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How Graffiti Artists Paid Tribute to MF DOOM This Past Week

When news of MF DOOM’s tragic death hit everyone on New Year’s Eve, the global hip-hop community mourned the loss of one of the world’s greatest MCs. One group particularly impacted by the announcement was the graffiti community. As hardcore MF DOOM fans know, The Metal Faced Terrorist was an avid graffiti bomber himself. Daniel Dumile’s bubble-lettered logo was not just something he slapped onto album covers and merch. He actually painted it on walls and repped the CM crew, which is still being held down today by writers like Niceo. Graffiti was even how DOOM came up with the name of his first rap group, KMD.

“I was actually walking down the street and looking at graffiti. Actually, we were trying to start a graffiti crew at the time and that’s how the name KMD got started,” the late MF DOOM told writer David Ma. “So our first thing was to pick some letters that sounded good together. Then we picked what each individual letters stood for. That’s how KMD came about.”

To celebrate MF DOOM’s life, many writers hit the streets to paint tribute murals and graffiti dedicated to Viktor Vaughn. From highway walls in Brooklyn to subway trains in Amsterdam, we rounded up some of the best MF DOOM graffiti tributes painted within the past couple days. Rest in Power to rap’s greatest supervillain.

Reboe LNE

Where: Brooklyn, New York

One of the first tributes to go up was painted just a stone’s throw away from MF DOOM’s old neighborhood in Freeport, Long Island. This piece by the New York City graffiti writer Reboe LNE appeared on the BQE on New Year’s Day. Written on the right is DOOM’s iconic bar “All Caps when you spell the man’s name.”

MF DOOM Trains

Where: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Several writers in one of Europe’s graffiti capitals, Amsterdam, painted entire train cars in memory of DOOM. Stylistically, this is one of the boldest and biggest ones we’ve seen. But other writers painted DOOM’s iconic throw-up and even their own takes on the MF DOOM character originally conceived by the Brooklyn-based graffiti writer KEO for Operation Doomsday.

Akuze

Where: Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne-based graffiti writer Akuze dropped this crazy clean piece that’s centered on MF DOOM’s iconic metal face mask. The symmetry, with the black and white color palette, makes for a fitting tribute. Big up to the AFP crew for showing love.

Goons & Fader

Where: Finland

These two Finnish graffiti writers joined forces to paint this grand MF DOOM tribute underneath a tunnel. May DOOM “Rhyme in Paradise.”

Skilz, Forks, and Ucron

Where: Dallas, Texas

Down south in Texas, the graffiti writer Joe “Skilz” cheffed up this crazy mural that highlights Dumile’s evolution from Zev Love X into MF DOOM. Other writers like Forks and Ucron also hit the wall with their own pieces and tributes.

Mez Data

Where: Austin, Texas

Mez Data of the No Boundaries Krew out in Austin, Texas is well known for his portraits. To kick off one of the first walls he painted this year, he threw up this beautiful character of DOOM that is well complemented with a piece by Reks.

‘That Sofa King’

Where: Tucson, Arizona

This piece along a highway barrier in Arizona is one of the only tributes we’ve seen dedicated to “Sofa King,” which is one of the best joints off Dangerdoom, MF DOOM’s collaborative album with Danger Mouse.

Mecs and Starve

Where: Boston, Massachusetts

Mecs and Starve went out to hit some freights and dropped this beautiful tribute with a character inspired by MF DOOM’s iconic Madvillain character. The color scheme of this entire freight train stays true to the original art by James Reitano, who was inspired by the golden era of comic books when making this character.

Stuk and Stomp

Where: Chicago, Illinois

Chi-Town writers Stuk and Stomp of the Air crew went into the damn subway tunnels of Chicago to drop their tribute to King Geedorah. Shouts out to them for braving the snow to deliver this beautiful mural.

MF DOOM Blackbook Drawings

Aside from all the original MF DOOM art that the graffiti artist KEO has been posting on his Instagram, one of the craziest MF DOOM graffiti tributes to surface this weekend was this blackbook from former Complex EIC Noah Callahan-Bever. The drawings in this blackbook aren’t just incredible because The Villain himself drew it. It shows how Dumile envisioned who he was going to become in 1997, a couple years before he released his debut Operation Doomsday and first donned the mask in the music video for “?.”

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