Born Crazy

Born Like This
DOOM
Lex/Inertia, 2009
3.5 stars

Comedians don’t start their stand-up routines with hip hop tracks, so why the hell do hip hoppers consistently start off their albums with un-funny, embarrassing skits? “Time to get the fetta”? What is that? There’s probably a garage full of DOOM’s mates absolutely pissing themselves about that fetta line, but it’s well and truly lost on the other 99.999% of us. Please, just cut to the hip hop. Thankfully however, when it actually kicks in, the music on Born Like This is pretty damn good. It’s a couple of marks off the superb Madvillainy (DOOM’s 2004 collaboration with Madlib), but the dark, low-end heavy, old-school approach works beautifully on Raekwon duet Yessir!, the piano-backed More Rhymin’ and ‘90s jazz-infused Still Dope, easily one of the best tracks he’s done. DOOM’s rhymes are as free and easy as ever, and the instrumental samples are as interesting as you’d expect from the first man in accordion-rap, but overall – for me – the flow is thrown off by the clumsy ‘Dr Evil’ skits that pop up throughout.

Artwork: C
Basically, as over-produced as the album itself. The concept is fantastic, with a stone tablet and mask on the album's cover, but on the inside it looks like a designer vomited. It's a nice gatefold digipak, with good stock and a gloss varnish to boot, but the designer has over-worked the type and, well, it's too much.

Published in mX, Thursday April 16, 2009.