Dissect - S12E2 - Operation: Doomsday by MF DOOM

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Our celebration of MF DOOM continues with his debut Operation: Doomsday, an album in which DOOM lays the foundation for his multi-character musical universe. Through a detailed analysis of a few key samples and verses, we’ll discover the very human story hidden behind the villain’s mask. Support Dissect by leaving a review or sharing this episode on social media. It really helps. Follow @dissectpodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Host/Writer/EP: Cole Cuchna Co-Writer: Camden Ostrander Additional Production: Justin Sayles Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Birocratic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Don Draper really buy the world of Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? The finales of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy. From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the prestige TV feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. From Spotify and the Ringer, this is Dysect. long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode two of our season-long

dissection of MF Doom. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Last time I dissect, we recounted the early history of Daniel Dumalay, from the early success of KMD, the sudden death of his brother and creative partner Subrock, and Elector Records decision to scrap KMD's second project and drop Daniel from the label. After being exiled by the music industry, Daniel retreated from the public eye, re-emerging years later with a new name, a new sound, and a new independent record. It go like, I hold mics, like niggas hold their girls type, but I ain't out the hub, probably your accurate pearl white. The hook or not.

M.F. Doom's dead bent single released in May of 1997 Mark Daniel's official return to rap. Over the next few years, Doom released two more singles with the indie label Fondulham Records, freestyled on Stretching Bobito's influential New York radio show, and made his live debut at the New Orican Poets Cafe. And while these initial gestures provided glimpses of Daniel's new character. It wouldn't be until the fall of 1999, five years after disappearing, that the supervillain MF Doom would finally deploy his plan to destroy rap, a plan he dubbed Operation Doomsday.

He cleanses his metal mask with gasoline they after him last scene, pulling a chick like a fiend, pull a fast one. Yeah, yo, y'all can't stand right here. In his right hand was your man's worst nightmare. I reel up on bad dreams, back up dreams, and 50s, beer on mad schemes that he chopped like Jiffie. MF Doom's debut album Operation Doomsday was released October 19, 1999. Produced in full by Dumalay himself, the album's raw blend of thematically rich sound collages, virtuastic lyricism, and Doom's idiosyncratic delivery operates as Daniel Dumalay's explosive creative moment, when artistry, skill, technique, theatrics, and style come together to present one of the most unique, revolutionary characters in all of hip-hop.

The triumph of Operation Doomsday is made more impressive with the knowledge that Daniel, broke and no longer backed by a major label, executed this vision with nearly zero resources. Doom would later remark how this became a full circle moment, bringing him back to the more DIY, resourceful mentality he had before his record deal. It's almost like how everything was before we started getting into the whole record, I mean professionally into the game, back to being a civilian, you know, where you no longer, you don't have a deal, so it's like you got to figure out ways to make ends with me, you know, but still doing music, you know what I'm saying?

Just like before we had the deal, it wasn't like unfamiliar, you know what I mean? According to Stretch Armstrong, one half of the Stretch and Bobito radio show, the majority of Operation Doomsday was recorded at his apartment over a three-week period using Stretch's MPC beat machine. DJ Ayers, who interviewed Doom shortly before the album released, also recounted, quote,

Doom told me the way he recorded the solo songs on Doomsday. He sequenced the beats entirely inside the MPC. Then he would hit play and record himself rapping the song live in one take, and that was it, no stems, no mixing. If he fucked up, he reround the dat and started from the top, unquote. Given the lyrical and rhythmic complexity of Doom's raps, recording entire songs in one take is pretty remarkable, and something that's rarely done in hip-hop. The resulting sound is closer to a radio freestyle, giving Doomsday an unmistakably raw,

unpolished sound. According to Doom, this rawness was not just the result of his limited resources, The imperfections were part of an aesthetic philosophy meant to contrast the highly produced sheen of commercial rap at the time. I think the one thing that differs is the recording techniques and recording styles. They grew up probably listening to the same thing we grew up listening to. Except their production methods and the direction they wanted to go in. It's like a polished sound.

You can tell behind sound it's like a certain goal as far as sonically. And, you know, selling records-wise to make it up more. pretty product, you know what I'm saying? Where, you know, we might be using the same sources, the same references, but I'm keeping it to where it's like, yo, it's vinyl, that you might have dust on it. It might have crackles in it. I can't get the CDs. I'm going to still make the beat.

I'm going to use the one I first made, you know. I'm using first set of vocals. I had a plug-in mic that wasn't maybe the best mic, but that's that I did the vocals, and that's how, you know, I'm keeping it rugged, you know what I'm saying? While the actual monster island massive, and beware before a triple day you like the last kid, who asks me what we don't got that you got, son, for one flow. While the actual recording of Operation Doomsday may have been half-hazard, Daniel's creative vision for the album was anything but.

He told DJ Ayers, quote, It took me five years of research and putting it together to form the plan, because this is going to break the shit, unquote. Here we feel the disruptive synergy between Daniel and MF Doom, with Daniel's plot to break the shit or destroying the road. rap world mirroring the classic villain's trope of plotting global destruction. Report it, babe, get here, she's going to be on our tip, man. You know she's going to want to write about me and my man here, all kinds of a lot of artists.

Flash message, top secret, ultra. Yeah, and when she does, then she puts his picture on paper, that's going to be an end secret, exposed his face. For everyone to see this, that's the whack. The meticulousness of Daniel's five years of planning is present from the very opening moments of Operation Doomsday. It starts with the time we face Doom, an audio. video collage that strategically uses samples to begin telling MF Doom's origin story. The first thing we hear is a sample of the theme music for the 1960s Fantastic Four cartoon show. This theme music becomes the score behind a conversation lifted from the movie Wild Style.

Released in 1983, Wild Style is a classic, influential, low-budget film that centered New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Shot on location in the Bronx and starring real-life graffiti artists, breakdancers, and rappers. The film's protagonist is a teen named Raymond, a celebrated underground graffiti artist that paints under the anonymous pseudonym Zorro. Raymond despises a group of graffiti artists known as the Union Crew, who have revealed their identities and now paint legal commission murals. Raymond's art eventually attracts the attention of a local journalist who wants to feature him in an upcoming article, including his name and photograph. The wild style scene sampled at the start of Operation Doomsday finds Raymond and two friends debating if he should go through with the interview and reveal his identity. One friend promotes the fame and financial opportunities that may come from it, the other friend calls revealing his identity whack.

Raymond is thus forced to decide whether to stay true to his underground roots, or go commercial like the Union crew. Secret is Zorro exposed his face. For everyone to see, man, that's the whack, you know? Oh man, what the fuck you talk about, man? That's going to get my man big fame, man. Cash money, too, man. Yeah.

Daniel's choice to repurpose this conversation scored with cartoon theme music at the start of Operation Doomsday is nothing short of brilliant, as it encompasses the fictional origin story of MF Doom, as well as the real-life origin story of Daniel Dumley. Wildstyle portrays the very emerging hip-hop culture that Daniel and his brother were enamored with as kids growing up in New York, and the film's focus on graffiti artists reminds us that KMD began as a graffiti crew at this same time. Meanwhile, Raymond's debate between staying underground or going commercial intentionally reflects the division in hip-hop at the time of Doomsday's release in 1999. Because this division is debated through a question of whether to remain anonymous or not,

Daniel's own anonymity is presented as a conscious rejection of commercialized rap, which then becomes the real-world philosophical motivation behind MF Doom's theatrical plot to destroy the rap world. And if all that wasn't enough, there's also the detail that Raymond's graffiti pseudonym Zorro is a mass character like Doom, and both Daniel and Raymond choosing mass alter egos reflects their real-world decision to remain anonymous artists. After the Wild-style conversation plays out, the time we face Doom continues with samples once again pulled from the 60s Fantastic Four cartoon series. The dialogue we hear is sampled from the Fantastic Four episode title The Way It All Began.

A title Daniel is no doubt repurposing for MF Doom's own origin story, the way it all began for Doom. We hear directly from Marvel's mass supervillain Dr. Doom, who vows revenge on Mr. Fantastic, leader of the Fantastic Four. Daniel's love of comics and cartoons dates back to his childhood when he became enamored with the Marvel universe in elementary school. What common books were you getting to? Obviously, Dr. Dillem. Well, not only that, not only that one particularly, and everything. I appreciate the writer. I think a lot of my writing came as far as, like, influence on the range that type of stuff.

And some personalities, and they show both sides of each comic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which of both need to exist. You learn that, the better. Yeah, so that's what that shit, in principle. on me, but I'm like, yo, the do-ho. I mean, I always had that in the back of my mind. Oh, Dr. Dune, wow.

Yeah. They called me, Doom too. Yeah. He always come through and a little disrepresent. On the way it all began, Dr. Dume's basic origin story is revealed for the first time. Before his villainous transformation, Victor von Dume was a college student working on an elaborate experiment. He meets the future Mr. Fantastic Richard Reed,

who notices some of the experiment's equations are wrong and warns Dume that they'll lead to a dangerous outcome. Doom ignores his warning and his experience. He's an experiment blows up, disfiguring his face. Doom is expelled from college and for years disappears into the Himalayan Mountains, where he masters black magic. He constructs a metal costume and mask and vows to use his powers to take over the world and exact personal revenge on weed,

who he believes tampered with his experiment and is responsible for his disfigurement. Dr. Doom's origin story from the way it all began is broken up into parts and dispersed throughout the six skits on Operation Doomsday. In this way, Dr. Doom's backstory is interpolated and repurposed as M.F. Doom's own. Like Wild Style, there are clear parallels between the two. Daniel's expulsion from the music industry mirrors Dr. Doom's expulsion from college. And while Dr. Doom's accident left him physically scarred, the accidental death of his brother left Daniel emotionally scarred. Subsequently, both Daniel and Doom disappeared for years,

honing their respective crafts, reinventing themselves, only to return behind a mask with a master plan to destroy the world that betrayed them. For Dr. Doom, it was the actual world. For Daniel's Doom, it was the world of rap. Mike check. After Operation Doomsday's opening skit, the album launches into its title track, Doomsday. The foundation of the track is sampled from the outro of Sadez's 1992 song, Kiss of Life. Four bars of this instrumental outro are slowed down slightly, creating the central loop for the entire track. This Sade loop is eventually joined by two others, both of which are lifted from Boogie Down

Productions' 1987 song, Poetry. This opening drumbeat is sampled and looped in time with the sada sample, supporting the percussion already present in that track. Doom also samples some record scratching from poetry, adding a layer of chaos and flavor to the otherwise smooth and harmonious sade loop. Now, aside from the sadee and boogie down samples working together seamlessly from a musical perspective, it appears that, like the time we face Doom, Daniel also chose them for their symbolic implications. Most obviously, the kiss of life is chosen as the basis for MF Doom's moment. of birth, the opening song on his debut album being the literal kiss of doom's life. Kiss of Life is also an idiom used to describe someone being brought back from the brink of despair,

finding hope in someone or something in times of darkness. We might then consider MF Doom in Operation Doomsday Daniel Dumelay's Kiss of Life, the creative concept that offered him direction, purpose, and solace in his own time of darkness. Music is really what, now I think back to it, music and having equipment and always just finding the way to a place that you could just play your music and do your thing, whether it's my arts basement or, you know, wherever I could get something plugged in and continue on. So now that I think about it, music was the thing that really kept us and kept me going through the whole thing.

It's in Daniel's focus on music in the wake of Subrock's passing that we find another symbolic link in Doomsday Samples, as it just so happens that Boogie Down Productions was a major life influence for Daniel during this time. For those unfamiliar, Boogie Down Productions or BDP was a pioneering hip-hop group founded by KRS1 and DJ Scott LaRocque. Trague, just five months after their debut album released in 1987, Scott LaRock was murdered. KRS 1 was then forced to decide a path forward after his partner's passing, a situation that mirrored Daniel's own some six years later. Doom told The Wire that quote, The goals that me and my brother said, they still had to be met. It was up to me.

You know what it reminded me of? We was big boogie down production fans back in the day. When that thing happened to Scott LaRock, God bless, it was kind of like a prerequisite to this. When that happened, automatically we thought of ourselves in those shoes. If the same thing was to happen to one of us, what would we do? We saw how Karas one handled that situation. He could have quit.

We didn't know what he was going to do. Then he came with the album by all means necessary. So that showed us what to do in that situation. You persevere, you keep going, you strive and you do it, unquote. Understanding BDP's importance in Daniel's path forward, it's hard to believe their presence on Dooms Day is simply coincidence. Specifically, it's BDP's drums that are sampled, the propelling force of a track that keeps things moving forward, just as KareS helped Daniel move forward. Moreover, the BDP samples are lifted from the song Poetry, which is the first

song on BDP's first album, and now they are featured in the first song on MF Doom's first album, which is itself the result of the inspiration that Bougedown and Karrer S provided Daniel. In this way, Boogie Downs pairing with the kiss of life, symbolic of restoration and new beginnings, is harmonious not just musically, but equally harmonious conceptually. Between the time we face Doom and the opening moments of Dooms Day, we are witnessing the results of Daniel's meticulous five years of planning and research. From the very start, it's clear he's modeled Doom's universe after Marvels, where everything is connected to everything.

Indeed, before MF Doom has wrapped even a single bar, Daniel Dumalay, the artistic or thorial mastermind, has already said so much. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we revealed how Doomsday's strategic samples not only provide the track's musical landscape, but also communicate crucial thematic information about the backstories of Daniel Dumalay and MF Doom. As Doomsday continues, Pebbles the Invisible Girl enters the song to sing an interpolation of Sa'day's Kiss of Life.

Let's first hear the original source, followed by Pebble's interpolation. Pebbles the Invisible Girl. seems to be singing on the behalf of us listeners, as she describes meeting Doom as if it were her destiny. When I was led to you, I knew you were the one for me. I swear the whole world could feel you, MC. This last line is the only one that's altered from the original lyrics. As Saaday sings, I swear the whole world could feel your heartbeat. Here at the moment Doom receives the kiss of life, the heartbeat is transformed into a master of ceremonies, spawning the MC Doom himself. These opening moments aren't honorific, placing Doom on a pedestal at global scale. Fate has led us to

Doom, and now we're about to be enraptured. While Pebbles the Invisible Girl is featured here and on one other song on Operation Doom's Day, she has apparently never appeared musically under the same name anywhere else. In fact, Doom claimed he didn't even know who she was. She was a kind of singer that, all right, my man knew a girl who could sing. And again, I had to finish the record. So I'm like, yo, yo, you got a girl who can sing? You'll ask her because she sing this part. And I'll write. write it or play a reference. And she's like, all right, I can sing. I probably paid her like $25 or something.

Like as a session singer to come in and do it. And I don't know what she's doing now. I haven't seen her ever again. I don't think I even know a real name. There's something poetic about an unknown force providing such a timeless moment of art. And of course, the anonymity of this invisible girl is in perfect thematic alignment with the ethos of Doom's universe.

One up a cop, no drop. Hold mics like ponytails tight and bobble-ops. Stop to stick around. Come through a dicky sound of the flop round 60-60-cycle. Who throws a dick around? Bound and go through plat. Came to destroy rap. It's an intricate plot of a B-boy strap.

Femstack. MF Doom's now iconic introductory couplet is densely packed with a suite of literary devices. I used to cop a lot, but never cop no drop. Hold mics like ponytails, tight, and bob a lot. Line one contains an internal three-syllable rhyme of cop-a-lot and cop-no-drop, which is also used as the standard and rhyme in line two, Bob-a-lot.

Cop in the most basic sense refers to obtaining something, but it's likely I used to cop a lot in this context means purchasing or stealing material goods. Never copping a drop refers to never buying or stealing a drop-top convertible. It seems to be an outright rejection of the kind of flashy materialism that often consumes commercial rap. We recall how MF Dooms' mask and Daniel's anonymity were originally meant to emphasize his music over his image. To me, from the musical aspect, hip hop is one of the direction to wear it's like a hundred or almost damn near 100% on everything besides the music, like what you look like, the sound of your name, to what you're wearing, the brand of clothing, whatever intoxicist you choose to put in your body,

to, you know, everything except for what the music sounds like. So the mask is really a testament to, yo, It's not about none of that. It's straight about the wreck. Doom's dedication to artistry and sound is reflected in his second line. I hold mics like ponytail's tight and bob-a-lot. Mikes is of course short for microphones, meaning Doom is more focused on his rhymes than copying luxury cars.

Tight here relates to the tight hair tie required to hold a ponytail in place, but also that he's tight on the mic, or that his tight grip of the mic is symbolic of his dedication and passion for rhyming. Bob Alat then refers to his head or his audience's heads bobbing up and down to his music. However, the line also contains an extended double entendre, as Doom plays off the phallic image of a microphone to boast about receiving oral sex. In this reading, holding the girl's ponytail is literal, and Bob-A-Lot refers to her head bobbing up and down. Doom continues rapping, stop and stick around, come through and dig the sound of the fly-brown

six-o, sick-o-sico who throws his dick around. A new three-syllable rhyme is introduced here, stick around, dig the sound, the fly brown, and dick around. We also observe the relentless alliteration of stop, stick, sound, 6-0, sicko, and psycho. The call to dig the sound and stop and stick around encourages us to give the music more than a cursory glance. Unlike the material-centered commercial music of his foes, doom's music rewards those who dig deep, like the gems we discovered when placing doomsday's introductory skits and samples under our microscope. The physical description and Fly Brown 6-0 Psycho feels appropriate in an introductory verse, just as the self-branding of Psycho feels right for a villain. Meanwhile, throwing his dick around crudely continues the villain's

sexual boasts and formalizes the fallic allusions of stick and mics or microphone. Doom then declares, Bound to Go Three Platt came to destroy rap. It's an intricate plot of a B-boy strapped. Invoking destiny and destruction simultaneously, the villain's physical description is followed by his mission statement. Three plat means triple platinum or three million records sold, speaking to Doom's destiny for global takeover. His plot to destroy rap appears to represent what Operation Doomsday is, the culmination of Daniel's five-year plan meant to break the shit, to disrupt the current state of overly produced superficial rap music. However, while here to destroy rap, Doom is rapping. It might seem contradictory, but Doom actually saw a difference between

rap and hip-hop. He told LSD magazine, quote, We just have to draw a line between the rap shit and hip-hop. Rap is totally different than hip-hop. I mean, not knocking it, but in hip-hop, there's rules that we go by. I don't want to name names, but the whole click on them rappers, they ain't really no perfectionist lyricists. We go by what you say, not how loud you scream it. So as far as me and my team, we're into making the underground as big as the mainstream rap,

but on some separate shit. The super-mother fucking villain is the villain to that shit. The rap genre's going to be hating me, unquote. This sentiment ties into the line, It's an intricate plot of a B-Boy strapped. On his mission to carry out his intricate plot and destroy rap, the B-boy Doom comes strapped not with a gun, but with rhymes. As he later raps on the song Gastralls, Rhymes is chosen like the weapons of war.

It's an intricate plot of a B-boy strap. Femstack cats get kidnapped. Then release a statement to the press, let the rest know who did that. Metal fist terrorists, claim responsibility. Broken household ain't usually said in hostility. What is MF, you silly? I like to take men's say. to the end for two millie. Do do do do. That's an audio daily double.

Rappers need to fall off just the same of the trouble, yo. Watch your own back. Hming and go out alone, black. Stay in the zone. Turn H2O to Cognac. Doom continues verse one rapping. Femm Statt Cats get kidnapped, then release a statement to the press, let the rest know who did that. Again, the rhyme scheme here is impressively dense. We get the rapid rhyme of Stack Cats and Kidnapped in the first line,

another rapid rhyme of press, let, and rest in the second, and a return to the first rhyme did that. that to complete the couplet. Femstatt is a cream used to treat vaginal yeast infections, so between this and the use of cats, Doom is calling inferior MC's pussies. After kidnapping them, Doom releases a press statement letting the world know he's responsible. This is a common trope for a villain and is usually accompanied with a ransom demand or additional threats. Thus, we get the following line, Metal Fist terrorists claim responsibility. Metal Fist here joins metal fingers and metal face as names that fulfill the MF acronym. He continues wrapping. He continues

rapping, broken household name usually said in hostility. What is MF? You silly, I'd like to take men's to the end for two milly. Do do do do. That's an audio daily double. It's a succession of free associative lyrics that are quintessentially doom. We are suddenly thrust it into a game of jeopardy for trivia clues are phrased as answers and contestants provide the question that identifies what the clue describes. Thus, broken household name usually said in hostility is the clue. and what is MF is the contestant Doom's answer. It's here we realize he's cleverly playing off the previous MF metal fist and flipping it to motherfucker,

which is the broken household name usually said in hostility. Having answered the question correctly, it's Doom's turn to pick the next category, selecting Men's to the end at the 2Milly or 2 million dollar value slot. This triggers the Daily Double, a special question in which the contestant can wager any amount they'd like. The Daily Double is announced with its hallmark sound. Doom playfully mimics this with a zubes.

own do-do-do-do-do, which is syllabically very close to his own name, Doom. His mastery of the Jeopardy game is then revealed as an analogy for the rap game. He continues, rappers need to fall off just to save me the trouble. Watch your own back, came in and out alone, black. Like Jeopardy, the rap game finds MCs competing for cash for the entertainment of others, each contestant going in and out alone. Rappers falling off would be them leaving the game, fading out, which Doom advises so they can avoid facing his wrath. The villainy of MF Doom seems to be highlighted in the code of Watch Your Own Back came in and out alone black.

It's a play on the phrase born alone, die alone, with the added black describing the pitch black of death. Daniel Dumalay, a Zevlov X and a member of KMD, did not enter the game on his own, but after Subrock's passing and being abandoned by the music industry, he is now. As we discussed, this isolation led to the creation of MF Doom, and thus this isolated independence and cynical lack of trust

is the villain's credo. Finally, the first verse concludes with the line, Stay in the Zone, turn H-2O to cognac. It's a play on Jesus turning water into wine, his first miracle. By positioning this reference after the existential dilemma of living and dying alone, Doom frames the line as a turn lemons into lemonade situation. By staying in the zone, focused on his music and the goals set by him and his brother, Daniel miraculously flipped his negative situation into a positive one. This biographical thread sets up Doomsday's iconic chorus. Doomsday's hook encompasses the full cycle of life, from the womb to the tomb, continuing the

existential quality of the live-alone, die-alone idiom. The hook's quatrain is held together with another multisyllabic rhyme scheme, Doomsday, womb, tumulse, Dumalay, and Hoose to Say. He also tucks in a secondary three-syllable rhyme in, brother went, and government. Verbalizing the song and album title, Doomsday is a day owned by MF Doom. Doom's Day is Doom's Day, a nefarious holiday. Specifically in the Marvel universe, Doom's Day is a national holiday in Liberia, the fictional country ruled by Dr. Doom. However, Doom's Day is more commonly a nickname for the final day of the world's existence, and within the context of the hook seems to specifically imply Daniel Dumalay's mortality. Thus we get ever since the womb

till I'm back where my brother went. The line spans Daniel's entire life, with the word death being exchanged for a touching vision of his reunion with Subrock in the afterlife. Doom talked about the dynamic between him and his brother after his passing with hip-hop DX, saying, quote, anytime you lose a family member, there's a grieving period, but it's not really no different. It's just a different realm, just a different form of communication. We're all going to go to that realm eventually. As long as you know that, you can still know how to communicate with them. You just can't see them with the naked eye. The naked eye only picks up a certain spectrum of light. What else don't we see and what side are we on? Maybe that's the right side and we're gone,

unquote. The following line, that's what my tomb will say, was explained directly by doom in an interview with double XL. Quote, really, that's like saying my word is bond. There are certain instances where you use that phrase in life, in that reference, what my tomb will say, that means word to my death. Like everything I say is justified in my heart, unquote. This authenticity expressed directly after the evocation of his brother feels special, as we sense Daniel's determination in carrying out the plans they made together. Despite the fictitious aspect of his character, the hook is revealing MF Doom comes from a place of truth and sincerity and utmost significance.

The next line, right above my government, Dumalay, of course cites Daniel's actual last name, his legal or government name, as opposed to a nickname or alias. It's another revealing moment, a blatant exposure of the identity of MF Doom. Given that the line references what's on his tombstone, Duma Le here is also a homophone for, Doom Will Lay, evoking the image of Doom or Daniel lying in his grave. The final line, either unmarked or engraved, Hey, who's to say, suggests the idea of legacy.

It's not the dead that decides whether they're remembered. That's up to the living. Daniel's unsure if his work will immortalize him. Remember he wrote these words while he was broke, before he had any sense of whether Operation Doomsday or M.F. Doom would be a success. Daniel's humility in stating this truth feels consistent with his break in character for this chorus. We also recognize how unmarked or engraved plays on the idea of anonymity and identification, the interplay between Daniel Dumalay and MF Doom.

In all, it's a truly remarkable hook, one that in just four lines encompasses life, death, tragedy, legacy, identity, purpose, and the unknown. It is a rare glimpse of the mortal man who chose to do that. on the mask. Indeed, if MF Doom's villainous, fictitious credo was stated in the verse, that Daniel Dumelais' heroic, humanistic credo is stated in the hook. On Doom's expository first song on his debut album, centralizing this intersection between author and character feels strategic, advancing the villain's backstory that began in the time we faced Doom. Now, for those of you who are interested in a full line-by-line analysis of Doomstays' two

remaining verses, I'll be posting that in a separate bonus episode that will accompany this one. But for now, I'd like to continue to follow this thread of Daniel and Doom's intersectional identity, as it's crucial to our understanding of the character and world we'll be exploring this season. And to do this, we're going to make a painful but necessary jump all the way to the album's end, because it's on the project's final verse of its final song, question mark, that Daniel quite literally takes the mask off to share the most transparent, vulnerable moment of the entire project. This is light my hand will write these rhymes till I'm burnt out. Most of from experience, shit that I've earned about.

Topics and views generally concerned about. With different ways to come up and earn cloud. I take a look at my life and pace the trails from top bleak and savage females with fake nails to face spells. This final verse begins poetically. By candlelight, my hand will write these rhymes till I'm burnt out. The three-syllable rhyme candlelight and hand will write flows effortlessly, and burnt out cleverly plays on the candle motif, implying that Daniel plans to write rhymes until the wax completely melts until he perishes. The nostalgic image of a man riding with a quill

by candlelight conveys timelessness, intimacy, and authorship. It's a portrait of Daniel Dumillet at his desk creating his art. This sets the tone for the verse to come, which is markedly different from anything heard on Operation Doomsday to this point. Daniel continues specifying what he writes about, rapping, mostly from experience, shit that I learned about, topics and views generally concerned about, with different ways to come up and earn cloud. Conveying his life experience, in passing on the wisdom he's gained is Daniel's priority. While the character MF Doom stated his theatrical mission to destroy rap, Daniel, the author, reveals the authentic intention of his art.

It's a rare moment of raw transparency that begins a reflective thread that's developed further in the subsequent lines. I take a look at my life and pace the trails, from tablick and savage females with fake nails to face fails. As Daniel walks the trails of his life's memories, he recalls the women he's encountered, which reign from religious to ratchet, from devout muslin, who wear face veils to city girls who wear long acrylic nails. After setting up the introspective theme of the verse,

it continues with a slight twist, as Daniel reveals he's actually talking directly to his deceased brother. You out your frame of a still bagging them too. You know I know these holes be asking me from you, like my twin brother, we did everything together from 100 ricots to lots to cop and butter lovers. Remember when you went and got the dark blue bally's, I had all a different color,

Kazals and Kazallis. The sub rocked three-finger wing with the ruby and the O-O-O. the illest dynamic duo on the whole block. I keep a flicker you with the machete sword in your hand. Everything is going according to plan, man. Building off his reference to religious and ratchet women, Daniel wraps, You out your frame for still bagging him too.

You know, I know, these hoes be asking me if I'm you. Like my twin brother, we did everything together. We understand now what Daniel is writing by candlelight is an open letter to Subrock, and this verse is essentially Daniel reading this letter out loud. He lovingly gives Subrock shit about his private. miscuity, before mentioning their likeness and how inseparable they were. It's another raw moment of vulnerability plainly stated. No clever wordplay, no hidden references, just pure, sincere sentiment.

Daniel goes on to describe the kinds of things they did together, from Hundred Rakhat Salats to copping butter leathers. This continues the brother's fluidity inhabiting both the religious and urban worlds. Hundred Rackat Salats refers to Islamic prayer, a nod to Daniel and Subrock being practicing Muslims in their formative years. A memory of this time can be seen on the back of the Operation Doomsday album art, which features a large photo of the two as teenagers wearing religious garb. Meanwhile, butter leather leather timberlin boots. The diverse range of activities, from religious practice to hip-hop fashion, displays how inseparable the brothers were. They truly did everything together. He continues,

remember when you went and got the dark blue bally's? I had all the different color gazelles and gazelles. Daniel asking Sub a question here is heartbreakingly sweet. The period of these formative years is clear, as Daniel nostalgically remembers him and Sub purchasing trendy clothes to emulate their hip-hop heroes. Specifically, he cites Bally Shoes, which were iconically supported by MC Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick on their respective album covers. Meanwhile, Gazals and Gazales refers to the large, chunky glasses that were a staple in B-boy fashion and famously worn by Spike Lee and Run DMC's Daryl McDaniels. Now, Daniel remembering his shopping sprees with Subrock on the album's final verse presents an interesting link with the album's first verse.

Recall that Doomsday begins with the line, I used to cop a lot, but never cop, no drop. The past tense, I used to cop, denotes a reflection on past behavior. Now here at the Alms' end were provided further details about this time. Turns out that Daniel used to cop a lot with his brother, butter leather, ballets, gazals, and gazalis. We thus discover a beautiful, full-circle moment, as Operation Doomsday both starts and ends in memory of Sub-Rock.

Daniel continues, The Sub-Rock Three-Finger Ring with the Ruby and the O, Ack. Daniel's punctuation of Auk is an abbreviation for the Arabic word for brother, and the ring he describes can actually be seen on Subrock's fingers during his cameo and third base as the gas face video, meaning Sub had it at least since 1989 when he was 16 years old. The next line, truly the Illest Dynamic Duo on the whole block, positioned Sub and Doom as superheroes, likening their supernatural chemistry and flyness to the original dynamic duo Batman and Robin. Subrock's superhero weapon of choice with a large machete sword, which are

according to numerous accounts he often kept on him. We thus get the penultimate line, I keep a flick of you, with the machete's sword in your hand. In the video for question mark, we see this black and white photograph exactly as described, Subrock wielding a two-foot-long machete with both hands. Directly after this photo, the video cuts to a shot of Daniels sitting on a park bench

next to a bottle of Jack Daniels. Up until this point in the video, Daniel had been wearing the Doom mask, but now the mask lies next to Subrock's machete and a pair of butter leather timberlands on the ground below. him. In this memory of his brother, Daniel is maskless, the only time he's ever taken off the mask in a doomed video. His face is still concealed, only now it's concealed by his own hand wiping away his tears. Moments later, there's a shot of Daniel throwing the machete up into the air,

symbolically passing it to his brother in the heavens. It's an incredibly moving moment, as we feel the weight of Daniel's loss and his efforts to keep the memory of Subrock alive through his art. Finally, Daniel closes his open letter with the statement of assurance. Everything is going according to planned man. Here we need to recall Daniel's words about the crossroads he faced in the wake of sub's passing and how KRAS 1 inspired him to continue fulfilling the plans that the brothers made together. Quote, I had to stay focused.

The goals that me and my brother set, they still had to be met. It was up to me. Kerreras showed us that you persevere, you keep going, you strive and you do it, unquote. In Doom's interview with Jeff Mao, he revealed that part of the plans the brothers concocted together actually included MF Doom. Yeah, see, right after we finished the album, Black Bastards, even while he was working on Black Bastards, me and Sub were both going to do solo records respectively. So I was going to do the Doom thing since back then, and he was going to come out with

his join as another character, you know, and really I just continued on with the ideas I had in my head, and I developed the Doom character and developed the songs. more of the concept around the character. Daniel's final line on Operation Doomsday resounds louder in light of this revelation, that MF Doom was part of the plans Daniel and Subrock made all the way back in 1992. In this way, the completion and release of Operation Doomsday some seven years later is the fulfillment of the goals they set together. The album itself is proof of its own final words,

that everything is going according to Plan Man. While one half of the Illest Dynamic Duo may be gone, the legacy of Subrock lives on through the art of his brother. It calls to mind the conclusive line of Doomsday's Hook, either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say? If the living are responsible for the remembrance of the dead, then Daniel, through MF Doom, ensures that Subrock's memory remains forever engraved. The humanity endearment felt in Operation Doomsday's final verse commands empathy for the villain. There's always a man behind the mask, and most often that man is scarred. The mask, then, can be viewed as a

symbol of trauma and protection from future trauma. When viewed in this light, the very concept of a villain becomes blurred. It's no surprise that Daniel then chooses to follow his heartfelt open letter to sub-rock with the album's conclusive track, Hero vs. Villain, where feature artist E. Mason delivers a spoken word piece centered on the ambiguity between the two. What's the hero? Who's the villain? Dead or living? Kill or killing. Who the fucks you remain telling? Do it. Webster says, wicked and evil. But yo, who's Webster? No relation and outcast equals freedom and self-bass. Hero versus villain is labeled as Operation Doomsday's epilogue.

Traditionally, epilogs occur at the end of a novel or play after the main story is concluded. Often they explicitly express the stories intended moral lesson. This is clearly the function of Doomsday's epilogue, as E Mason calls into question are concepts of heroes and villains. He begins, What's the hero? Who's the villain? Dead or living? Killed or killing.

Who the fuck should remain chilling? Webster says wicked and evil, but who's Webster? E Mason questioning Webster's dictionary here exemplifies the central point of his spoken wordpiece. He's interrogating the authority of those who decide and define the villains in any given society. If one is deemed a villain in a corrupt or bigoted society, are they actually a villain? The racial implication seems clear and reminds us of what Daniel told the wire about the MF Doom character, quote, From the point of view of America, were the villains, but I'm the super villain. out here it's been so desensitized. I had to figure out a way to get the point across and still

make it interesting or make it seem like a race thing." Also interwoven into hero versus villain is a secondary theme of independence in regards to personal expression and identity. Midway through the piece, Mason says, fools rush in, they don't know the yen from the yang, and are ashamed to deviate or act sane from the norm, their slaves, forced to conform, to really find your essence, take this as a lesson, break away from the rest of them, get from the form ending, like the villain in the song, Find Truth. This command to find truth like the villain in the song is a direct call to action. It offers MF Doom and Operation Doomsday as a model for independent thought and expression,

even when doing so may oppose the status quo and make you an outcast or villain. This is felt in MF Doom's rejection of trendy rap stereotypes, in his use of quirky cartoon samples and vernacular, in his lack of catchy hooks and atypical song structures, in his rugged, unrefined recording techniques, in his decision to wear panty hose over his face or a spray-painted plastic toys a rust mask. Through his unwavering commitment to his unique,

sometimes bizarre, creative intuition, Daniel, as E Mason stated, broke away from the rest and found his truth, and in doing so, birth one of the most enduring, iconic characters in hip-hop history. Who's the hero? West of Villain. The question still remains chilling. Listen to the music.

Try very hard to use it. Open up and research. And that's the end of his verse. At the end of his piece, E. Mason returns to the same questions he began with, saying, quote, Who's the hero, what's the villain? The question still remains chilling. Listen to the music, try very hard to use it. Open up in research, and that's the end of this verse.

Once again, we are called to action, as it's implied that the answer to the central questions, who's the hero, what's the villain, is found in the music if we choose to use it. This is strategically followed by the final moments of the album, where much like its beginning, a collage of samples reveal key thematic and narrative information when, as E Mason said, we open up and research. Daniel returns to the film Wild Style that was sampled at the beginning of Operation Doomsday. Recall it was there we heard a debate about whether graffiti artist Raymond should do an interview that would reveal his face and identity. In the album's intro, Raymond's decision is left as a

cliffhanger. And now at the album's end, his decision to blow. while off the interview is revealed. Like Doom, he remains independent. Like Doom, he remains anonymous. Like Doom, he remains loyal to himself. These sentiments are then echoed in Operation Doomstay's final moments where an entirely new sample source is introduced. A boy says, Doom wears body armor to conceal his own mangled form, right? Another voice responds, yeah.

The first voice returns saying, Do yourself a favor. Do yourself. Trust me, true believer. And then the album ends. Now, when we open up and research this conclusive voice, we discover that it's none other than the creator of Dr. Doom and the Marvel universe, Stan Lee.

The conversation is lifted from mall rats, a 1995 movie in which an obsessive comic book lover named Brody has his heartbroken by a girl. He runs into his hero, Stan Lee, at the mall, and Stan gives some advice based on his own experience with heartbreak. Well, what'd you do? I went on with my life. I created some special new superheroes. They were characters that reflected my own heartbreak and my own regrets.

How so? Dr. Doom wears body armor to conceal his own mangled form, right? Yeah. Okay. That was me beneath the armor. So you created each character as a way to do with your one big, regret. Yeah, the girl that got away. Look, do yourself a favor, Brody. Don't wait, because all the money, all the women, even all the comic books in the world, they can't substitute

for that one person. Like the Wild style samples, like Sade's Kiss of Life and Boogie Down productions, the full context of the Mallrats sample reveals critical information that deepens our understanding of MF Doom and Daniel Dumley. Stan Lee's perspective is repurposed as Daniel's own. moving on with his life after losing a loved one, finding solace and creativity, developing fictional characters that serve as vehicles of self-expression. I mean, just listen to these quotes from Stan Lee and Daniel Dumley back to back. They're nearly identical. I went on with my life.

I created some special new superheroes. So the way I dealt with it, I just kept it moving. You know what I mean? And really, I just continued on with the ideas I had in my head. And I developed the Doom character and developed the doom character, and develop the songs and more of the concept around the character. The parallels between Stan's full monologue and Daniel's real life reveal just how masterful the conclusion of Operation Doomsday truly is.

Stan Lee is the creator of Doctor Doom and the Marvel Universe, just as Daniel Dumillay is the creator of MF Doom in the Doom universe. In this way, we are hearing directly from the men behind the mask, the human beings beneath the cartoon characters, the truth that inspired fiction. It is the author's signature placed at the end of the image. of their work. And just as Stan Lee imparted wisdom to Brody, his audience, Daniel Dumalay imparts wisdom to his audience at the end of Operation Doomsday. Because when we take a closer look at Lee's

final words on the album, we discover that Daniel actually alters Lee's dialogue in order to express the parting philosophy of the entire album. Here's the original as it appears in the film. Do yourself a favor, Brody. Don't wait. And now here's Daniel's flip. Do yourself a favor. Do yourself. Once again, Daniel is speaking through samples as much as he is speaking through his lyrics. This is one of Daniel Dumalay's musical superpowers. He bends Stan Lee's quote to state his own credo.

Do yourself a favor. Do yourself. Leaving listeners with a resounding message of independence and self-confidence. Well, a wise man once said, do you? That's what you told me. That's what you told me. You know what I mean? You know, do you?

I'm like, do you? I knew what he meant. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't really, and then grasped what he said until maybe a year later. You know, like,

that was like the wisest statement I heard out of any book or anything I've read. Do you be yourself and that's the best thing you can do for anything that's around you. This is Daniel Dumillet's final message

to his audience, and it's hardly the message of a traditional villain. Indeed, while the surface-level reading of Daniel's personal journey and return to destroy rap through MF Doom is a fun, theatrical interpretation of Operation Doomsday, what we've discovered in our brief survey of the album is that the real story is, at its core, deeply human. Like Stan Lee, Daniel Dumalay understood the potential of comic book characters to relate timeless human truths and emotions, masterfully blurring the lines between good and evil, Operation Doomsday tells the classic story of a man that

transform tragedy into triumph, a hero's journey into villainy. I was just kind of pondering the whole shit. Of course, every day you think about the shit, like, okay, huh, how can I do this? How can I come back? How can I, it's really out of creativity. I try to, and creativity comes from a love vibration. So I really can't, it's hard to think negatively and hit the creative, the creative stream of energy field that I, that I hit.

So really, it came out of just creativity, right? but then inside that creativity it just will happen to be like yo wouldn't it be funny if I did it like this so it's really just a it's like a funny spoof or stab back at it but it's not really out of anger the so-called bad guy

or the villain he's always the underdog you know and a few people speak for the underdog you know it's usually people speaking for whoever the winner is or the cool guy or you know like oh I want to be like him see nobody really wants to be like the loser

or, but some people might feel like, man, I feel like a loser today. There's a lot, everybody basically has these feelings. So what the super villain does, it speaks for the people who feel like that. And it shows you how you can, yo, if you feel like that, then you can get out of that. Here's the path out. Operation Doomsday is a landmark album in the history of hip-hop. As the inaugural offering from MF Doom, the album established the villain as an underground icon whose unique talent of executing carefully considered concept work with a DIY ethos and aesthetic

would become an aspirational model for generations of artists to come. And there was one underground artist in particular that heard Operation Doom's Day back in 99 and immediately fell to creative kinship with Doom, compelling him to reach out to Doom directly. Yeah, I got a call one day from Peanut Butter Wolf. He mentioned his cat Maddly, but I wasn't familiar with his work at the time. But I guess he heard some of my stuff and he was reaching out to me so that we could do a record together like, you know, and want to give me some beats and whatnot.

We had the same kind of vision and how we did records, the same, you know, real similar. You know, still unique, though. He had his unique style. That's really how it started. He reached out ever since Dennis with a man, you know what I mean? Living off borrowed time, the clock tick faster. That'll be the hour they knocked a slick blaster.

Fame producer Madlib's phone call to MF Doom would eventually birth another classic project, 2004's Mad Villany, An album will begin to dissect note by note, line by line, next time on Dysect. Today's episode of Dysect was written by Camden Ostrander and me, Kolkushna. If you enjoyed the episode, please tell a friend about the new season or share on social media tagging at Dysk podcast. It really helps. Additional production assistance by Justin Sales.

Audio editing by Kevin Pooler. Theme music by Birocredit. All right, thanks everyone. Talk to you next week.