King Geedorah – Take Me To Your Leader
morning folks! this week continues our discography review of MF DOOM, this time checking out a record he released as King Geedorah – 2003’s Take Me To Your Leader:
Fazers kicks us off – a mellow track focused on DOOM’s lyrics. nice track, and an interesting starting point given the picture painted of someone whose reflected on their youth and is now considering their own kids. good opener. Fastlane brings in Biolante (aka Kurious), and while the structure of the instrumental loop here is the same as Fazers its a little distracting over Biolante’s delivery, which i like quite a bit. the transition’s fun too. Krazy World has Gigan (aka MC Zymeer), with a lively delivery over some nostalgic strings. The Final Hour is short, and to the point – a fun bit of DOOM. nice. Monster Zero leans heavily on the sound clips – the beat is snare heavy and kinda floaty, and the sounds form a nice haze over the beat. i think the mixing threw me off the first listen or two, but the two elements being at the same intensity causes an interesting switch back and forth as you focus on one and the other in a way that pushing the beat back in the mix wouldnt achieve. Next Level brings in Lil Sci, ID 4 Winds, and Empress Stahhr for a verse each – and this is a good time. i think Stahhr’s verse is my fave here, but theres some good wordplay in each. No Snakes Alive is funny coming in right after a group cut, feels very much like a “part 2, the serious part” in context, haha. okay – DOOM’s bit before Jet Jaguar’s verse where he rhymes in what feels like triplets is fucking incredible. Jet Jaguar’s verse in good and im just okay on Rodan’s verse. Anti-Matter is my fave track on the record. the beat is funky with that sexy, sexy hook, and the back and forth between Mr. Fantastik and DOOM is just delicious. great track. Take Me To Your Leader is another audio collage – its nice. Lockjaw brings Trunks in to deliver a verse impressive verse over a short track. it does have one of my favorite lines on the album – “we can have a close encounter of the fucked up kind”, haha. Hassan Chop delivers very tender and introspective lyrics in I Wonder. nice track. One Smart N***** takes some of that introspection and turns it outward in a very humorous way, commenting on the status of race in society. The Fine Print closes out the album with the clearest picture of Geedorah we get on the record. the bombastic beat here is a lot of fun, and DOOM feels like he’s strutting over the beat here, its a great vibe.
faves – Fazers, Anti-Matter, Lockjaw, The Fine Print
dislikes –
this record has some real high points, but also quite a bit of space where i was less engaged. i appreciate the beat work and get that a lot of this was DOOM producing and bringing in other artists to work with, but this feels like a step a little further back, considering he did a lot of the producing and collabing with the Monster Island folks on Operation: Doomsday too, but he felt a lot more in the forefront on that record. not like, a fatal flaw, but i found some of the guests a lil less enjoyable here.
Take Me To Your Leader – 6/10
next up is another 2003 record, this time released as Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain.
the previous is the beginning: Operation Doomsday | next: Vaudeville Villain
Discussion ¬