When it was announced on New Year’s Eve that MF DOOM had passed away on Halloween last year, the outpourings of respect and condolences from hip-hop were both immediate and prolific. Adult Swim Senior Vice President Jason DeMarco shared a stream of stories and about his experiences with the rap iconoclast (including explaining the aborted The Missing Notebook project) and fellow underground rap icon Yasiin Bey posted a cover of DOOM’s Madvillain cut “All Caps.” Today, the tributes continued as another unconventional MC, Open Mike Eagle, shared his thoughts about the last masked rapper in a freestyle detailing his emotional response at the news of his hero’s death.
Mike and DOOM had previously connected on a pair of tracks: “Phantoms,” from the Czarface album, Czarface Meets Metal Face, and “Police Myself,” from Mike’s Comedy Central show The New Negroes. However, as he notes in his freestyle, the two men never met in real life, only corresponding through a go-between. As he reels off his own experiences, Mike reminisces about having a photo of MF DOOM rapping on some art in his living room. As he mentions this, he picks up the photo and looks at it, only to belatedly realize that the photo is of one of the imposter DOOMs that the original Daniel Dumile dispatched to live performances a few years ago so he wouldn’t have to show up himself.
Mike, unfazed, acknowledges the posthumous troll, “Supervillain. This n**** got me again. Rest in peace.”
Watch Mike’s tribute to MF DOOM above.
