As the '90s came to a close, hip-hop music was thriving in two
separate ecosystems. On one side, Puffy's Bad Boy Records,
Roc-A-Fella and the rest of the major label world was pumping
plenty of shiny music by bling-ed out, made for MTV stars. These
pop stars sold truckloads, but it felt like a lot of empty
calories. On the other side of the coin, a very strong
underground scene had emerged in the mid-1990s worldwide. Hungry,
innovative artists who had no use for the major label system
thrived artistically in this ever-growing pond, ranging from Dr.
Octagon and Jurassic 5 in Cali, Atmosphere and the Rhymesayers
crew in the Midwest, and Company Flow and Definitive Jux in the
East, among others. As the decade closed, from somewhere even
beyond both of those poles, a man who would come to rule many
corners the underground universe for the next two decades
appeared from depths that were darker than most of his fans would
ever know: MF DOOM. The artist formerly known as Zev Love X of
major-label-but-underground heroes KMD had disappeared from most
fans' view in around 1994 after his brother and artistic
co-producer Subroc was killed, and the group s Black Bastards
album was shelved by Elektra. By 1997, DOOM started peeking his
head up from the grime, with no-distribution singles on Bobbito
Garcia's Fondle 'Em label like Red & Gold and Dead Bent. As other
appearances and singles trickled through the underground, by 1999
the album Operation: Doomsday appeared seemingly out of nowhere,
again on Fondle 'Em, and fans who actively ran from the glitzier
side of rap music ate it up like they had been on a hunger
strike. Musically raw and at-times off-kilter, former Fondle 'Em
singles like the aforementioned tunes plus Drawls, Hey! and
Go With The Flow were joined by a whole slew of new tunes. It all
sounded familiar but new at the same time. It shouldn't be
overlooked that in addition to the dusty, wobbling music, the
former Zev Love X completely changed up his vocal style on the
tracks that would land on Doomsday, chopping his flow up and
bringing a whole new approach to his formerly liquid, and often
humorous lyricism. Standouts on this bonafide underground
masterwork are honestly hard to pick, since fans each have their
own DOOM faves. But Doomsday, Rhymes Like Dimes, The MIC, the
experimental Tick, Tick... (with MF Grimm) and Red & Gold (with
King Ghidra) are great examples of how stretched-out this
visionary album is. This new 7" Collection edition via Get On
Down includes seven 7"s that run in order of the songs from the
original issue (including interludes). The records are housed in
a custom black leatherette outer-box that is laced with
silver-foil renderings of DOOM's legendary and bubble
graffiti logo on the outside, and a never-seen-before DOOM
drawing by the legendary Lord Scotch, the original artist behind
the Operation: Doomsday art, on the inside. In addition to
holding the 7-inch vinyl, the box also contains two
metallic-silver colored 45 adapters, each a 3D rendering of
DOOM's gladiator . Picture sleeves for each of the seven
pieces of wax all feature brand new work by Lord Scotch (Blake
Lethem aka KEO aka Scotch79th) as well: new hand-lettered track
listings on one side, and incredible new color illustrations on
the flip that, when laid side-by-side, fit together like puzzle
pieces, to form one large image. 1999 classic debut album
presented as a deluxe set, with Seven 7"s 2 unique DOOM 45
adapters; new artwork by original cover artist Lord Scotch; and
customer leatherette outer box with silver-foil DOOM and
logo. FEATURES: Seven 7"s / Custom black leatherette outer box
with silver-foil rendered images of DOOM's famed and logo /
Two never-before-commercially available silver-colored DOOM 45
adapters.