When taking apart any of the unconscionably stupid rap hits we’ve had to endure lately, the lyrics are usually the easiest target (i.e. “shake that laffy taffy,” “my lovely lady lumps,” “Let me see ya grill.”). MF Doom’s latest release, The Special Herbs Box Set, reminds us that while these lyrics take center stage, the music behind them sucks too. If there’s a bright side to these artistically retarded moments, it’s that they make the good stuff sound even fresher, like Doom’s unprecedented mic skills.
The MC/producer had long been operating in the shadows before last year’s wildly entertaining The Mouse & The Mask, a collaboration with producer Danger Mouse and characters from Cartoon Network’s brilliant late-night stoner revue, “Adult Swim.” MF has arguably the most colorful rhymes around, painting pictures of children rapping in the rain and namedropping everybody from Superfly Snooker to Janeane Garofalo, all in his steady, slightly raspy flow. But ironically, The Special Herbs Box Set – a compilation culled from 10 volumes of instrumental tracks that Doom has been releasing since 2002 – just might be the biggest testament to his talents.
It’s not really a “box set” per say; it’s a double-disc collection of crackling loops and oddball beats, with nary a rhyme to speak of. While nothing here demands attention quite like the hurtling syllables of a well-polished Doom verse, Special Herbs shakes things up in a way that instrumental hip-hop shouldn’t, complete with theremin-soaked funk (“Zatar”), twisted marching bands (“Shallots”), epochal strings (“Myrrh”) and dissonant Fender Rhodes licks (“Chrysanthemum Flowers”).
Much like the aforementioned cartoons, folks in altered states will surely be attracted to these cuts (they’re named after HERBS, for Christ’s sake), but they’re far from aimless grooves; in fact, they establish MF Doom as one of the premier knob twisters working in hip-hop today. If Black Eyed Peas got him to produce their next piece of dance-floor garbage, they would truly be phunking with my heart.
Appeared in the March 2, 2006, issue of Artvoice.