One Of The Songs That Reinvented DOOM’s Career Gets A Cosigned Video

DOOM (a/k/a MF DOOM) is one of Hip-Hop’s truest comeback stories.

In the early 1990s, the British-born, Long Island, New York-raised MC/producer was signed to Elektra Records with his group, K.M.D. There, DOOM (as Zev Love X) joined brother Subroc and Onyx the Birthstone Kid to release 1991’s Mr. Hood. Featuring Brand Nubian, the LP would introduce the world to a whimsical style from the trio who would also become affiliates of 3rd Bass and Dante Ross’ Stimulated Dummies collective.

As the group was preparing their intended 1994 follow-up, Black Bastards, things hit bottom. The album (later released to the public in 2001) was shelved, and the trio was dropped. Subroc would be killed when as a pedestrian, he was struck by a car on the Long Island Expressway. In this time, following the death of his twin brother, Zev Love X began a transformation into Metal Face DOOM. Comic-inspired, the character was a no-frills homage to wordplay, compound rhymes, and makeshift, loop-based production.

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Between 1994 and 1997, DOOM slept on benches in Manhattan, as he covered his face in a series of open-mic rap appearances. Once on a major label, DOOM swore revenge on the music industry, and would help establish the Underground Hip-Hop movement.

The twelfth vinyl release by Bobbito Garcia’s Fondle ‘Em Records, 1997’s “Dead Bent” b/w “Gas Drawls” and “Hey!” marked the rebirth of DOOM for many. Whereas “Dead Bent” would receive a music video in its day, “Gas Drawls” (the subsequent album version) gets its animated visual nearly 20 years later—sort of.

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Created by Dus T’, this video traces the lyrics with a style and grit synonymous with some of the other limited visuals in DOOM’s catalog. According to Rapp Cats (who has worked with DOOM in capacities), though the video began as a fan-made, “unofficial” creation, it has “the DOOM seal of approval.”

The self-produced single appeared on 1999’s acclaimed Operation DOOMsday, originally released by Fondle ‘Em. That album has been reissued multiple times since—including a red-and-black vinyl version (with poster) releasing this week.