MF Doom - Early Years With KMD

Early Years With KMD

Dumile was born in 1971, in London, England, the son of a Trinidadian mother and a Zimbabwean father. He moved with his family to New York and was raised in Long Beach, New York. As Zev Love X, he formed the group KMD in 1988 with his younger brother DJ Subroc and another MC called Rodan. When Rodan left the group, Zev found another MC to replace Rodan named Onyx the Birthstone Kid. A&R rep Dante Ross learned of KMD through the hip hop group 3rd Bass, and signed the group to Elektra Records. Dumile and KMD's recorded debut came on 3rd Bass's song "The Gas Face" from The Cactus Album, followed in 1991 with KMD's album Mr. Hood, which became a minor hit through its singles "Peachfuzz", "Who Me?" and heavy video play on cable TV's Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City.

Subroc was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross the Nassau Expressway before the release of a second KMD album, titled Black Bastards. The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records that same week. Before the release of the album, it was shelved due to controversy over its cover art, which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hung from the gallows. After the death of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip hop scene from 1994 to 1997, living "damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches. " In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. According to interviews with Dumile, he was also "recovering from his wounds" and swearing revenge "against the industry that so badly deformed him". Black Bastards had become bootlegged at the time, leading to DOOM's rise in the underground hip hop scene.