As well as head-spinningly complex, reference-rich rhymes, DOOM also provides the majority of the peerless production himself with just 2 tracks here featuring the studio skills of others. Credit for crafting the bounciest of beats on short yet sweet BALLSKIN goes to Washington’ s Jake One, whilst the much-missed J Dilla’ s magical psychedelic jamboree illuminates LIGHTWORKS. Guest vocalists include founding Wu Tang Clan members Ghostface and Raekwon, with the former appropriately appearing in his cartoon-inspired Tony Starks guise. BORN LIKE THIS takes its title from Charles Bukowski’ s dystopian poem, ‘Dinosauria, We’ , read by its author and re-scored by DOOM on CELLZ. Sharp-eared followers of the interesting end of hip-hop May recognize some of the album’ s lineage – the instrumental of LIGHTWORKS is a highlight of J Dilla’ s Donuts and an early demo of ANGELZ has circulated in cyberspace – however, the rest of the newborn record’ s 16 tracks are 100% fresh and, until now, unheard.

DOOM’ s previous solo adventures and escapades include output as alternative alter egos ‘King Geedorah’ – a three-headed monster from outer-space – and ‘Viktor Vaughan’ – a DOOM spin-off who exists in a technologically advanced parallel dimension – as well as collaborative albums with Madlib (as ‘Madvillian’ ), Danger Mouse (‘DangerDOOM’ ), and a cameo on Gorillaz Demon Days opus.