Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF Doom hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD's 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was turfed by Elektra in 1994 and Subroc (one half of the sibling rhyme duo) passed away, surviving KMD member Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF Doom. The Rap world is better for it.

This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, "Rhymes Like Dimes," Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' Doomsday features female vocalist Pebbles the Invisible accompanying the masked rhyme avenger on his journey to denounce wack MCs, while on "?" he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge.

Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on "Tick, Tick..." where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, many of which include snippets of dialogue from Marvel's Dr. Doom series, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial Rap universe, Operation Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy.