Album Review: Czarface and MF Doom, Super What?
Silver Age, 2021
It’s almost been six months since news broke on Instagram that MF Doom had passed. His death gutted the music world as hip-hop’s biggest names paid tribute to the cherished emcee and producer both on the mic and on social media. Though his discography is legacy enough, it’s totally natural for fans to be hungry for posthumous music from the rapper; It’s part of the mourning process. Stones Throw Records founder, Peanut Butter Wolf, said recently that we may get to hear a sequel to Madvillainy, MF Doom’s iconic mash-up with the producer Madlib.
But until then, Super What? — the new collaborative LP from MF Doom and the rap-supergroup Czarface — marks the first time we’ll get to hear new music from hip-hop’s favorite supervillain since his passing.
The death of MF Doom will likely bring new listeners to Czarface, who consists of Wu-Tang’s Inspectah Deck and the Boston duo 7L and Esoteric. The trio has released a steady drip of comic-book-obsessed rap albums over the last decade, and Super What? is their second album with MF Doom (They first worked together on Czarface Meets Metal Face in 2018). That album was a murky collage of hard-hitting beats that felt true to its supervillain set-up. But its heavy instrumentals sometimes drowned out MF Doom’s signature rasp. This time around, Czarface’s producer, 7L, chucks the low-end distortion in favor of a brighter, spacier haze, giving MF Doom, Esoteric, and Inspectah Deck ample room to experiment.
Those listening for unreleased MF Doom raps will not be disappointed. On Super What?, the rapper sounds as nimble, dark, and hilarious as ever. He’s at his most psychedelic on “Czarwyn’s Theory Of People Getting Loose,” swerving from catchy non-sequiturs (“Bring your liquor, get the flask, tap your cigarette to ash”) to stark descriptions of violence: “Chicken dinners, up to task, toes pressin' on your throat / Wonderin', "Is this the end?" / Good question.” His voice pops on “Doom Unto Others” amidst a rumbling bass synth and a shimmering chime. Print out the lyrics, pin them to the wall, and hurl a dart and you’re guaranteed to hit one of MF Doom’s brilliant internal rhymes or knock-out punchlines.
MF Doom may have pioneered the pop-referential, oddball style that they inhabit, but Czarface continues to pave its own lane with dizzying flows, crisp production, and 110% dedication to the comic-book theme. “This Is Canon Now” is 50 Cent’s “How to Rob” set in the superhero universe. Esoteric wedges twenty-plus comic book references into the song, including a spot-on indictment of what is possibly Marvel’s worst movie franchise, the Fantastic Four: “You seen the Fantastic Four, I didn't hurt them / I just took every copy of every movie they made and burned 'em.” 7L’s galactic production is note-worthy, as well; I like his harder beats, but this batch, in particular, feels big and melodic, providing warm textures that highlight each rapper’s unique voice and flow.
I love tuning in to a new Czarface release to hear what Inspectah Deck has been up to. The rapper has been on a tear with the group lately, putting out eleven albums in under a decade, and it has been amazing to watch him flourish in this new creative lane. Super What? pushes the rapper’s versatility as a lyricist who can bat clean-up on longer tracks (“Break in the Action”) or lead off with brevity. His verse on “Mando Calrissian” is surreal, economic, and rhythmically satisfying, especially when paired with 7L’s synthy, spaced-out beat: “So deadly with the craft, got me duckin' the witch huntin' / My fit's stuntin', your chicks in the whip crushin'.” Most rappers would be ill-advised to go toe-to-toe with MF Doom on internal rhymes, let alone on the same track. But Inspectah Deck’s diction and poetic wordplay is the perfect setup for MF Doom’s grimy, hard-boiled storytelling: “What he lack in sentiment was stashed in the tenement / Sounds brash, so imminent you can hear death / Alas cheap cologne, cold swine, beer breath.”
In an interview with NPR, Esoteric told a revealing story about what it was like to work with MF Doom on their first LP: “We wanted to call it ‘Czarface Versus Metal Face.’ But (MF Doom) wanted to call it "Czarface Meets Metal Face...You know, he didn't want to look at it as a battle. He wanted to look at it as a team-up." Much has been said about MF Doom as a wordsmith, and less about MF Doom as a collaborator. Super What? shows the partner-in-crime side of MF Doom, an artist who shirked the spotlight to create cool shit with friends, like-minded TV shows, and newcomers alike. The fact one of his final projects is with Czarface is fitting; MF Doom’s influence on the group has been obvious from day one. Though he will be missed, Super What? is a testament to the creativity he inspired in others and a road map for how his influence will live on in the music of his peers.
Listen to Super What? on Spotify below: