But “One Beer” is warm, fuzzy and downright exciting. It also highlights – unsurprisingly given its title – how DOOM's style is refracted through different illicit substances. In an interview with Los Angeles Review of Books, Open Mike Eagle characterized the early style of his favorite rapper in a particularly appetizing way. Discussing how DOOM has become increasingly regulated over the course of his career – the skirts stem from Judgment Daywhich often spilled over to the extremes of the measures, which were related, from his time Madvillainy and MM..FOODand dug deep into the rhythm pockets—Eagle said, “I feel like MF DOOM on Judgment Day it's like, drunk, trying to survive […] he records like he's not going to live much longer. There is an embrace of the raw that is both aesthetic and alcoholic – specifically alcoholic.”
While it can be hard to know what was and wasn't performance in Daniel Dumile's life, profiles of DOOM from the 2000s make heavy drinking seem, indeed, like a scourge in his real life. On “One Beer,” Madlib's beat veers between malevolence and tragedy, and DOOM's first line of the song (“There's only one beer left…”) sounds strangely, ominously desperate. Crazywhile also showing an “embrace of the raw,” it's undeniably a weed-informed record. This is darker, lonelier. for the whole cartoon supervillain attitude, FOOD more often it feels like a remark from someone hoping to drag us through the mud with him. Even when the past is fondly remembered, the booze shows: later on the LP, DOOM will reminisce about the days when he drank Hennessy straight because he couldn't afford soda to chase it down.
But from FOOD, that alcoholic sloppiness had mostly been cleaned up by DOOM's technique. This is most striking in the opening track, “Beef Rapp,” which is referenced extensively by Mos Def in this video. But where Moss's eyes pop as he remembers the lines-“He wears a mask just to cover the raw flesh/A rather ugly brother with flows that is great”— DOOM locks in a low, unwavering growl. (After an early version of Crazy Leaked online, in addition to adding new songs, DOOM re-recorded his vocals for the entire project, abandoning his often booming delivery to drop down several octaves, in a deep baritone. opens FOOD with an even flatter feel.) While the album is littered with colorful tracks and winking samples, “Beef Rapp” feels purposefully drab, as both art and content are meant to be grayed out.
