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Gripes aside, a good chunk of BORN LIKE THIS.. shows an angrier, more cynical, and, hell, maybe even better DOOM. A day may come when the mask starts to rust, but it's not just yet.
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While it’s a step down from both "VV" and his Danger Mouse work, it at least might be his definitively stoned record.
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Even with a new pseudonym--his AKA sheet includes Zev Love X, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah and half of Madvillain--the perpetually hoarse rhymesayer born Daniel Dumile is still dishing out confounding couplets that have become his trademark.
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Whatever caused DOOM to scale back his output and go off the grid, he's only come back from it sharper, stronger, and more powerful than before.
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He’s filled his abdicated spot with greater authority than ever before, patched up the walls punched in from Ghostface’s temper tantrums and assured us that villian-rap’s appeal will remain evergreen as long as it infused with this genius, this wild idiocy, these manic flights of syllabic invention.
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Born Like This finds DOOM back to his scalpel-tongued, scatter-mouthed best.
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Doom still holds some secrets, but his lyricism and feel for the funk sweat out of the this album as much as any of his previous, if not more. He clearly shows that he is here to stay, and if anyone was expecting change, they are looking in the wrong spot.
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While the album is more a series of word puzzles than a memoir, it does occasionally illuminate the man behind the mask.
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Fortunately DOOM is unable to completely shake off his own best and worst habits, and so Born Like This contains its fair share of the rapper's classic screwball set pieces.
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Doom hasn't changed a whit, but by the same token, he sounds like he's repeating himself. Deft diction is one thing he's got in spades, but there aren't many lines here that will get burned into your neurons.
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Born Like This is simply not as forward-thinking as his best works.
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Born Like This, his third disc, won't encourage the idea that he's done much during the hiatus besides drop the MF from his moniker and work on his tongue twisters, but the Madvillain sells it.
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The clincher is how gracefully this klutz skates over the oddly rolling beats of J Dilla, Jake One and the Metal Fingered Villain... Doom (ellipsis in original).
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DOOM’s sounds as bold and battered as ever. You can almost hear the accumulation of Dutch Masters on his larynx.
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Long-time MF Doom fans and relative newcomers to his innovative beats and flows will both be satisfied by this release.
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Born Like This is still a damn fine record, but it’s too inconsistent to do more than simply satisfy your DOOM craving.
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Three years away has done wonders for the masked supervillain. The rapper who now goes by DOOM (“all big letters but it ain’t no acronym”) comes roaring back to life on the largely self-produced Born Like This.
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UncutBorn Like This finds the New York MC triumphing with content rather than form. [Jun 2009, p.85]
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Q MagazineWith too much hip hop content to recycle cliches of its own making, it's exhilarating to discover someone out there is still willing to test the limits. [Jun 2009, p.132]
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FilterThe rhymes and stripped, off-kilter soul samplings are more "Mm...Food" than "Madvillainy," which is to say they're colorful with phrases clipped to punctuate a particularly satifactory punchline or rhyme conclusion. [Spring 2009, p.91]
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DOOM isn’t really offering you anything new, and it’s got some clunkers like 'Operation: Doomsday' and 'MM...Food' before that. This album is, however, a reaffirmation of DOOM’s talent as both a rapper and a producer.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 28
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Mixed: 0 out of 28
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Negative: 0 out of 28
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Aug 17, 2018
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EricCApr 8, 2009
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EdPApr 7, 2009