Viktor Vaughn

For his follow-up to Vaudeville Villain, MF Doom returns once again as the younger, rawer, and much hungrier Vik Vaughn. His Vaughn debut is already being touted as a classic album, so it's no surprise that someone was willing to rush a sequel. In this case, it's Insomniac magazine off-shoot Insomniac Music, who have previously released a couple of decent compilations with The Mic Planet Sessions and Drastic Jungle Project. For Venomous Villain, the Insomniac production team have contributed a number of hip-hop and glitch-hop beats for Vaughn to rock on. The beats aren't as hard as they were on his Sound-Ink debut, but they are just as experimental and possibly even more atmospheric. And as always, Doom's lyrics flow with the humorous wit he's displayed whether he's Doom, Vaughn or King Geedorah. Unfortunately, five of the tracks only feature Vaughn on one verse with guests like Kool Keith, Poison Pen and Mars Ill's Manchild, among others, as quality filler. Add the four interludes and three solo tracks, and the result is just 30 minutes. Sure, it's a great follow-up to Vaudeville Villain, but like Geedorah's Take Me to Your Leader, VV II leaves you wishing for a lot more Doom.