Danger Doom
The Mouse and The Mask
Epitaph

MF Doom is already known for outstanding collaborations in underground hip hop. His last project, Madvilliany, with beat master DJ Madlib, stood out as one of the most outstanding rap releases of last year even in the shadow of Kanye West's much acclaimed debut. This time the iron clad wordsmith gets behind the mic with DJ Danger Mouse, fresh off his controversial masterpiece The Gray Album in which remixed Beatles back beats from the White Album collided with Jay-Z's Black Album rhymes. It's not surprising that a project like Danger Doom is every underground hip hop fanatic's fantasy.

At the very least, the debut of these two dynamos can brag a great sense of humor and an interesting environment. With cameos from an array of cartoon characters from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up, The Mouse and the Mask sputters on being either catchy gimic or a weird publicity stunt in their tribute to the late night lineup. Doom has trouble selling the idea and settles for some truly inspired commentary: "He kept his paper digits in the trunk/ once joined a rap clique called 'Migdets into Crunk'/ Did a solo on the oboe/ Coulda sold a million then the villian went fo' dollo". Danger Mouse takes the cake here with vividly original backdrops that find a niche somewhere between 60s R&B and a 1950s Sci-Fi B-Movie. At the same time it comes close to doing to James Brown era funk what The Chronic did to Parliament.

Copyright © 2005 M. Marion D.