Danger Doom

The Mouse and the Mask

BY Kevin HaineyPublished Nov 1, 2005

MF Doom launched his worldwide hip-hop takeover mission Operation: Doomsday a mere six years ago, and since then we’ve been witnessing an unstoppable series of expertly executed rap blitzkriegs led by his deadpan wit, commanding gruffness and confounding imagination. Doom is as on point as ever on The Mouse and the Mask, and the fact that he’s set up shop with one of underground production’s biggest guns, Danger Mouse, is further indication that Doom’s war on whack hip-hop is gaining momentum. These two act like a match made in heaven. Doom’s presence brings out the best production from Danger Mouse yet — laidback and casual with consistent head nodding material, Mouse’s beats and melodies come off concise and jam-packed with catchiness. For jokes and skit material, Danger Doom made a brilliant move by bringing in the bizarre and hilarious characters from Adult Swim cartoons such as Aqua Teen: Hunger Force, The Brak Show and Sealab 2021. Other outstanding guest appearances by Talib Kweli (on album highlight "Old School”), Ghostface (on "The Mask”) and Cee-Lo (crooning back-ups on "Benzie Box”) only work to further solidify this repeatedly fulfilling and uplifting debut.

How did this project come together? MF Doom: It worked out like it was meant to happen. Danger came to me with the idea of the whole album at first, just based on the fact that Atlanta is where everything is based at and we all got crews out here. So D’s like "Yo, your crew’s in there and I got the Adult Swim crew and I got my crew — why don’t we just hook up and do it like this?” Danger was the catalyst that introduced the whole thing.

What’s your collaboration process? Danger Mouse: I do a bunch of tracks that I think he’ll like, pass them to him, then he picks the ones that he does like, and starts writing to them. Either he’ll record them and send them back to me or if we’re in the same city like Atlanta or L.A., I’ll record him in the studio and then we’ll check it out that way, but you know, he does his own thing, I do mine and we like what each other does, so that’s how we work together.

Who decided to bring the Adult Swim characters into the studio? MF Doom: Danger again; he’s next to me, and he’s like "Yo! Yo, we could bring the guys in,” and I’m like, "Yo, word. I could rhyme about the shows” and Danger’s like "Yeah!” And you know, it was just like a pow-wow.
(Epitaph)

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