News of Dumile’s recent passing was confirmed in a statement from his wife yesterday.
Reclusive MC and producer Daniel Dumile – best known for his lengthy tenure under the MF DOOM moniker – has passed away. A statement from Dumile’s wife was published by longtime associates Rhymesayers Entertainment on Thursday and confirms the musician’s passing on October 31st, though no cause of death was outlined.
The London-born and Long Island-raised musician first came to prominence at the turn of the 1990s for his work as a driving component of KMD alongside brother DJ Subroc, Rodan and Onyx the Birthstone Kid. After experiencing success following the 1991 major label release of Mr. Hood via Elektra Records, the group disbanded due to the untimely passing of Subroc and an impasse with Elektra relating to disagreements over the title of and cover artwork for their looming sophomore album Black Bastards. The project was consequently shelved until 1998 when Bobbito Garcia acquired demo recordings of songs from the album for a vinyl-only release via his now-defunct Fondle ‘Em Records imprint.
Following the dissolution of KMD Dumile retreated from the eyes of the New York music scene and in to a state of seclusion which lasted several years and was noted by the musician to have been littered with bouts of being “damn near homeless”. When Dumile resurfaced in 1997 development of the iconic and enigmatic, Marvel-nodding supervillain persona that he has become lauded for was underway with a fleeting period spent casting his spell upon unwitting onlookers at the Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe whilst donning a stocking over his face marking his first foray in to creative anonymity. Thereafter Dumile emerged, signature metal mask firmly in place to present Operation: Doomsday, his first full-length album as MF DOOM. What followed in wake of the aforementioned was an unfaltering and near-constant stream of music spanning a further five solo albums, an extensive series of instrumental beat projects, full-length collaborations with Madlib, Dangermouse, Bishop Nehru and Czarface and much more.
Idiosyncratic, impactful and boundlessly inventive, Dumile’s elusive and fragmented but enduring presence within the hip-hop genre over the course of three decades has proven innumerably influential, with everyone from early contemporaries in the revered Grand Puba and Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest to Sage Elsesser, KeiyaA and Odd Future collective alumni Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt taking to social media to impart words in light of the news.
View the original post from Dumile’s MF DOOM social media accounts and tributes from a slew of his contemporaries below.
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
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