MF GRIMM vs. MF DOOM: How did two friends become foes

MF Grimm: Percy Carey, known by his rapper title MF Grimm, was born June 11 1970 in Manhattan, New York. He had hefty goals of possibly becoming an NFL player, Boxer, or Actor. He had already achieved the latter in childhood appearing in Sesame Street episodes thanks to recommendations from his mother’s friend, Morgan Freeman. During his teenage years, he joined the growing Hip-Hop community in New York and began making beats as well as rapping. He struggled in school with disciplinary issues and was later expelled, taking up rap full-time. Carey garnered heavy interests after performing around New York City in the late 80’s. Carey’s career coincided with the birth of Hip-Hop which was still in its infancy. He performed with many young artists who were bursting onto the scene like MC Lyte, Lord Finesse, and more. Carey moved to the west coast for a short period of time performing alongside established west coast rappers (Tupac, Tha Dogg Pound, etc). Things turned for the worst when he was shot in 1994 by rival drug dealers and was confined to a wheelchair. Much of his music was stolen or lost during his time in a coma, but Carey continued to rap afterwards and released some of the music he had left.

MF Doom wearing his notorious mask along side MF Grimm who had been in a wheelchair since being shot in 1994.

MF Doom: Before he met Grimm, Daniel Dumile, formerly known as Zev Love X, formed a rap group called KMD with his brother Subroc. Their lyrical focus was racially motivated and was heavily aligned with the teachings of the Five Percenters. This was exemplified in their second album “Black Bastards” which went unreleased until 2001. After KMD was dropped from their Label and his brother was killed in car accident, Dumile quit rapping for 5 years and traveled to Atlanta to mourn. Returning to New York in 1997, Dumile began performing incognito at open-mic nights around New York. He wore a mask stylistically similar to that of Dr. Doom from Marvel comics, hence the name MF Doom. Dumile went on to produce several projects under different names such as Viktor Vaughn, Metal Fingers, and King Gheedorah. He also collaborated with legendary musicians/producers such as MadLib (MadVillain), Danger Mouse (DangerDoom), Ghostface Killah (DOOMStarks), and many more.

KMD second studio album, intended release 1993

MF GRIMM/MF DOOM: Carey and Dumile had formed a bond ever since their teenage years “play[ing] video games, smok[ing] weed, and hon[ing] their rapping skills”. Carey recalled Dumile’s conscious rap, “He stood for something big. He was for black culture. I rhymed about beating people up, about shooting at people, trying to make money.” The two formally united as apart of the Monsta Island Czars (M.I.C) rap collective. The name comes from the Godzilla films where Monster Island was Godzilla’s home. All the members adopted names of Godzilla’s enemies. MF Doom took up the moniker King Gheedorah and MF Grimm used the name Jet Jaguar. MF Doom and Grimm had built up a strong brotherhood based on music and comic books, but there were differences between the two that would lead to the demise of their relationship.

Turning Point: While partnering with Dumile, Carey continued to deal drugs in order to pay for medical bills and finance music projects for his label, Day by Day Entertainment. Carey was arrested and sentenced to life in prison on narcotics charges. The beef between the duo began here. Dumile, who was in the midst of underground fame with albums such as Vaudeville Villain and Take Me to Your leader, was less active on M.I.C. After his release from prison in 2003, Carey perceived Dumile’s success as a form of disloyalty and felt Doom wasn’t reciprocating the care that Carey had provided during Dumile’s time of need. It’s important to understand that the best method of communication for rappers is through rap. It provides a melodic platform for storytelling and includes expressing emotions of anger. This can be seen in the lyrical exchange between MF Doom and MF Grimm. Dumile expressed his anger at Carey through his lyrics in songs such as Deep Fried Frenz and El Chupa Nibre.

Lyric from Deep Fried Frenz: “You telling me; I try to act broke. Jealousy the number one killer among black folk…Sometimes you need to cut niggas off like a light switch.“

Here Dumile is subtly referring to Carey. Speaking, in general, about friends who’ll betray you because of jealousy and that he can do better without their toxic attitudes.

Lyric from El Chupa Nibre: “Once joined a rap clique – Midgets Into Crunk.“

Dumile is taking a more direct shot at Carey referring to Monsta Island Czars (M.I.C) as midgets into crunk.

Lyric from Book of Daniel: “I don’t deep-fry friends/Grimm Reaper nuke ’em/Hearts don’t mend/Brothers turned to enemies, nigga/Enemies I eat them raw, nigga/MF Grimm is god of war.“

Here, Carey retaliates in his song Book of Daniel. He also places easter eggs of their beef in his autobiographical graphic novel, Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm. Carey, who had comic book experience through his work with DC Comics, spent much of his time honing his skills as a comic book artist while working on music simultaneously. The beef between Carey and Dumile was disheartening for both parties. Dumile was an important part of Carey’s life, so much so he chose to include lost signs of Dumile/MF DOOM, who is known for his reclusive nature, in his autobiographical comic book.

Segments from MF GRIMM’s comic book, Sentences: The life of M.F. Grimm

You can purchase the graphic novel here:

It has now been over a decade since the beef was at its climax. Who knows maybe someday MF DOOM and MF GRIMM will collaborate again until then we can only scour the internet for DOOM’s latest mini-collab and wait for GRIMM to release a compilation album of long lost music.

Sources:

Sarah Dupuis, course materials for 21M.775 Hip Hop, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [11 February 2018].

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-775-hip-hop-fall-2007/assignments/dupuisfinal.pdf

Ben Westhoff, “Private Enemy”. Village Voice. Retrieved on [11 February 2018]

https://www.villagevoice.com/2006/10/31/private-enemy/

Dan LeRoy, “MF Doom Biography”. All Music | Biography & History. Retrieved on [11 February 2018]

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mf-doom-mn0000220563/biography