King Geedorah

Most cats who rhyme about the state of the world are living each day in the thick of the battle, seeing firsthand how the downfalls in today’s society affect their sisters and brothers. But how do these same hardships appear to a gigantic three-headed space lizard who’s come to planet earth to bust flows on your sorry ass? King Geedorah is just trying to make sense of our mad lifestyle from racism to poverty the best way he can, and that’s flowing deadpan lyrics over some seriously lo-fi yet majestic beats. MF Doom takes a chapter from Kool Keith and produces this year’s Dr. Octagon as the former KMD wordsmith has created a simple hip-hop record that is a breath of fresh air from the repetitive loops circulating around the genre. Doom’s hand-programmed drums are sloppy and accompany wailing ‘80s guitar on "Fastlane” and numerous Godzilla-like vocal samples and cries for help on "Monster Zero,” and it’s some of the most beautiful production in hip-hop this year. Doom even takes a hand at creating more straightforward jazz-filled production with numbers like "Next Level” with gorgeous results. The fact that Take Me to Your Leader is all over the place with various abstract sound effects dropped completely out of order and for no apparent reason, yet is head and shoulders above the majority of big-budget hip-hop records on the market is proof alone that MF Doom is on a whole different level altogether. This album plays like a cinematic space adventure that you never want to end — thankfully King Geedorah comes on top. The puny humans never had a chance.