KMD: Black Bastards (2LP) [RHYMESAYERS]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set from Metal Face and Rhymesayers comes in an expanded gatefold jacket. It's the last KMD album and the bridge between Zev Love X and the MF DOOM who followed.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Some albums take the scenic route. KMD, the Long Island group led by brothers Zev Love X and DJ Subroc, recorded Black Bastards in 1993 as the follow-up to their debut Mr. Hood, and the music finally reached listeners in 2000.

Subroc died in a car accident shortly before the album was finished, and every edition since has carried a dedication to him. What he and his brother left behind is raw, sample-rich and funny in the way DOOM's later work would be: dusty loops, jazzy horns and cartoon snippets on "Sweet Premium Wine," "Get-U-Now," "Contact Blitt" and the title track. The brothers produced it themselves, with Q4 co-producing one cut and friends from the CMOB crew and Lord Sear stopping by on vocals. AllMusic's Douglas Siwek heard a sound that's raw and a little unfinished, and found the magic intact.

A few years later Zev Love X put on a metal mask and became MF DOOM, and nothing in underground hip hop was ever quite the same. Listen closely and you can hear him trying on the mask here.

Also at Kops: more MF DOOM on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Listen

On Metal Face / Rhymesayers, a reissue of the 2000 album.