Mystery artist Doctor Destruction shocked fans with his ambitious intergalactic concept album Planetory Destruction in January. But what’s the connection to late rap legend MF DOOM? And is it all just Logic in disguise? Alex Walden investigates.
It’s a rare occurrence for an artist’s fanbase to grow closer to an artist after they have retired from the music industry. Nonetheless, now’s a surprisingly good time to be a Logic fan. Since the rapper announced his retirement in 2020 following the release of his final album, No Pressure, Logic has still kept in touch with his fans, from livestreams on Twitch to surprise beats (including collaborations with the legendary producer, Madlib) and even an upcoming memoir available for preorder currently – and the Rattpack are here for all of it. Yet one of Logic’s more secretive activities is his role in his own record label, BobbyBoy Records, where one of his newly signed artists Doctor Destruction has made his debut in style with his new concept album, Planetory Destruction.
Planetory Destruction?
Planetory Destruction is the debut album from new artist Doctor Destruction. With features from artists such as Big Lenbo, Marc Rebillet and even Logic himself, it’s no surprise that this album brings the heat. It’s is a concept album, meaning it follows a storyline as the album progresses. If I had to describe it for someone who was listening to It for the first time, it feels like the result of if Madvillain were tasked with of scoring the soundtrack of an 80’s sci-fi cartoon show. (You remember, the ones that used to be on TV on Saturday mornings?)
The story involves two radio DJs, Kyle and Buck Naked of Cosmos Radio, as they follow supervillain ‘Doctor Destruction’ who attempts to destroy the universe, fuelled solely by the pain of a painful recent breakup with ex, Sharon. From listening to the album alone, you can hear inspiration spanning from golden era hip hop music to cartoon channels such as Adult Swim and Toonami. The album features beats produced by artists Logic and 6ix, a well-known producer to any Logic fan, as well as other smaller artists. The album overall has a chill vibe to it, yet every now and then you can hear a heavy-hitting upbeat track accompanied by lyrics that you will definitely have to pay attention to. Songs like Planetory Destruction and Back to the Basement are packed with boom bap beats and rhyme schemes to keep your brain on high alert. Elsewhere, there’s plenty of golden era hip hop-style break beats and 80’s samples used in skits to help shape the storyline. It’s clear that the album resembles the work of our favourite Metal Faced Villain, MF DOOM.
Fans could instantly recognise how he resembled the late MF DOOM
The MF DOOM resemblance
As soon as it was announced BobbyBoy Records would signing Doc D via Instagram, fans could instantly recognise how he resembled the late MF DOOM. Just from the cartoon style image of himself accompanied by his villainous mask with two red dots for eyes, it’s clear that this guy isn’t your typical mainstream rapper. If that doesn’t convince you, then you only have to listen to the lyrics in the song Outer Space Gang, where Doc D literally says “I’m MF DOOM meets El DeBarge” to showcase the musical inspiration for this project. Even from his album cover, we can see the same evil looking mask at the top of the cover holding a legendary piece of equipment common with artists within DOOM’s bracket: an Akai MPC.
An Akai MPC (Music Production Centre) is a legendary piece of music producing equipment. Used by the likes of multiple famous producers, including MF DOOM, J Dilla and even Kanye West, this piece of machinery gives the user the opportunity to easily sample songs and melodies and play specific short sections of the original sample, reinventing the whole song. It also allows the user to sample drum sounds to be able to produce drum beats to accompany the producers newly made melody, while also providing the user with multiple drum pre-sets. Beats made from these devices can be found throughout MF DOOM’s Metal Fingers Presents: Special Herbs beat tapes, as well as throughout his whole discography, making his Doc D’s influence evident.
For all we know, the next Doc D project could be something completely different
The mystery of Doctor Destruction
After the release of Planetory Destruction, there was some initial debate over who Doc D really is. Many fans suspect that its simply just Logic with a few vocal effects added to his voice so that we don’t suspect that it’s him. There is a possibility that this theory could be true since in the first Cosmos 105.7 skit Doc D mentions how he obtained his voice, which would explain the unique sounding voice throughout the album: “Well basically like, I surgically removed my voice box, and then I replaced it with a vocoder to emulate like, any voice I want, whenever I feel like it”. As well as this, fans quickly noticed the rhyme style used by Doc D is almost identical to Logic’s. Some fans also found themselves already following Doc D on Instagram despite even knowing who he was due to his account originally being used for Logic’s dog. Another point being that, after looking at the producer credits for the album, we can see that Logic was an executive producer for the album as well as him producing 10 of 17 tracks on the album. Granted, we didn’t have this level of mysteriousness for MF DOOM’S real identity, due to DOOM being an artist for far longer, as well as his previous identity as a Zev Love X from the rap trilogy KMD before his supervillain persona was even a concept. Nonetheless, MF DOOM was still a relatively mysterious person. The late villain didn’t use social media to the degree that other artists do nowadays, in fact he was even vocal about how the state of hip hop was heading towards the idea that successful rappers were built off how much media attention they can grab rather than their lyrical ability which we’ve seen first-hand with the sudden rise and fall of rappers such as Lil Pump and 6ix9ine. DOOM was also a very private man. If the fact that the news of his passing becoming public news 3 whole months after his death didn’t make you think that, you only have to look at how his friend, and Madvillain partner in crime, Madlib, who found out about DOOM’s passing at the same time everyone else did. In fact, they only spoke once or twice a year (bear in mind that these guys have 4 joint projects together under their dynamic duo name Madvillain).
What’s next for Doctor Destruction?
If the rumours turn out to be true and Doctor Destruction does turn out to be one of Logic’s alter egos then there’s no guarantee that we’ll even get a second project from him due to the fact that his music career (if you can even call it that considering he’s retired from rapping) is already over. Logic just having fun and dropping whatever he wants, whenever he wants. However, if these rumours turn out to be false and Doc D is someone else, then we can assume from the end of the Planetory Destruction storyline (where Doc D manages to escape the bounty hunters that are after him) that there may be a sequel project or even a second album from him. Despite the MF DOOM sound that Doctor Destruction clearly takes inspiration from, it’s hard to tell if any future projects will sound like this. This is due to the fact that inevitably artists grow and can begin to become experimental with the music that they put out and can even sometimes tap into completely different genres. For all we know, the next Doc D project could be something completely different. However, if he can consistently produce projects at the quality that he currently is, he’s bound to gain a huge following in the future.
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