MF Doom — Operation: Doomsday

Double LP on Black Vinyl or Compact Disc After his first group’s (KMD) sophomore album was shelved by Elektra in 1994, and his brother Subroc — one-half of the sibling rap duo — passed away, surviving frontman Zev Love X slowly mutated into the supervillain MC known as MF Doom. The 1999 release of Operation: Doomsday marked MF Doom’s official debut, introducing a mysterious figure who would soon become one of underground rap’s greatest voices. Within its 19 tracks, Operation: Doomsday reveals the confluence of Doom’s tragic past, personal interests and daring creativity. His clever rhymes and remarkable schemes stood out against the landscape, and every sound he touched — from cartoon theme songs to ’80s soul to rap classics and more — got reinterpreted into something brand new and surreal. Doom’s collaborators include fellow members of the Monsta Island Czars collective, for which each artist took on the persona of a monster from the Godzilla films. In a review, Jon Caramanica called the album “…one of the most idiosyncratic hip-hop albums of the 1990s, and one of the defining documents of the independent hip-hop explosion of that decade.” Features a variant cover based on original cover art. Reissued: 3/31/23