The Many Masks of DOOM
Among the many things which MF DOOM is known for, perhaps one of the most unique to him is his use of theatrics throughout his music. He adopted many characters through the years to which he frames his verses, telling rich stories from the perspective of many villanous alter-egos.
MF DOOM
MF DOOM (sometimes referred to as simply DOOM), naturally, is Dumile's primary persona throughout the years. Inspired by Doctor Doom from Marvel Comics, he took up a villanous mantle through which he raps about anything from rapper beef to street violence to actual beef. He has three solo albums under the name, Operation: Doomsday, Mm.. Food, and Born Like This.
King Geedorah
King Geedorah is one of DOOM's more enigmatic and confusing pseudonyms. First appearing as part of the Monsta Island Czars collective in 1997 (in which the members of the group take their names from movie monsters from Toho's Godzilla movies), he produced 6 out of 20 of the tracks on the group's only album, Escape from Monsta Island!, performing on only one of them, "MIC Line". Later, a solo album was released in 2003, Take Me To Your Leader. In it Dumile takes more of a backseat as the producer and curator of the album, only having four verses on the entire project (in which he is credited as a feature under the name MF DOOM). To add to the confusion, Metal Fingers is credited for the production of the album, and King Geedorah is credited with mixing and mastering. When asked about the character, Dumile said "The whole direction of Geedorah is like, OK, he’s not even from earth. He’s from outer space. He channels the information to DOOM in order for DOOM to produce. So he gets the message from Geedorah. Geedorah’s not even on earth. He’s more like an ethereal being."
Viktor Vaughn
Viktor Vaughn is another rapping persona of Dumile. His character is younger than DOOM, about 18 or 19, from an alternate dimension in the future. Both albums under the mantle, Vaudeville Villain and Venomous Villain are primarily produced by people other than Dumile. His rapping style as Vik tends to be less cerebral and more immediate than DOOM, characterized as a "know-it-all whippersnapper" type character.
Zev Love X
While not really a "proper" persona, being simply the name Dumile rapped under before the death of his brother and the uptaking of the DOOM name, Zev Love X is still worth mentioning. It was the name Dumile went under as a member of KMD, and probably the DOOM as his most lighthearted. Just a black teenager living in New York trying to make it in hip hop, before tragedy struck and began his origin story as hip hop's supervillain. The two albums using this name are KMD's Mr. Hood and Bl_ck B_st_rds.
Collabs
Not necessarily proper personas in their own right (Dumile mostly playing DOOM in slightly different colors throughout), it's worth mentioning the series of collaborations he has made with various producers and rappers over the years. These include Madvillain with Madlib, DANGERDOOM with Danger Mouse (pictured above), JJ DOOM with Jneiro Jarel, DOOMSTARKS with Ghostface Killah, NehruvianDOOM with Bishop Nehru, and WESTSIDEDOOM with Westside Gunn. Aside from these proper-named collaborations, he also has releases with the likes of MF Grimm, Czarface, Clutchy Hopkins, Black Cat the Mouse Trainer, Vingthor the Hurler, and DJ Muggs.
