Venomous Villain

The faceless rhyme scoundrel has returned to bring a new era of cyber rap with "VV:2" aka "VENOMOUS VILLAIN."

"VV:2" is a different kind of Hip Hop record; it’s engulfed in cryptic messages and stellar production that delivers both a classic Hip Hop vibe and a cutting edge one. Vaughn is also accompanied by some underground contenders including KOOL KEITH (aka Dr. Dooom, aka Dr. Octagon, etc.). The synthesized, beat-burned "Doper Skiller" delivers Hip Hop’s two cult favorites bringing lyrical carnage like only they can.

VIKTOR is in prime lyrical form, continually bringing verbal onslaught and dark dramatic tales of blight from outside the space-time continuum. Personality #1, DOOM, also makes appearances on tracks including the high energy, electro-hyped, "Pop Quiz" (Extra Credit Remix).

What is "VV:2"? Among other things, it’s a dramatic, progressively thugged-out, future-rap, classic soundtrack for fans of a genre without boundaries.


Avant-garde MC Viktor Vaughn (a.k.a. MF Doom, among other names) is the Ornette Coleman of rap; or to put it another way, musical boundaries are for suckers. Like Sun Ra before him, Vaughn must've been sent to Earth from outer space to save musical humanity, because there's no other way to explain the oddball genius of "Back End," a gorgeous track drenched in electro-sci-fi noise that sounds like it could have come from some '80s Art of Noise record, or perhaps Andre 3000. "Rap Game" (featuring Manchild) will appease traditional hip-hop heads attracted to keyboard-fuelled, boom-bap breakbeats. Between all of the skits, interludes, instrumentals, and found-sound constructions, Venomous Villain actually contains very few rhymes. The album's highpoint comes when Kool Keith drops by to flip some sex-rated rhymes on "Doper Skiller," a cool meeting of warped minds. Whatever you call him, Vaughn should be anointed the crown prince of bedroom, backpacker hip-hop. --Dalton Higgins