exile in London, I think he is a unique talent who is endlessly listenable. During what I think of as the classic Doom period, I had a long daily commute into Stockport which gave me time to listen to all of his stuff in depth. I couldn’t believe how incredible it was. No one I knew had ever heard of him or seemed to care. I felt like a lone MF Doom disciple trying to work out what he was going on about while nodding my head in the Hazel Grove traffic jams.

Vaudeville Villain appeared during an incredible run of albums between 2003 and 2005 and was the first one where he wan’t the main producer. At the time he was working with different labels, using different names and collaborating with amazing people. It was made with Brooklyn based Sound Ink Records which has long since disappeared. They released a handful of records made up from some really amazing ambient & electronic off-kilter beats that makes this album sound very different from Operation Doomsday, Take Me To Your Leader and MM… Food. The tracks are mostly produced by the people who set up Sound Ink apart from the stand out track, Saliva, made by RJD2.

Viktor Vaughn’s flow is a bit darker and (slightly) less cartoony than MF Doom’s but still full of stream of consciousness bragging and pop culture references. He flips between flux capacitors, Donkey Kong, robots with laser eyes and anaphylactique shock. He effortlessly throws out things like, “Study your history - Whoever don’t? I pity-the-fool like Mr. T.” every few minutes.

There are samples from Fantastic Four cartoons that cut off the “Doom” from Victor Von Doom to make references to his new character. All the little samples and noises (such as “All of mankind will pay for this!” or “the mike is here stupid”) rattle around my head long after I’ve stopped listening to the album. I love the title track, the single Mr Clean and the ridiculous Open Mic Nite skits which end with Vaughn shooting the MC’s friend. The guest spots are all top notch and like the rain on the hidden track at the end, the whole thing conjures up a late night New York sci-fi cartoon universe.

I’m also a big fan of the follow up, Venomous Villain which a lot of people seem to dismiss as a cash in. All of his stuff bears repeated listening but I think Viktor Vaughn might have got slightly lost in the shadow of the monumental Madvillain.

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My favourite doom album. Love the open mic skits but a dead mouse is the standout for me. The syncopation in the ‘y’all pay v…’ line gets me every time.

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production on a dead mouse is pure mastery

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Absolutely love this album. Lyrically, I think it’s DOOM’s best work. The Drop is just insane - like one long verse and it’s as if he doesn’t take a breath.

Remember me God, clean Timbs with emery board?
He only came to save the game like a memory card

He said 24-7 I be on call
He use his vacation days to watch Babylon 4

Numbskulls… get ta steppin’ they dumb dull
And how he rep the mic is like the weapon from Krull

:crazy_face:

This came out when I was just buying anything with his name on it, so picked up a copy of SoundInk’s Colapsus compilation, which was actually pretty decent and I should really dig it out again. This album got bootlegged quite soon after and it never really left my rotation since.

The crazy references and the electronicky production style just presses so many buttons for me. And love that he’d cooked up another persona. I vaguely remember seeing a photo of him doing a show as Vik but he’d ditched the mask and was wearing a Yankee cap and some of those plastic blue blocker glasses that old people wear. Just brilliant.

Second favourite DOOM album for me. Wish he’d done more albums with these guys.

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I’m going to have to buy a copy of the Colapsus compilation from 2001. This track from it would have fitted right in to Vaudville Villain:

and this is great too:

It is amazing that Doom bounced from label to label around this time. Even the second Viktor Vaughn album was with a different label and set of producers. I think I read somewhere that he spent a quite a while living in the Stones Throw offices in Los Angeles before they released Madvillain.

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Yeeeeeee

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Controversially, I don’t love, love this album. DOOM is really at his peak here, not necessarily as effortlessly witty and charismatic as on Madvillain, but hungrier, more agile, rapping faster and – key to the concept – more villainous than ever. You can pore these lyrics and pick out endless quotables, I love the whole of The Drop, kicking off with:

“If I’m not working or putting work in,
I’m either wheeling and dealing
Or probably jerkin my—
Yep—listening to nothing,
taking no suggestions…
Or destructive criticisms,
that can’t improve on perfection”.

That said beats are pretty amateur, though to their credit they very much capture a dystopian sci-fi atmosphere. At best (A Dead Mouse, Lactose and Lecithin, Raedawn) this amateur sci-fi thing sounds like a mixtape you might find lying on a pile of rubble in the not-to-distant future as the world burns around you. At worst, it sounds a bit tossed off. I kind of wish the production had done these rhymes more justice, the way Madlib feeds and teases on the wordplay on Madvillain. El-P’s clattering, psychedelic sci-fi landscapes these ain’t.

I’ve listened to this album dozens of times, can barely hum you a tune from it but will quote you the lyrics. Like all DOOM albums, the concept is a bit washy, though hard to use that as a criticism at this point.

Ultimately, I think I prefer MM FOOD or Born Like This as listening experiences for hooking me in more, but I’ll always come back to VV for DOOM rapping at his finest.

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Don’t @ me @ list:

@incandenza, @bornin69x, @thought_dreams, @shrewbie, @Gert, @anon5266188, @FKA_Adam_Jeffson, @anon50098204

You know what you gotta do.

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Sorry to hear that man! There’s obviously no obligation to participate but if you’re in the mood and/or it helps you take your mind off things then swing on by for some rap tunes :raised_hands:

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Ahaha. As we speak

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I always see VV as a counterpoint to the King Geedorah record - on one he does all of the MCing but not much production, on the other he does nearly all of the production and uses quite a lot of guest voices.

VV is good of course, occasionally great, but it’s a bit more of a ‘conventional’ hip hop album than Doom’s other work (although that’s a relative term, of course). Personally I think some of the beats are a little unexciting although the lyrics are universally fabulous of course. I pretty much love everything that he did in that golden decade between 1999 and 2009 but for me this is only a solid mid table contender amongst those stellar albums. I prefer him when he goes a bit wilder and weirder.

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Have you got Unexpected Guests? Some of my favourite Doom odds and ends on there.

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Yes. Love that Sorcerers track. He was teasing a KMD album for ages. Shame it never materialised.

Posted this before, but in case anyone missed it, this interview is great. Done while he was making MM…FOOD.

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I’ve got a copy of Unexpected Guests but I need to listen to it properly. This whole thread has got me disappearing down a DOOM wormhole.

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[quote=“littlebirds, post:11, topic:34452”]
That said beats are pretty amateur, though to their credit they very much capture a dystopian sci-fi atmosphere. At best (A Dead Mouse, Lactose and Lecithin, Raedawn) this amateur sci-fi thing sounds like a mixtape you might find lying on a pile of rubble in the not-to-distant future as the world burns around you.[/quote]

I would defend that pile-of-rubbish mixtape with my life as I wander through the burning landscape. I genuinely like the production and think it’s good to hear his lyrics on top of a different style. I think VV was a point where he broke free and his talent as an MC can be appreciated.

I’ve just sat through most of this interview:

Where he talks about what he was doing during that mid-2000 period. His reaction to how KMD were treated pushed him into a fantasticly creative period. Is anyone else doing that sort of thing now?

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Why isn’t Doom still doing it?