Having overseen the production of ‘Take Me to Your Leader’, Dumile was happy to let little-known electronic music collective Sound-Ink and indie producer RJD2 take over beatmaking duties on ‘Vaudeville Villain’. Such simplicity establishes this record as arguably Dumile’s most visceral, and his most fully formed from a narrative standpoint. While DOOM and Geedorah were comic book bad guys all about total destruction and world domination, Vik Vaughn simply wanted to sell dope and spit bars (and, yes, time travel). Released just a few months after ‘Take Me to Your Leader’, a wildly experimental space rap odyssey recorded under the guise of three-headed intergalactic kaiju King Geedorah, ‘Vaudeville Villain’ showcased the day-to-day life of a character who possessed more grounded ambitions than his predecessors. One of those personas was Viktor Vaughn, a time travelling street hustler Dumile introduced on 2003’s ‘Vaudeville Villain’. Before his own tragic death, announced on New Year’s Eve, 49-year-old Dumile had gained an intensely loyal fanbase who fell in love with his ostentatious punchlines, obscure pop culture references and outlandish trio of alter-egos that would make Mick Foley appreciatively wave pistol fingers in the air. ![]() Dumile had crafted the persona of DOOM, a maniacally vengeful supervillain hell-bent on making a mark on the music industry, after the death of his brother Dingilizwe (aka DJ Subroc) and the dissolution of their early ‘90s rap group K.M.D.
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