The Evolution From Zev Love X to MF DOOM

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

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

When um, by-by then, you had become officially MF DOOM

So, has anything in particular happened in that

Two, two-and-a-half year period that was molding you into

What we would hear, you know, when we first heard Deadbent?

What was the process?

Well Dan, here's what happened

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 solos were kind of

Like started budding out Biggie was out

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, or a good angle that I could come at

That would be different from everybody's style, it somethin', somethin'

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

Just 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 adlibs, no chorus, ill, 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-or a club or whatever

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

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

Where it's like a circle and it's just two muhfuckers goin' voice-for-voice

And style-for-style, no, nothing fancy, you know?

Two MCs tirin' out at those times, you know what I mean? (For sure)

So that's where, you know

There's no gimmicks, you know what I'm saying, involved

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

A lot of captains, you know, oversaturated 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

So captains getting lazy, doing short verses

You know, you know, kind of cheesy

So I said, all right, I'm going to just burn it down, if you burned it down

Back like how when we was burning it down when everything first started

Where you could, you know, any corner in Queens

Hear cats spitting and somebody would be real nasty, hittin' it

"Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da," probably for 20 minutes straight

With no nothin', no choruses over a beatbox, you know what I mean?

I said, all right, if we could bring it to that level

Then it, then it'd be, then that-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 is-, you know, how I remember it