When asked about the disproportionate volume of glam and glit to creative and artistic music these days, Doom will tell you:
"It’s kind of a problem in Hip hop, as far as the actual product that comes out to the public. The public is paying for it. You got cats that’s in it that think …’Ok, I gotta make some money, I’m gonna start rhyming.’ That’s short changing the public cause the give half-assed tunes that are just for the dough. Back in the day from ‘83 – ‘89 not everybody rhymed. Now everybody rhymes."
"See I can’t help it. I have to do it. But while I’m doing it, I’m gonna make dough off it. Even if I weren’t making dough I’d still be doing it. Just today, Today … I’m starting to think damn, I must be nasty."
Part of Doom’s past, the part that he seems to hold most dearest and discusses with fondness, is the memory of his friend, colleague and brother Sub Roc who past away in a head-on car collision. Sub Roc was one of the members of KMD and Doom’s younger sibling.
"Sub was the illest n####. Illest illest illest. The tragedy was that he had to leave the earth. If he was here, if were both here at the same time, forget it. The rap s### would have been over by now. We would’ve had the rap game sewn up. He was like me, in my intensity, but more… and iller."
"KMD stills rocks on. We got another KMD album in the works right now. Every time someone goes back to the essence, it only makes us stronger, cause now we got someone over there now. He’s still around; he’s just over there. He just pulls through from that side."
KMD’s release of the album Black Bastards, featured propagandist artwork from the black face era of racism’s heyday. It portrays figure hanging from the gallows with black face features in an eerie illustration a la Disney style.
"The CD cover, the way it was structured was to get attention, to draw the eye. Using propaganda to reverse the s###. A lot of racism and stereotypes are based on propaganda, I study and I see how it spread and propaganda keeps [racism] alive. They were trying to make a depiction of people like me. People were like ok, we don’t want to hire a black actor, or whatever the case so they hire Al Jolsen to throw on the black face and go out there and try to mimic the way blacks act. "
"It’s like this, when you have something that’s negative, it always tries to draw a negative out of you. Racism breeds more racism. It just continues the circle of hate. It perpetuates the whole thing. So I’m looking like this, why don’t we stop it in it’s tracks and turn it 180&Mac251;. ‘Oh word that’s supposed to be me?’ I’ll take it and make it into this. Humor, it puts a dampening on a lot of that it kinda throws water in it and makes the whole thing corny."
It was a cheap insult, not even a good one.
"But you have to stay in that mode [of thinking]. If I was in any other mode, I’d be flippin’ right now. There’s no other way to stay sane. Objectivity and duality, you gotta see both sides of the fence."
Duality is definitely a familiar part of the Doom / Zevlove X repertoire. "[I’m] something like an actor, how an actor will play a part. After he’s done with that role, he gets another script and perfect that role. It just so happens that I’m the actor, director, and writer, which makes it easier. I wrote it so I know it."
The autoure is modest about his underground success.
"I guess I’ve got it if you say so…being appreciated definitely adds more fire to what I’m doing. When you’re appreciated for what you do, it adds that extra bit."