MF DOOM MM..FOOD?

Of the 15+ years that hip hop icon MF DOOM has paid the rent with rhymes, 2004 could be marked as the pinnacle of his career. Quite a way to bookend a busy year for our beloved metal-masked villain, with the critically acclaimed Madvillainy (alongside weedhead west coast producer Madlib) then closing out the year with the equally anticipated mind-bending beats and wordplay found on MM..FOOD?. By no means a concept album (the song titles are a mere afterthought) DOOM as FOOD focuses his attention as always on kooky couplets, subtle trash talk and distinct beats ladled with scores of sci-fi and cartoon samples. But it's not all fun and games with DOOM as he sets the story straight on the opening Beef Rapp, "Enough about me/ It's about the beats/ Not about the streets or who FOOD about to eat."

With the beats and production predominately expedited by DOOM this time around (faithful DOOM followers dismissed the suspiciously hurried EP Viktor Vaughn 2: Venomous Villain last summer) MM..FOOD? contains some of his most memorable moments to date, from the sinister instrumental Fig Leaf Bi-Carbonate to the breezy fun of Deep Fried Frenz (complete with Whodini hook) and Kon Karne. Count Bass D aka Dwight Spitz jumps in on Potholderz and Madlib once again offers assistance, lending the beats on One Beer where DOOM coolly coasts atop some Chuck Mangione-type horns, "There's only one beer left/ Rappers screaming all in our ears like we're deaf/ Tempt me, do a number on your label/ Eat up all you emcees and drink em under the table."

Other noteworthy tracks include Rapp Snitch Knishes featuring up and coming DOOM crony Mr. Fantastik and a track originally entitled Yee Haw a few summers back now appears as Kon Queso, as in "When it's on loco-head gonna lay low/ And eat em like beef patty cocoa bread Kon Queso." The closing track Kookies, however, is the one that'll leave even the most skeptical rap cats starving for another go-around. It's a rapid-fire, double entendre about internet porn cookies coupled with visions of a penitentiary beatdown - this shit is straight bananas, complete with an appearance from, yes, the Cookie Monster. And by the time you even start to digest some of DOOM's insanely obscure, highly-weeded references the man who "wears a mask just to cover the raw flesh/ A rather ugly brother with flows that's gorgeous" has moved on to the next album. Watch out for another KMD (the crew that Zev Love X aka DOOM put on the map back in 1991) album due out this summer, along with full-length collabos with Mr. Fantastik as well as Nature Sounds in-house producer The Professor. Just do yourself a favor and gobble up the entire DOOM catalog.