Deluxe editions, second editions, anniversary editions, and the like, are rarely worthwhile experiences. Try as they might, labels are notoriously bad at hiding the painful reality that re-releasing an album is essentially just a marketing technique that targets a proven audience: the listeners who already have the original album. Given this bitter reality, the news of the upcoming release of the “Butter Edition” of JJ DOOM‘s Key to the Kuffs, was received with more annoyance than excitement. Sure, the artwork was altered, the songs were sequenced differently and there were a few extra songs, but would it really be different? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Still centered around DOOM‘s involuntary exile in London, the Butter Edition varies from its predecessor in its perspective on that exile. When we interviewed DOOM last year, he gleefully told us that he felt like Napoleon, but the album itself largely lacked such an amused take on his situation. While DOOM was far from utter depression or rage, other than “Wash Your Hands” and “Borin Convo,”  there was a notable humorlessness to the project, especially in comparison to his previous works. Of course, DOOM‘s appeal goes beyond his ability to be funny and the album actually featured him exploring rather uncharted emotional territories (see: “Winter Blues”), but on the whole, it seemed out of character, as if the insurmountable supervillain had actually been bested by his exile.

The Butter Edition presents solitude much more positively. On the third track, “Bookhead,” which notably replaces the frenetic and pissy “Banished” from the original album, DOOM actually claims that solitude is necessary, restorative. He suggests traveling to the Amazon rainforest if you want the best solitude, “the good stuff,” but he also claims that you can find solitude locally. This could be a sly reference to his ability to mingle with his own fans after shows without being recognized, but less specifically it can be seen as a commentary on the type of celebrity identity he’s fashioned. When DOOM removes his mask, he truly is no longer DOOM. Few rappers have that privilege. In other words, DOOM has been able to successfully find solitude within celebrity without having to live in the shadows. That’s a feat.

Beyond featuring a new perspective on solitude,  the Butter Edition also further showcases Jneiro Jarel‘s rhyming abilities. On “The Pause Tape” and “The Signs” JJ steps up to respectively talk smack and discuss the exploitation of poor blacks in popular media. He’s not quite on DOOM‘s level lyrically, but his presence and his confidence confirm the pair’s rather unanticipated chemistry, especially on “The Pause Tape,” where both emcees interject their flows with crudely poor, yet funny impersonations.

Humor also makes a notable appearance on the intro to “Viberian Son,” which replaces “Viberian Sun Part 2” from the original release and entails DOOM calmly and comically reflecting on contemporary changes in parenthood before being interrupted by Del the Funky Homosapien. Hilariously, this interruption causes DOOM to quickly drop his calm tone and start yelling at his kids a la Homer Simpson. Del then finishes up the track with an engaging off-cadence verse that ends with DOOM humming as the beat fades. The entire track is jarring yet heartwarming, much like DOOM.

In the end, the Butter Edition makes some very interesting and worthwhile modifications to its predecessor. Adding a dash of humor and a minor positive spin, it tells the honest story of an artist finding solace within an unexpected situation. This solace is far from completely satisfying – DOOM still gets “Winter Blues” and fears genetically modified organisms (“GMO”) – but it dually feels more like a more complete DOOM record and a more solid collaborative project. With that in mind, this doesn’t necessarily supplant the original Key to the Kuffs. The image of a DOOM as a despondent castaway is just as interesting as the image of DOOM as grouchy, yet happy and sociable extended vacationer. The latter just feels more familiar.

The post Album Review: JJ DOOM – Key to the Kuffs (Butter Edition) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Adult Swim is hard to come by in England, but DOOM has his ways. Speaking to us from the London offices of Lex Records, the supervillain excitedly discusses his new album, his legacy and his current home.

DOOM has always been an outcast, but he never expected to be cast out of the country he’s always called home. “Banished,” a track that alludes to this involuntary exile, has connotations of resentment, but when asked about his sojourn in South London, where he currently resides, DOOM excitedly replies, “I feel like Napoleon!” He says this in jest, but there’s a sly undercurrent to the comparison: Napoleon came back from exile. With an army.

DOOM isn’t back in person quite yet, but he’s back on wax. On Key to the Kuffs, he brings new rhymes, references to British television, laughable attempts at Cockney rhyming slang and fellow rapper and producer Jneiro Jarel. The pair recorded the album from different continents, but their chemistry is undeniable.  JJ and DOOM are both emceees and producers, and DOOM sees their collaboration as something unique, fresh.

Though both artists contribute production as well as lyrics, the former comes completely from JJ and the latter primarily comes mostly from DOOM. “I let him shine on the production. I wanted to get his feel,” the supervillain reveals. JJ’s feel certainly permeates the album. Darkly dull sirens, haunting bass riffs and eerie effects coalesce with DOOM’s raspy rhymes to create a soundscape that is both bleak and riveting.

Is that bleakness a product of living in London? “I don’t know,” says DOOM, hesitant to endorse the idea that London is inherently gloomy. He finds the city’s (in)famous rain to be refreshing, “replenishing.” But upon further thought he reconsiders, “I was born here, so maybe it’s just in me like that.” Pushed further he admits, “Most of my shit be gloomy: let’s say that! But shit, I try to keep it happy. You know how you make lemonade out of lemons and shit?”

Lemonade is his metaphor of choice, but strawberry and banana smoothies are his current drink of choice, with an occasional beer. Although his penchant for food, particularly snacks, is well-documented (See: MM.. FOOD), DOOM has been eating healthy lately. He doesn’t go into details about the DOOM diet, but on tracks he sounds as healthy as ever, so the diet is presumably effective.

With that in mind, listening to “GMO” gives the impression that maybe the DOOM diet is less a conscious decision and more of an inadvertent consequence. Backed by a haunting and unintelligible litany from Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, here DOOM lays out a disgusting smorgasbord of disturbing foods: “flounder cheese in your tomatoes, cod in your potatoes.” Explaining the paranoia of the song, DOOM says, “DOOM is extra paranoid. He’s an exasperated kind of cat.” This paranoia is apocalyptic on “GMO,” but on “Wash Your Hands,” the most lighthearted track of the album, it takes a comical turn. “I wash my balls in Dettol,” DOOM raps with hilarious seriousness.

This seriousness is significantly less comical on “Winter Blues,” a melancholy track that features the supervillain longing for love and endorsing the questionable teachings of Dr. Jewel Pookrum, who DOOM upholds as one of his “teachers.” Despite this strange juxtaposition of love and conspiracy, the track succeeds, wonderfully capturing the loneliness of winter and the inevitable pitfalls of seasonal depression.

Considering his plight, one would expect DOOM’s depression to be more than seasonal, but the supervillain is unfazed. Giving a synopsis of the album, he explains, “It’s the story of the guy who could make it through the storm. It’s the plight of the artist. A lot of people can relate to that. There are more people going through hard times than [there are] billionaires that are fucking sitting up somewhere. Most people can relate to a struggle or a challenge, so my lyrics come from that no matter where I am geographically or whatever planet or wherever I’m at. They tend to accentuate the challenge and the conquering of the challenge or the completion of it.”

When asked if his personal challenge– getting back to the U.S.– ever made him worry about the legitimacy of his legacy, DOOM is adamant: “That shit is like concrete. When I laid it down, I laid it down like a foundation: that shit ain’t going nowhere. When you do it like that, it ain’t like built on sand and it will never fucking go away. That shit is permanent. So I don’t worry, even out here. My shit will still be the raw shit.”

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