Darc Mind - The Cellar Session

Darc Mind is my favorite MC-DJ duo. There is nothing else in hip-hop quite like the combination of Web D's beats and Kevroc's rhymes. How curious then that one of their best known songs, indeed their only single ever pressed, wasn't produced by Web D, but by New Jersey's Nick Wiz. When I spoke with the duo about this record, Web said, "Originally on Loud, we had a single deal. They was afraid of us. They didn’t know what to do with us ... They did think our sound was a little rough around the edges, so they sent us to Nick Wiz, and we did the single for them, which was 'Outside Looking In.' They put it out there for radio release. It was almost like a promo. They never released it in the stores or nothing like that. It was mad copies pressed up and they promo’ed the shit out of it."

As so many copies were pressed, the single isn't too hard to find, and in addition to radio and album versions of the song, it contains the instrumental and acapella tracks. Any Kevroc acapella is a thing to behold. Recently, however, it was revealed that these aren't the only versions. In 2025, Nick Wiz included an alternate mix of "Outside Looking In" on his Cellar Selections Volume 11 compilation. When I first heard this, I immediately lost my shit, getting so excited I somehow convinced myself there were actually different lyrics on this version. There aren't, but it's still very dope. Anyway, I'd resolved to do a post about it sometime, and when that time came a few days ago, I went looking for the song again only to find that it's actually not the only Nick Wiz-produced Darc Mind track available. 

In fact, the very first installment of Wiz's Cellar Sounds compilation series, released back in 2008, includes an otherwise unreleased Darc Mind song called "We In This." Additionally, Cellar Sounds Volume 5, released in 2017, has another unreleased track called "Femme Fatale," and Cellar Extras Part 3, from 2019, has an alternate take of that song. While there isn't any information available on these recordings beyond the compilations' limited credits, all of them are dated to 1996, the same year that "Outside Looking In" dropped. So, while Nick Wiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment, we can likely infer that the songs were recorded in or around the same time as one another, perhaps during the same session(s). Could it be that all of these songs were tracked as potential singles, and that a version of "Outside Looking In" was eventually chosen for release? 

If this was the case, I think everyone can agree that out of the three songs, the choice most faithfully represents what we've come to appreciate as the Darc Mind sound. It might not be the darkest of the bunch, but it is the most Darc. As for the others, "We In This" seems to recall the '80s basement parties Kev rocked in his youth, with one of its verses later appearing on "U Da One" off Symptomatic of a Greater Ill, while "Femme Fatale" appears to be a noirish take on "Fine Brown Frame" from Bipolar, with an extra verse and alternate hook. What did Nick Wiz's producorial role entail? How did it align with Web and Kev's vision? We may never know. Regardless, Darc Mind was here.

RIP Tommy Gunn

Thomas Rollins, the lyricist known as Tommy Gunn, Megalon, or sometimes, Black Geezus, passed away last month. Honor his legacy with a GoFundMe donation. The following words hardly begin to pay tribute to his genius. 

Competitively speaking, just on some rap shit, if King Geedorah and Jet Jaguar aren't your favorite Monsta Island Czars, Megalon probably should be. He rapped his fucking ass off. There's really no other way to describe it. I mean listen to "One in a Million." He was that, rarer now if you consider they don't make 'em like [him] no more. The only Monsta Island Czar other than DOOM and Grimm to drop a record on Fondle 'Em, Megalon may also be the only rapper other than DOOM with a Subroc production credit in his catalog (a story for another day, perhaps). 

If you've never listened to A Penny For Your Thoughts, you need to stop reading this and go do that. Less well known is its follow-up, The Nickle Bag, which came out on Backwoodz in 2008 and was posted here back in 2015. Even less known is that he claimed to have written lyrics for 10 other albums, "the 5 cent, 10 cent, 25cent, 50cent, $1.00, $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, $50.00 and the $100.00 dollar bill albums," as he told UG Rap. He also told them, "It’s hard for a fake MC to concentrate on doing music, but for a true poet and true b-boy it’s never a problem. Never! It’s just like breathing." He definitely made it sound that way, breathless even. 

As I said from the beginning, I don't really have the words. So, Here's some music. 

"Keep It Street" was credited to Megalon, likely because it dropped around the time the Monsta Island Czars concept was coming into being, but you can tell it was a Tommy Gunn song from the backup vocals. The song first appeared on Web D's On The Ropes Soundtrack. The next joint, brought to you by the good folks at GrandGood, features Gunn rapping alongside the Hempstead rapper Trife, a late affiliate of Roc Marciano not to be confused with the Theodore Unit member. After that is a short playlist I made of three tracks Gunn did for Backwoodz Studioz, none of which appear on The Nickle Bag. Two feature billy woods, one comes from Vordul's sophomore record, and the first is a freestyle over Three Six Mafia's "Stay Fly" beat. 

R.I.P. Tommy Gunn. Rap has been missing him. Now, Long Beach, NY, and the world do, too.

R.I.P. GM Web D aka X-Ray da Mindbenda aka King Cesar, a Long Island hip-hop institution unto himself

Raymond Davis, better known as Web D, X-Ray, or King Cesar, passed away earlier this month. No details about his death have been made public as far as I can tell. To say the least, his absence is a major loss not only for Long Island rap, but the greater global hip-hop community. 

The fact that Davis was known by three monikers, each with its own discography, only hints at the breadth of his impact. To many, he's best known for his connections with MF DOOM through Operation: Doomsday and the Monsta Island Czars. Lesser known is the fact that DOOM's first single was "recorded & mixed at Web's crib" (as per the center label), or that he served as a mentor to both DOOM and Subroc.

Even lesser known is the fact that Web D had groups called the East Side 5 and the Players Club running around Long Beach and WBAU in the early 1980s, or that he went to high school with Rick Rubin and sold him a mixer at one point. Think about this. When Rick Rubin was in high school, he was a punk rocker. Conceivably, Web D was one of the first people making rap music in Rick Rubin's vicinity. The same Rick Rubin went on to co-found Def Jam, produce some of Run DMC and LL Cool J's biggest hits, and thereby help bring rap music to the masses. Apocrypha or not, let that marinate.

I never met Ray in person, but he'd reached out to me online to premiere two King Cesar videos in 2016, and the "Bloody Knuckles" post remains one of the 10 most viewed in this site's history. Tragically, three of the four artists involved in that song are now gone. I was able to get back in contact with Ray through Dope Folks Records in 2020. He and Kevroc were kind enough to get on the phone with me for 52 minutes during the early days of lockdown. It's one of my favorite interviews I've ever done. Trust that if I'd known at the time about the Players Club or the Rick Rubin connections, I would've stretched the call well past an hour. 

Ray Davis was a true original. It’s hard to define his sound because as a producer, he was able to flip so many different styles, and his influence, even if unrecognized, filtered down to so many other artists. Raw, massive, funky, cinematic, his beats were like themes for drive-in movie concession stands operating out of time, selling exotic hybrids not yet crossed. 

He was one-half of Darc Mind, the best rapper-producer duo your friends, who listen to hip-hop but don't obsess over it the way you do, have never heard of. Fix that. Don’t let his music die with him.

  

MF DOOM - MM..FOOD THE MOVIE

The first time I heard MM..FOOD, I was up at Emerson. One day while standing in front of WERS in between classes, I struck up a conversation with some dude a year or two older than me who ended up handing me a CD-R from his backpack. Boston in the early/mid '00s was like that. Random dudes were walking around with underground rap bootlegs. Twenty years later, DOOM has returned to Latveria and on the much-commercialized anniversary of MM..FOOD's release, I'm somehow for the first time in my life seeing this seven-year-old fan-made movie version of the album. Peace to Donwill's newsletter for being the 2024 equivalent of the random dude in front of WERS. Fun side note: the best comment ever posted here asked if I was Mr. Fantastik, and I'm not, but in addition to "Rap Snitch Knishes," you can hear him on "Par for the Course" off Kurious' new and delightfully funky album Majician via Metal Face Records. RIP Kong. 

Fire Arson - "His Apartment" ft. Kiko

How destructive rages Fire Arson? Not even the DATPIFF Hip-Hop Mixtapes Archive could salvage her releases. Instead, the lasting embers of her discography flicker about long-dormant Soundcloud and YouTube playlists titled FireHouse Classics and firearson, respectively. Yet this jewel survives neither. "His Apartment" sprays resource-guarding affirmations in the vein of "Territorial Pissings." Hell, as it happens, one of her mixtapes is called Nirvana. The Godmother reigns silent. The ocean is on fire.

B-Wyze - "If U Don't Know"

The world needs more drive-in movie theaters. I don't mean Ace Hardware parking lot pop-ups. I mean massive open areas with multiple fields, each with its own jumbo screen and radio frequency. Kids tossing frisbees in the lanes before the previews start. A nightly tailgate party for art, not sports. Long Island's last, in Westbury, closed in 1998. But the sound of the drive-in movie experience lived on through the turn of the 21st century via the beats of MF DOOM and X-Ray da Mindbenda. This 2005 X-Tacy Radio x-clusive featuring former Legion of D.U.M.E. member B-Wyze is a prime example. 

Billie Ski Mask - F Love

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, F Love. In a world of AI language models that couldn't ghostwrite a Ghostface verse if their coding depended on it, there's some comfort in knowing that Billie Ski Mask fucked your bitch in the metaverse. ChatGPT can't seem to figure out that Wu-Tang and Tribe aren't from Long Island, but at least your bitch has been fucked in the metaverse. Ask ChatGPT to review F Love and it'll spit some jive talk about not knowing any albums from after 2021. Inform it that several earlier Billie Ski Mask releases are available and it'll continue to play dumb. Clearly, ChatGPT feels a certain type of way about Billie Ski Mask having fucked its bitch in the metaverse.

C.H.H.G. Interviews X-Ray da Mindbenda

I slept on this. Speaking with Uncle E of Long Beach's Get Yourz Posse and The Journalist Sinseer, X-Ray da Mindbenda went into great detail about his early days deejaying and making music in Long Beach. Historic revelations include the following:

• Not only did X-Ray da Mindbenda go to school with Rick Rubin (for those who don't know, Long Beach and Lido Beach share a school district), but Rubin bought a mixer from him.
• Rubin allegedly bit "the whole concept" for the Beastie Boys' "Paul Revere" from a song by Long Beach rapper Double P. "It was the same exact cadence and everything … we even had the beat going backwards at one time."
• Former KMD member Prime recorded a whole album with X-Ray for Idlers records, and Ray still has the masters, "the DAT tapes and all that shit."
• X-Ray also has a tape of an unreleased KMD song from when the group included Rodan (then Jade 1).
• And X-Ray produced Public Enemy's "Tie Goes to the Runner" as well as Serious Lee Fine's "Cut It Up Chip" (with Suga Bear, both uncredited).

Revelations from digging around on Instagram the other night while working on a Spiga tribute post (coming soon): the KMD-MF Doom Way sign didn't get stolen. Somebody crashed into it, and hopefully the City of Long Beach will be putting it back up in short order.

Lil Taggs - "Froze" (ft. Taggs, Young Tio & 3rd Rail Phantom)

Part of the genius of Martin Scorsese's films is that their success depends largely on their going over the heads of their target audience. Success as subversion. Target in the literal sense. Over the heads as in an uppercut's follow-through. Love the dream unawares the sleeping part. "I'm not concerned with generational wealth, that's it's own curse," wrote my longtime acquaintance, Mr. woods. "Anything you want on this cursed earth, probably better off getting it yourself. See what's the worth." I haven't read it yet, but there's probably a quote in this New Yorker article my fiancé sent me, "Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's Quest to Become America's Favorite Superheroes," that applies as well. Applies? Yes, all of these comparisons make perfect articulable sense to me despite my inability to grasp the underlying mathematics, like free jazz, boxing and quantum physics. Lil Taggs is the son of Prime, the 3rd Rail Phantom and younger brother of Taggs. Here they are altogether in 2019, a rapping family. "El-beeeeeeeeeee."

Darc Mind - Darc Mind Wuz Here

Drafting questions for my bucket-list interview with Darc Mind MC Kevroc and producer X-Ray Da Mindbenda, I briefly considered then quickly dismissed the idea of asking when their next project was coming. After all, 13 years separated the duo's 2nd and 3rd albums. So, you can imagine my surprise when, after I asked at the end of the interview if there was anything else they wanted to talk about, X-Ray volunteered that they had another project, an EP called Darc Mind Wuz Here, nearly completed. 

The coda on a brilliant if abbreviated body of work spanning multiple decades, Darc Mind Wuz Here landed at the top of 2022 true to its name; the writing on a crumbling wall, its section still standing strong even if destined for the rubble pile. Kevroc has one of the most marketable voices in the history of Hip-Hop; that it's never been "successfully" sold as such by the music industry is as much a testament to the genius of his lyrics as a casualty of '90s label politics. Simply put, he's not writing for the masses but for himself and those he might inspire. In liner notes and interviews, he cites as his major influences local MCs who never put out records and whose names virtually nobody else would be able to recognize today except maybe for their former neighbors and collaborators. Widespread recognition is not, has never been the point. 

Darc Mind's catalog is essential rap music, an ever-evolving oral tradition. Thus, even the bitter-sweet finality of this exclamatory installment comes with an unambiguous belly laugh. Its final song-proper is unironically titled "Now That I've Arrived." Its last track, "Phantom of the MLK Center," is not so much a rap song as a spoken-word lamentation, a love-hate letter from artist to art. Even after the tag fades from the broken bricks, after the last rhyme is done and the last boom bapped, this never ends. Its very existence is one of continuous advancement. That's what manifested it. That's what it manifests.

Whether or not there's a document to show for it, Darc Mind Wuz Here. "Cats who lived there will know what I'm talking about."

KMD-MF DOOM Way Street Dedication Ceremony

Yesterday, July 31, 2021, the KMD-MF DOOM Way Street Dedication Ceremony was held at the corner of Hudson Street and Riverside Boulevard in Long Beach, NY. 

Below are some phone-video recordings from the event, including heartfelt remarks and recollections from KMD member Onyx the Birthstone Kid, DOOM and Subroc's sister, Thenjiwe Dumile, and their cousin, Working Families Party National Director Maurice Moe Mitchell. 

This was a truly beautiful ceremony thanks to the KMD-MF Doom Way Committee, its leader, Dr. Patrick Graham, the Get Yours Posse, the City of Long Beach, NY, all the speakers (not featured below: DOOM and Subroc's aunt, members of the committee, and several public officials including NY State Senator Todd Kaminsky), and everyone in attendance.

A Mentally Ill Crack in Time

Five months have passed since we got the news that DOOM was gone, and it still doesn't sit well. I've signed the petition to have his old block renamed KMD-MF DOOM Way (or maybe just Dumile Way if Long Beach City Council hasn't the stomach for that?), and I'm digging the photos KMD member Onyx the Birthstone Kid has been posting to Instagram, but somehow none of this feels right, as if the whole story hasn't been told yet. I don't mean the story of his death — his family has every right to keep that private — but rather that of his life and its work and impact. I will say, though, that Conor Herbert's Shades of Tomorrow series for Central Sauce, which I've only now just seen, does a wonderful job illuminating the beginnings of all that by connecting various threads. 

One mystery in particular, which I'd all but completely forgotten, revolves around the fate of the fabled third KMD album. At one point, DOOM talked about a KMD album called Mental Illness or Mentally Ill, which would've dealt with the dark period in his life following the death of Subroc. Later on he teased the release of an album called Crack In Time. Was either ever completed? Were they one and the same? Maybe someday these mysteries will be solved. Maybe it's better they're not. Make of all this what you will. At any rate, here are three loose joints credited to KMD, none of which appear on Mr. Hood or Black Bastards, each as brilliant as the last.

Metal Face Akademy

Apart from his solo work, MF DOOM was well known as part of two groups: (as Zev Luv X) KMD and (as King Geedorah) Monsta Island Czars. However, he also founded another lesser known group, Metal Face Akademy. According to my research, this crew assembled in the early 2000s, and the following rappers and producers were all at one point recognized as members: MF DOOM, Mobonix, The Darkmonk, Hassan Chop, DJ Wesu, and John Robinson aka Lil Sci from Scienz of Life. 

Though the crew never put out a collective project, and there don't appear to be any songs featuring all of the members, each has collaborated extensively with at least one of the others. Robinson released a full album produced by MF DOOM, the criminally slept on Who Is This Man? And two members, Hassan Chop and The Darkmonk, actually released projects under the banner of DOOM's label, Metal Face Records. Hassan's The Sharpening from 2006 was meant to promote an album called The Pen & The Sword, which was also slated for release on Metal Face but never came out. 

The Darkmonk's True Underlord dropped six years later and features multiple appearances by DJ Wesu and Mobonix. These three seem to have collaborated the most among any of the Metal Face Akademy students. Notably, Mobonix and The Darkmonk also took their enrollment in the school to another level, donning metal masks in videos and apparently on stage as well. So too did DJ Wesu in a sense, as he was known to be one of the so-called Doomposters. 

All this being said, one of the things I find most interesting about the Metal Face Akademy is the idea that DOOM legitimately could have served as a mentor for these guys, taking them on the road, giving them beats and in some cases even putting them on his own records (Mobonix rapped on "Supervillainz" off Born Like this, and Chop on "I Wonder" off King Geedorah's Take Me To Your Leader). The concept isn't far-fetched when you consider that DOOM might have also assumed this role for his younger brother Subroc, at least some members of the Monsta Island Czars, and later, Bishop Nehru, with whom he did the album, NehruvianDoom.

As it happens, Marvel Comics' Dr. Doom also had a school, the Viktor von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths, but this didn't appear in print until 2015. Regardless, even before MF DOOM established the Metal Face Akademy, there were references to academia in his music: the "Back in the Days" skit took place on a college campus, and a Scienz of Life track featuring DOOM on the wheels was appropriately titled "Metal Fingers Scraped the Chalkboard." Those tracks bookend the playlist below. The rest of it is comprised of collaborations between two or more members of the Akademy. (The only possible exception is Hassan Chop's "Fresh Kutz," which doesn't sound much like a DOOM beat but which appeared on a mix that King Geedorah did for Solid Steel Radio.) 

"Definition supervillain: a killer who loves children; 

one who is well skilled in destruction as well as building."

1. MF DOOM - Back in the Days (prod. by MF DOOM)

2. Mobonix - Shine (prod. by MF DOOM)

3. The Darkmonk - Sinista - (prod. by MF DOOM)

4. Hassan Chop - Fresh Cutz (prod. by MF DOOM?)

5. John Robinson - Sorcerers ft. MF DOOM & Invizible Hands (prod. by MF DOOM)

6. The Darkmonk - Trust No. 1 ft. DJ Wesu (prod. by DJ Wesu)

7. Mobonix - This Wrek (prod. by DJ Wesu)

8. The Darkmonk - Real Terror ft. Mobonix (prod. by Jake One)

9. MarQ Spekt - Heroin Jonezz ft. Mobonix (prod. by MF DOOM)

10. King Geedorah - I Wonder ft. Hassan Chop (prod. by Metal Fingered Villain)

11. DOOM - Supervillainz ft. Posdnuos, Kurious, Mobonix & Slug (prod. by DOOM & Mr. Chop)

12. The Darkmonk - Hyena! ft. DJ Kool Akiem & Mobonix (prod. by MF DOOM)

13. CX KiDTRONiK - Ghidra Got It ft. King Geedorah & Mobonix

14. Mobonix - Rodeo (prod. by MF DOOM)

15. Hassan Chop - It's No Secret (prod. by MF DOOM)

16. The Darkmonk - Text Off Da Celly ft. DJ Wesu (prod. by DJ Wesu)

17. MF DOOM - Air (Jordan Remix prod. by DJ Wesu)

18. Mobonix - Reset Button (prod. by MF DOOM)

19. Scienz of Life - Metal Fingers Scraped the Chalkboard (Cuts by MF DOOM)

MF DOOM Tributes

Songs, Freestyles

Thanx DOOM...I learned so much from you about the art of rapping. Studied and analyzed you for years as recently as a few days ago. I wish I could’ve met you to tell you that. ❤️🙏🏾...here’s some raps...rest easy...Amin... pic.twitter.com/1njyEArfzT

— TAPE TAPE & HOUSE EP NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) January 1, 2021

Haven’t been able to write shit, listen to or think about shit without thinking about DOOM and the homie said write about him. I was inspired by @JosephChilliams & @Mike_Eagle to rap about our hero. Here’s some fleeting thoughts inspired by the best. DOOM. Thanks for everything pic.twitter.com/hwsRbt4vUl

— Michael Christmas (@MickeyChristmas) January 4, 2021

I WAS RAISED BY DOOM EVERYDAY I ATE MM..FOOD pic.twitter.com/WGP9V6Zduz

— Urban Joseph (@JosephChilliams) January 3, 2021

Covers  

 DJ Mixes

MC Paul Barman and MF DOOM are Paul Dooman

Some DOOM fans may rejoice to find they will no longer have to point out that the MC/producer did much more than "backpack" rap. The rapprovacateurs among us, however, may miss the opportunity to make a "real hip-hop" head's skin crawl. So, if ever you do want to make the argument that DOOM was the backpack rap GOAT you might consider that he did no fewer than eight songs with nerdcore pioneer Paul Barman. Just put this playlist on and watch the boom-bap set squirm! (The irony, of course, is that Barman can and does rap his ass off, a fact that wasn't lost on DOOM as he did more beats for Paul than just about anyone other than those select few rappers for whom he produced a full album.) 

The Other Alias

Not Zev Love X, not King Geedorah, not Sci Fly, not Viktor Vaughn, not Metal Fingers, not the Super Villain, nor any spelling variation of the aforementioned; I'm talking about King Dumile, a name with exactly one credit. DOOM took on this alias for his sole appearance alongside international rap group A State of Mind (ASM) on the appropriately titled "Masking" off their album, The Jade Amulet. This is actually a narrative album wherein one of the two rappers from ASM and each of the guest vocalists on the album assumes the roles of a particular character (and the other rapper from ASM serves as the narrator). King Dumile is a kind of tyrannical antagonist who appears on the album's penultimate chapter/song, and when you hear it, you can tell DOOM didn't phone this in; he really embraced the concept and wrote his verse in a way that suited the story — and made for a dope animated video as well. Here you can see the guys from ASM talking about how the track came together. Below is the video animated by Monkey Eggs.

The Art of DOOM: Character Concepts, Cover Art, Sketch, Graffiti and Paint

Dumile's sambo character appeared on 
every KMD cover, either crossed out or hanged

The original version of the Black Bastards cover art,
which provoked the unwarranted ire of a Billboard 
columnist, leading Elektra to shelve the album.

The final version signed emef

DOOM drew this character in the sketch book of
Ego Trip journalist Noel Callahan-Bever in 1997 

DOOM's MetalFace tag, also from NCB's book

Per Operation: Doomsday front cover artist Blake
"Skotch 79" Lethem, DOOM traced this cartoon off the TV for an outline

DOOM's tag from the inside cover.

The DOOM-tagged van from the back cover
of Operation: Doomsday

A throw-up by Skotch 79 aka KEO and DOOM,
jacked from KEO's Instagram page

DOOM, clearly having not lost a step, did this mural in 2012 for adidas Originals

A painting DOOM did for Adult Swim's Jason DeMarco,
downloaded from his Twitter page

R.I.P. MF DOOM

I know I’m not alone when I say that MF DOOM was one of the artists who got me into hip-hop. And by “into,” I mean really, really into it: listening to it constantly, aspiring to be involved in it, doing my best to live out that aspiration, thinking in beats and rhymes. For those of us who grew up worshipping Wu-Tang then worked our way back to golden-era hip-hop via the early ‘00s and late ‘90s underground scene, DOOM’s music was a driving force that at once bridged these movements and soared beyond them.

Everything about DOOM was iconic, not just the mask: the dollar-bin sample selection that was in constant conversation with itself; the smorgasbord of pop culture references that mined philosophical treatises from Saturday morning cartoons and Saturday afternoon Daikaiju films; and the intricately structured yet effortlessly breathless rhyme schemes, cadences within cadences, like mesmerizing burners sprung to elaborately dynamic life from deceptively simple sketches. It would’ve taken him three or four words to say all that, it would’ve sounded six thousand times better, and maybe freestyled.

When KMD’s first album dropped, I was five or six years old, so I’m one of the fans who never heard of Zev Love X until Black Bastards was released on Sub Verse. To this day, it’s my favorite DOOM album, one of my favorites by anyone for that matter. To my ears, the audio collage of “Garbage Day #3” is a high watermark for sample-based music. In just over two minutes DOOM and his late brother Subroc lay the thematic groundwork for what could be a full catalog without so much as one lyric. And then they proceed to rap and produce circles around their Native Tongues forebearers. And they would’ve been in their early 20s when they wrote that album. Truly inconceivable.

Of course, there’s no wrong answer to “what’s your favorite DOOM album,” and one can make a case for any number of them being among the best of their time. The run he went on from 1999 to 2004 has to be one of the greatest by any rapper/producer in any era. People forget he also produced prodigiously over that stretch, including no less than eight volumes of his Special Herbs & Spices series as well as the majority of MF Grimm’s The Downfall of Iblyss: A Ghetto Opera, an overlooked classic with a story behind it to rival even DOOM’s own reinvention saga.

Indeed, for such a singular artist, a remarkable amount of DOOM’s most iconic work was done collaboratively: with Subroc as KMD, with KEO on the mask, with Madlib as Madvillain, with Danger Mouse as DANGERDOOM, and with the Monsta Island Czars, who’ve featured prominently on these pages. A true visionary, he brought in the best and brought out theirs. Let’s not forget he also did four tracks on Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale, and to this day heads clamor for a DOOMSTARKS album.

Long Island has given the world some of the most original and landscape-altering rap music in hip-hop history, and DOOM’s was perhaps the most uniquely earth-shattering of it all. I haven’t even touched on Take Me to Your Leader, probably my second favorite album of his, and already I feel like I’ve given birth from the heart spilling words here. God do I hope there’s another King Geedorah project in the archives. Man am I thankful there’s one in the first place. By any name, Daniel Dumile was an absolute inspiration and an unforgettable genius. May he rest in peace.

What Happened to the Legion of D.U.M.E. Members Who Weren't in Darc Mind...

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of interviewing Darc Mind, the duo of MC Kevroc and DJ/producer GM Web D aka X-Ray Da Mindbenda. One of the many topics we touched on was Legion of D.U.M.E., the crew that Darc Mind was part of before branching out on their own. Legion of D.U.M.E. released its sole single, Son's of Sam b/w Darc Mind Inc. indpendently in '94. Seventeen years later, Dope Folks Records issued the '94 Dume EP, including the two tracks from that single and four other songs the group had recorded in their day. Now, we know what Kevroc and GM Web D were up to before and after Legion of D.U.M.E., but what about the other members of this crew?

In our interview, Web identified the two rappers appearing with Kevroc on "Son's of Sam" as Schott Free and MC Prime. He also named B-Wyze as a founding member.

Staten Islander Schott Free is best known to most hip-hop heads as the former A&R for LoudRecords, who helped bring legendary groups such as Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and The U.N. to the label; he also co-executive produced The Infamous and Marcberg among other projects. As a rapper, Schott Free hasn't released much. However, it turns out he did put together something of a solo project called The Tom Hagen Tragedy, which features Roc Marciano and Lagato Shine among others. Two songs from this project — "Sake, Me & Rocky" with Roc Marc and "X-Clusive" with Sadat X — are included in the playlist below. Schott Free has also continued to help bring other artists up via his Frozen Files collective.

By comparison, much less is known about MC Prime. Surprisingly, Web identified him as an early KMD member who was signed to the Idlers label. It's hard to figure which, if any, Idlers release(s) he was a part of, though the label's first single, 1986's "Merlin," was by a group/artist named Legion, so ... maybe that's it? Anyway, years after Legion of D.U.M.E. dissolved, Prime resurfaced under the alias, Third Rail Phantom, as one-third of a group called Hocuz Pocuz along with MC Lando Lakes and DJ/producer Chris Loot. Hocuz Pocuz released at least two singles: 1999's "Rip the Mic" and 2003's "Summer in the City," the latter of which was executive produced by DJ Kay Slay. There's also what appears to be a full-length album called 123 on the Hocuz Pocuz YouTube channel, albeit without an ordered tracklist; three of those trafcks, all of which feature Prime predominently, are in the playlist below.

Lastly, we come to B-Wyze  who Web says might have come up with the name and idea for the group. Despite not being on the Legion of D.U.M.E. single, B-Wyze was arguably involved in more high-profile projects than anyone else in the crew other than Schott Free. As a Public Enemy affiliate, B-Wyze was a member of 5ive-O aka the Homicide Squad as well as Professor's Griff's Last Asiatic Disciples and featured prominently on those groups' respective albums, If U R Not Part Uv Da Solution... and Pawns in the Game. He also rapped alongside Chuck D himself on "Endonesia," from the Public Enemy frontman's 1996 solo debut, Autobiography of Mistachuck, co-wrote the song, "Wandering Eyes," by Nuttin' Nyce off the Sister Act 2 Soundtrack, and is likely related to singer Carolyn Harding, who appeared on a number of popular dance singles in the '80s and '90s. B-Wyze raps on four songs in the playlist below, including a strong standout from X-Ray Da Mindbenda's Monsta Mixes Vol. 2.

 

Alchemist Shares Unreleased Roc Marciano, DOOM & Prodigy Cuts

Hip-hop producer and DJ Instagram live feeds have been a silver lining through the current gloom. To wit, here's Alchemist doing what I imagine I would be doing every day if I was him: sitting in my dungeon surrounded by vinyl, getting nice while playing unreleased Long Island rap records. Props to Blunted Soul for having the good sense to screen-record these.