Super What?

Album review

Rap supergroup Czarface recorded a second album with the elusive MF DOOM in April of 2020, and originally wanted to put it out right away, but decided to hold off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After making some adjustments and finalizing the album, DOOM passed away on October 31; his unexpected death was announced to the world two months later. The album eventually appeared the following May, making it DOOM's first posthumous release (not counting a single with BadBadNotGood recorded for Grand Theft Auto, which surfaced in December). As with 2018's Czarface Meets Metal Face, Super What? feels closer to a Czarface album with several guest verses by DOOM rather than a full-scale collaboration. Fortunately, DOOM seems more engaged this time around, and even though his verses are brief, they're filled with the type of dense, cunning wordplay he's always been known for. His appearances on "DOOM Unto Others," "Mando Calrissian" (with the chilling line "So imminent you can hear death"), and "Break in the Action" are particularly worth the repeated rewinds. Aside from the bittersweet presence of the late super-villain, the album is more or less par for the course as a Czarface release, which means that it's perfectly fun and enjoyable, especially if you geek out on comics and Saturday morning cartoons as much as they do. Esoteric and Inspectah Deck trade sharp rhymes which reference everything from Radiohead to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and 7L's booming beats are filled with rapid-fire samples and occasionally stuttering, DOOM-like drums. Opening track "The King and Eye" features a cameo from D.M.C. (yes, of Run-D.M.C.), a life-long comic fiend who bigs up Stan Lee and compares himself to Black Panther. Del the Funky Homosapien slides neatly into the Czarface universe on "Jason & the Czargonauts," during which Esoteric reminds us that the album's creators wore masks years before the pandemic started. Even though this shouldn't be confused for a proper DOOM album, two of the three tracks without him are clearly low points. "A Name to the Face," an interlude explaining the group's name, is pointless filler which should've been left on the trailer announcing the album rather than on the release itself. And "Hey Young World," a Slick Rick takeoff intended to encourage youth to be responsible and not lose their minds over the events of 2020, unnecessarily comes off as condescending (although maybe that's the point, coming from the perspective of an evil comic villain). Despite these missteps, Super What? is another worthwhile issue of the Czarface saga, and a fond farewell to DOOM.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo