MF Doom Changes Name Again, Preps Album

(swiped from Pitchfork Media)

MF Doom has a new name now: DOOM. All caps. He insists. He also wants his album title spelled that way. So just to make sure I keep him happy, I'm going to write this whole news story in all caps.

BACK IN 2007, THE INDIE-RAP ENIGMA SET OFF MASSIVE CONSIPRACY THEORIES...

Jesus Christ. That's so annoying. I can't do it. Sorry.

Back in 2007, the indie-rap enigma set off massive conspiracy theories and even death rumors by allegedly slapping his mask on a skinny imposter and letting that guy do shows while he stayed at home reading back-issues of Alpha Flight or whatever. (Doom's label simply claims that he lost some weight.) Since that time, we've heard barely a peep from him. Given that the guy used to release roughly 58 albums a year, that absence has been noticed.

Well, Doom has now renamed himself DOOM, possibly to distance himself from any worst-rapper-ever reputation I may have given him. And now he's breaking his silence. On March 23, Lex will release BORN LIKE THIS, the first all-new DOOM album in a couple of years. And he's coming back in a pretty big way, with some of the bigger names in the frantic head-knock rap underground on board.

DOOM's frequent collaborator Ghostface Killah, performing as Tony Starks for some reason, guests on one song, as does fellow Wu-Gambino Raekwon. Whatever happened to that planned DOOM/Ghostface full-length? Can that happen, please? Anyway, Jake One produced the appetizingly titled first single "Ballskin", and DOOM used a track from the late stoner-rap deity J Dilla's Donuts album for "Lightworks". (A quick digression re: Donuts: Brandon Soderberg's No Trivia blog has been running a really moving essay series on that album for a couple of weeks now.)

Here's the tracklist:

01 Supervillain Intro
02 Gazillion Ear
03 Ballskin
04 Yessir [ft. Raekwon]
05 Absolutely
06 Rap Ambush
07 Lightworks
08 Batty-Boys
09 Angelz [ft. Tony Starks]
09 Cellz
10 Still Dope [ft. Empress Sharhh]
11 Microwave Mayo
12 More Rhymin' [ft. Kurious]
13 That's That
14 Suppervillainz
15 Bump's Message
16 Thank Ya

• Stream: DOOM: Ballskin [from the forthcoming BORN LIKE THIS LP]