by osmosis

Reading about music during the first portion of 2009 has been difficult to do. There’ve been numerous declarations of WAVVES or Animal Collective already having put out the best disc of the year. But claiming such shenanigans prior to DOOM’s Born Like This hitting shelves seems premature at best.

Over the last few months DOOM’s seen fit to drop off sporadic tracks from this forthcoming disc on Lex Records. And if one were to judge the release solely from these, it might not be difficult to surmise that this latest disc could represent the pinnacle of the emcee’s catalog.

MM…Food (Rhymesayers, 2004) may have been as strong a follow up to Operation: Doomsday (Fondle ‘Em, 1999) as possible, but again taking between four and five years to release his next disc has allowed DOOM to spend time working out those MPC beats. Listening to Born Like This, though, makes work from DOOM seem effortless. His endlessly lazy and occasionally slurred delivery belies the amount of work that’s gone into his craft. And whereas past recordings have seen the utilization of recycled beats, everything here is fresh for ‘09. Well, almost.

Seattle’s Jake One turns in production for a cut and Dilla reaches out from beyond the grave to plant two credits into this disc. But one of these tracks – “Lightworks” – was previously heard on the Mick Boogie/Busta Rhymes collaboration Dilla-Gence.

The raps here on Born Like This are what fans have come to expect from the Masked Villain – funny, occasionally surreal, but usually just surprising. In a misdirected cultural appropriation from Jamaican slang, however, “Batty Boyz” ratchets up the homophobia. But considering that rap, as a genre, really traffics in this rhetoric, it’d be wasteful to criticize DOOM’s track for this slight. And if nothing else, DOOM figures that Aquaman might be sleeping with the fishes, but not the way you think.

As the release date for this gem ever approaches, DOOM might finally have some time to work on that follow up to Madvillain. And if that actually occurred, the rap game should just call it a year, ‘cause nothing would have the potential to unseat DOOM atop the pile. Not even Bukowski.

DOOM mp3s