The Evolution From Zev Love X to MF DOOM

[Spoken Word: MF DOOM & Interviewer]

Basically, it was a time between I guess, like, '94, ’95

And then we didn't hear from you 'til, again, ’til '97

When by then you would become officially MF DOOM

So was there anything particular happening in that, in that

Like, two, two-and-a-half-year period

That was molding you into what we were hearing, you know, when we first heard Deadbent?

What was the process?

Studying hip-hop and studying flow a lot of cap is coming out

A lot of soloists is coming out and getting money and blowing

Now I was really rocking at the time

Meth came out, you know the Wu soloists kind of like started budding out, Biggie was out

So it was like a good time for the soloist, you know what I'm saying? Um

And uh, you know that's when I was, like, really trying to find a slot, a good angle that I could come at

That'd be different from everybody's style, it's something that, you know, I could do without too much of a problem

Like a technique that I could just easily master with one formula

But still, it would be different than anybody else's shit

You know what I mean? So that’s when I came with the DOOM shit, it was just like

Really just simplicity at its finest, you know what I’m saying?

Just strip everything down to just the raw essence of rhyming

You know what I mean? Like, no ad-libs

Like, aight, when you rhyming, usually when we be rhyming

It'd be like outside or at school and you’re right there rhyming in a little circle or whatever

You know what I'm saying?

That's how it was when we first started and whatnot

And that's like, to me, the essence of it

Or like even on stage a microphone and or in a party there’s you and the mic and the beat, you know what I mean?

So it's really, I basically, doing the DOOM style on that, it's just um

You know, no ad-libs, no chorus, ill verse

You know, to where if you were standing right there, there was just four of us

You would hear it the same as if you would hear it in a car or if you heard it in a stadium or a club or whatever

It's just that MC, that beat, and them lines, them punch lines

And, you know, if it's two MCs battling in that, in that kind of setting

Where it's like a circle and it's just two motherfuckers going voice for voice and style for style

No nothing fancy, you know

Two MCs trying out at those times, you know what I mean?

For sure

So that's where, you know, it's no gimmicks, you know what I'm saying, involved

I took that and said, all right, let me use that as the basis

A lot of captains you know, oversaturated with choice of choruses and

You know, like, cheesing the game up a little bit, I think captains started getting lazy

You know what I mean? A lot of money came into the game for captains getting lazy doing short verses, you know

You know, kind of cheesy, so I said, alright, I'm going to just burn it down

If you burn it down back like how we was burning it down when everything first started

Where you could, you know, any corner in Queens, you can't catch spitting and somebody would be real nasty hitting it

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

Probably for twenty minutes straight with no, nothing, no choruses over a beatbox, you know what I mean?

I said, all right, if we can bring it to that level, then that's different enough

To where I think the character would stand out, you know what I mean?

At the same time bring the game back to what is you know how I remember it