Born Like That

So that name change sort of paid off. DOOM subtracted the MF but kept the mask and all his integrity, releasing the awesome "Born Like This" on Lex Records Tuesday. We got guest spots from Ghostface (as Tony Starks), Raekwon, Kurious, and Slug, as well as the Madlib-produced "Absolutely," two J Dilla tracks ("Lightworks" + "Gazzillion Ear") and some weird De La Soul cameos.

My favorites thus far are clearly the Starks track "Angelz," "That's That," "Lightworks" and the Raekwon track "Yessir!," which samples ESG. I love the closing track "Thank Yah" and its funk, which would loop right back to the beginning of the record if it were on repeat. There's the usual voices bobbing in and out of the mix yammering about DOOM and his escapades, this time including Prince Paul and Posdnous from De La Soul, Posdnous taking the role of P-Pain, the humorous, auto-tuned T-Pain rip-off.

Another observation is the relative shortness of the record, clocking in just over 40 minutes - there's only three tracks over three minutes in length (not counting the iTunes bonus track, a Thom Yorke Remix of "Gazzillion Ear"). This allows for a whole listen through in a sitting, maybe more. He really has no competition as an all-out spitting, producing machine. Now we just need that whole DOOM/Ghostface record.

Stay tuned for a proper review in the Friday March 27 Daily Collegian.

EDIT: Here's that proper review.