MF DOOM

Daniel Dumile spent the better part of a decade in exile before returning to rap in 1999 wearing a metal mask and operating under a villain alias. What followed was one of the most singular runs in hip-hop: albums released under multiple personas, beats and rhymes constructed with the precision of a craftsman and the wit of a writer who had read everything. As MF DOOM, as Madvillain with Madlib, as Viktor Vaughn, as Metal Fingers, he built a catalog that rewarded obsessive listening and punished casual attention. He passed in October 2020. The mask stays on.