The world is still shaking after news of the death of rapper and producer MF DOOM, reported Thursday. MF DOOM, whose real name was Daniel Dumile, died on October 31; the news was confirmed by his wife Jasmine on the artist Instagram account. Dumile was 49.
DOOM – whose name I’ll keep spelling in capital letters, just as he demanded – was one of hip-hop’s most respected figures. Q-Tip, another of the greats, perfectly crystallized its legacy with one tweet pay respect on Thursday by calling DOOM “your favorite MC’s MC”.
It’s nearly impossible to exaggerate the rhyming and narrative acuity of the enigmatic metal-faced villain. A string of hugely influential releases under different names between the late 90s and mid 2000s – from Operation: Doomsday to Madvillainy and The mouse and the mask – reinforced DOOM’s place in the pantheon of underground hip-hop. The fact that you never saw the mug behind the mask only added to its mythos. The carrot has a great obituary on DOOM that I recommend you check out.
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Like many of us, I’ve been listening to DOOM’s catalog almost exclusively since the long weekend tragic news came out. Although I had always enjoyed his music, I didn’t know much about Dumile, the man – although of course he wanted it that way. You could imagine my joy and surprise when I learned that he happened to be an avid radio-controlled car enthusiast.
DOOM was interviewed in 2012 for Intersection, a car culture and fashion magazine, about his hobby. The text has been preserved online via Issuu, and starts on page 164. It includes photos of DOOM testing his rides in a BMX park in London. Posted a few outtakes from the shoot on Imgur, shows him playing with his son, King Malachi Ezekiel Dumile, who died in 2017 at the age of 14. The pictures leave me in tears but smiling.
DOOM apparently didn’t drive much those days as he told Intersection he didn’t have a driver’s license. That didn’t stop him from occasionally doing joyrides in his wife’s Lincoln Navigator, although he happily says he never got caught. Instead, he tended to find his solution with an RC car remote in hand:
“I have thirteen of these suckers at home,” [DOOM] says as he points to the radio-controlled cars in the sand.
‘I’ll easily spend two thousand dollars on it. Every child wants a car with remote control. But when I was a kid, we couldn’t really afford it. So now I am living the dream. Reliving that part of my childhood that I didn’t get a chance to do back then. One day I said ok, I’m going to treat myself and threw $ 500 for one of these. It was a T-Maxx from the Traxxas company. And I’ve always been into electronics and mechanics and all that. Adjust things. Changing parts all the time. It’s a hobby. Keeps me out of trouble. “
The feature continues to see DOOM rate its favorites from its collection – culminating in its black Porsche Cayenne with monster truck tires adorned with Apple stickers. The rest of the selection is all Tamiya, including a buggy, 1980s Toyota Hilux, Jeep Wrangler, and the first-generation Ford Bronco.
There’s something wonderful about DOOM that talks with childlike enthusiasm about brushless motors and three-speed gearboxes. “Wild Willy is on the track tearing it up again,” he says of the jeep. ‘We can’t stop him! Reminds me of Wacky Races or something. “The whole thing wants me to pour DOOM’s discography into a search for bars about RC cars.
Rest in peace, legend.