Why was MF Doom never relevant to the masses?

[Holocaust]

Yo, I'm all for waving a white flag when a wack emcee's push comes to a halt, but how come doom never got that slight push later in his career,when IMHO he was putting out some of his best pieces. I mean if Mos Def and Talib Kweli had moderate commercial success, how come someone who would roast them on the microphone let alone is one of the best beatmakers out there never gets credit for doing what he's always done? I'm sure Doom, himself doesn't really care and he's never heralded himself as "underground" or "independent", but come on we can go song for song with "your" favorite underated MC, and MF is creating the more potent quality product. continue

[Rev Jones]

I think it comes to everyone's personal definitions of 'critically relevant', 'fan favorite' and 'commercially successful'

Now I don't know what number DOOM did and frankly I'm too lazy to look them up but when he had his run of critically acclaimed albums in the early 2000s he was covered extensively in (for lack of a better word) rap media and 'underground' and even some 'mainstream' fans took note

DOOM can definitely hang with Mos Def & Talib Kweli (is better than them imho, but that's just me) and in terms of media coverage I don't think he got dealt the short hand. at least that was not my perception at the time

my post is a bit all over the place hmm. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not really convinced he had that much less commercial success than Mos Def & Kweli. what is definitely true is that DOOM never had a breakthrough commercial single. also, Mos Def & Talib Kweli worked with more high profile guests on their albums. so these might be two minor explanations to why DOOM had (perceived?) less commercial success than some other acts that were more or less considered 'underground'

DOOM is in my top 5 MCs btw, in fact he's more like top 3 material to me

[hotnikks]

Short answer cause the masses is stupid.

[claaa7]

yeah, like Lee Towers said i don't think it's accurate to say that DOOM wasn't relevant.. obviously his music won't be relevant to the MASSES like a Beyoncé or a Jay-Z, his shit is way too weird and fucking dope for that level of success. but he always had a solid fan base, and A LOT of people know his name. he's probably about as well known as Mos Def and Talib Kweli, or at least he was when he was still making albums and dropping music on a regular basis. projects like Madvillain and DangerDOOM was promoted and talked about HEAVILY back when they dropped and the hip-hop media covered and still keeps covering him.

he makes music for a specific group of people though, hip-hop heads who likes clever lyricism with raw beats based on samples. add to that that he wants a certain mysticism around him, covering his face, changing his name from album to album, and creating a whole mythology around him. i think he is a very recognized hip-hop artist, on the border between underground and commercial (not saying his music is typically comercial stuff but that he's on the border between underground and a bankable name). he's pretty much where he's supposed to be imo.

[MaskedAvenger]

Because he isn't the type of artist you will get on first listen or even first 10 listens.

[ShaDynasty]

You need at least one hit record to cross over. And yeah his style (rapping in the third person, his gruff voice) is not particularly suited to the mainstream. Hes a cult figure.

That being said, given the eclectic nature of his collaborations, he could still end up involved with something that crosses over.

[hotnikks]

Mf Doom is like Kool Keith you need to really listen to that shiit.

[hotnikks]

Kool Keith is a beast on the mic when he wants to be.

[Rev Jones]

flawlesssss

[Rev Jones]

I only have one ambition left in life, being introduced in a conversation with the line 'I first met Mr Towers at an arms deal'

[hotnikks]

flawlesssss

They should both do an LP together.

[rainbow]

yeah, as others have said, around the time of dangerdoom he was pretty well known/recognised - i just think he wasn't able to/didn't want to crank out a lot of work after this period in order to capitalise.

there was a lot of hype around then re. GhostDoom and Madvillainy 2 but it all pretty much much fizzled out because DOOM wouldn't record.

[Mumm Ra]

im sure the main reason doom isnt relevant to the masses is due to him not trying to be relevant to the masses
he's about as popular as someone can possibly be when basically never making any public appearances, shows, interviews, ect