DOOM
DOOM Presents Unexpected Guests
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Label: Gold Dust Media
If anyone's complaining about the state of rap music, they should turn to "underground" MCs like DOOM, one who isn't afraid of being weird or completely obscure. Often, his tracks don't even have any hooks, so they're largely pure hip-hop- beat, lyrics and nothing more. This isn't counting skits, and even then, DOOM's skits are more akin to the kung fu audio from Wu-Tang records than "Deeez Nuuuts." For the Daniel Dumile fan that's already heard everything and eagerly awaits oft-promised vaporware like Swift and Changeable and Madvillainy 2 (um... you're turning a bit blue there--try inhaling?), here's Unexpected Guests, a compilation of DOOM tracks including guest appearances, remixes, non-album tracks and other rarities hand-picked by the metal-faced Victor Von Doom-admirer.
Unexpected Guests opens with some of the record's strongest tracks; "Fly That Knot" is an energetic Talib Kweli track with a DOOM guest verse, while "Sniper Elite" is an under-two-minute DOOM/Dilla collaboration that feels like it ends before it begins, though the beat is so good you'll hardly notice. The record is clearly meant for the most hardcore of DOOM fans, considering how much history it spans. There's a jazzy rare track from DOOM's days as Zev Love X in KMD- a rarity from a rarity. There's "Da Supafriendz," a killer Vast Aire track featuring DOOM from an online Adult Swim release, complete with a catchy beat made from a cartoon piano sample. There are a few DOOM-produced Wu-Tang tracks. There's a contribution to an electro DJ Babu track- a great beat on an album of great beats. There's even an appearance from DOOM's Viktor Vaughn persona. All it's missing is a King Geedorah appearance.
Casual fans, however, can appreciate the classic DOOMisms on this record--particularly the cartoon name-checks and use of DOOM's trademark long phrases that hardly ever show up on other rap records ("Here go a list of politics like Henry Kissinger/ Ninety-nine percent of rap's just a friendly listener"). While previous DOOM efforts tend to have a few too many "skits" (read: "long clips from old Hanna-Barbara cartoons"), the cartoon interludes on Unexpected Guests are intermittent and brief.
Guest verses are often the worst parts of a rap album, as the artist gets all his whack friends to spit over a track that would otherwise be perfectly fine without them. Many of the non-DOOM rappers (the eponymous "guests") on the record are forgettable at worst, but DOOM has some good company in Talib Kweli and Ghostface Killah (don't get excited--it's an early version of "Angelz" from Born Like This). Even on a seemingly DOOM-free track like John Robinson's political "Black Gold" (guess what it's about), it's clear that DOOM contributed the beat. DOOM seems to realize that people buy his records for him and not his buddies, so even on a record called Unexpected Guests, he's all over the music.
Whatever DOOM is up to next, Unexpected Guests is a good compilation that doesn't feel like cash-in. It should tide us over a bit until all those collaboration records that I'm sure are totally happening.
by Danny Djeljosevic
