MM..Food is 20 Years Old
No Ripcord was accidentally the first publication to hear this seminal album
Yes, this is the second MF DOOM post of the week. I love DOOM and could keep writing about his music indefinitely, but I assure you The Perfect Prescription will be pivoting back towards newer sounds in the coming weeks as the Best-Whatever-Of-The-Year season approaches.
But I just had to post today because my favourite DOOM record — the wonderful yet somehow still underrated MM..Food — is 20 years old today. And believe it or not, my online magazine No Ripcord was the first publication to hear it.
MF DOOM: A Beginner's Guide
In my last post, MF DOOM: A Beginner’s Guide, I broke my own informal playlist rules to include two Food tracks, “One Beer” and “Rapp Snitch Knishes”. Truthfully, I could have easily switched these for “Kookies” and “Hoe Cakes”. Or “Beef Rapp” and “Kon Queso”. The record oozes quality from start to finish.
Here’s a snippet of the original No Ripcord review, written by DOOM zealot, Chris Conti:
The closing track “Kookies”, however, is the one that’ll leave even the most sceptical rap cats starving for another go-around. It’s a rapid-fire, double entendre about internet porn cookies coupled with visions of a penitentiary beatdown — this shit is straight bananas, complete with an appearance from, yes, the Cookie Monster. And by the time you even start to digest some of DOOM’s insanely obscure, highly-weeded references the man who “wears a mask just to cover the raw flesh / A rather ugly brother with flows that's gorgeous” has moved on to the next album… Just do yourself a favour and gobble up the entire DOOM catalog.
I’ve long since lost contact with Chris, but I’m forever grateful for his enthusiastic contributions. And like many of the No Ripcord contributors over the years, he introduced me to some great music.
When Chris interviewed DOOM in May 2004, six months before the release of MM..Food, it emerged that he — and by extension No Ripcord — had been sent a promo copy by accident. This evidently caused the rapper some concern:
When I mentioned to DOOM that his manager accidentally sent me a copy of the upcoming MM..Food (Rhymesayers), the conversation stopped.
“You weren't supposed to get that”, DOOM calmly notes. “I’m the only one with a copy, so please keep it under your hat”, having just dealt with an Internet leak and subsequent lengthy delay of Madvillainy.
No Ripcord never receives exclusives, so it was pretty fun to be the first publication to hear this seminal album, even if it was thanks to a blunder.
Twenty years later, it still sounds amazing. Our 9/10 rating has aged well. A little less underground, thanks to the TikTok popularity of “Rapp Snitch Knishes” and “One Beer”, but no less endearing.
At the end of the No Ripcord interview, DOOM reflected on his struggles to break through:
“I know there’s a million Herbs out there who like that other stuff, but I know there are also plenty of people who want to hear what I have to say — I’m just not reaching them yet. Once cats open up their minds I think they’ll understand that this is a little deeper than, you know, just the standard rap shit.”
He was right, of course. There was an audience out there for his music and as the anniversaries keeping coming, I am confident it will continue to grow.