MF Doom dies at 49: Tributes to Daniel Dumile the hip-hop wordsmith who aimed for Scrabble 'triple word scores'
Hip-hop star MF Doom has died at the age of 49, his family has confirmed.
The 49-year-old British born musician, real name Daniel Dumile, was known to hip-hop fans for his intricate wordplay and his signature mask, which was modelled after the Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom.
In a post on the rapper's Instagram account, his wife Jasmine confirmed he passed away on October 31.
His cause of death has not been released.
Jasmine Dumile posted a photo of the rapper and a heartfelt message on his Instagram page. She called him the “greatest husband” and father and thanked him for showing her how not to be “afraid to love.”
“Thank you for teaching me how to forgive beings and give another chance, not to be so quick to judge and write off,” she wrote.
“My world will never be the same without you.”
Dumile's death comes just three years after the death of his 14-year-old son, King Malachi Ezekiel Dumile, on December 18, 2017.
Dumile was born in London and raised in New York. He began his rap career in the late 1980s under the name Zev Love X as part of the group KMD, which included his younger brother DJ Subroc.
The group released two albums: “Mr. Hood” in 1991 and “Black B******” two years later. Subroc died shortly before the release of the second album.
Dumile took a step back from the public eye, then returned in the late 1990s under his MF Doom persona. In 1999, he released his self-produced debut album “Operation: Doomsday.”
Dumile released six studio albums under different stage names, including King Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn. He collaborated with producer Madlib on the 2004 album “Madvillainy,” which was considered his most celebrated release.
His last solo studio album, “Born Like This,” was released in 2009. His most recent album was a 2018 collaboration with the group Czarface: “Czarface Meets Metal Face.”
Hip hop stars paid tribute to Dumile following his death.
“Someone just stabbed all my chakras,” rapper Pharoahe Monch wrote on Instagram. “I’m angry. I’m hollering and I’m crying.”
“RIP to another Giant your favorite MC’s MC .. MF DOOM!! crushing news...,” producer and rapper Q-Tip wrote on social media.
Music industry executive Dante Ross, who signed KMD to its first record deal, said Dumile’s “life force was a metaphor for black men in this world. You took all the (bad things) sent your way and created beautiful art with it. Tragedy was your fuel for reinvention.”
Behind the theatrics of the mask was a technically proficient lyricist. With a monotone delivery that concealed deceptively complex lyrics and rhyme schemes, Doom evolved into a wordsmith that hip-hop’s top lyricists deeply admired. Each verse could require multiple listens to decipher the hidden or multiple meanings of words.
In an interview last year with Spin magazine, Dumile compared his songwriting to “gymnastics on paper” and achieving “triple word scores” in Scrabble.
“How many words repeat in a bar, or two bars? How many syllables can you use that still make sense in a song?” Dumile said.
“The quality of the rhyming word: phonetically, how the tone is, in the pronunciation of the word. Regardless of language ... As long as the word itself rhymes, you still get points for that word. ... How many references can you cross and still stay on topic? And still rhyme? The more complex the subject matter and wordplay is, that’s where you get your points. I’m a rhymer, so I go for points.”