NEHRUVIANDOOM

Description

A long time ago in LondonThe VILLAIN was laying low on the fog shrouded Tin Islands when Bishops X-Wing crashed into his swamp. It was April 2013, and thats a metaphor for Bishops first meeting with DOOM before a show at the 100 Club. The future collaborators were booked to play in the tiny ancient jazz venue with Ghostface Killah that night. At just 17, Bishop Nehru had supported Wu-Tang Clan and Earl Sweatshirt on tour, recorded a single with Disclosure, shared two well-received mixtapes, and been endorsed by Kendrick Lamar and Nas, with the later introducing him onstage as the future of hip-hop. That chance encounter backstage in London led to this collaboration with DOOM, one of Bishops hip-hop heroes. In the months that followed Metal Fingers sent Bishop links to folders of beats and Bishop laid down bars. The two worked remotely and then followed up with sessions in the studio. In the Village Voice end of year round up for 2014 they reflected on the album, #2 in their best rap albums list: Theres a good few decades between the New York City-raised (but now exiled-in-London) MF DOOM and the upstate-residing Bishop Nehru, but listening to their hip-hop tryst, its as if theyve been plugged in to the same creative zone all along. The formula here is simple: DOOM produces, Bishop raps, and on occasion the curmudgeonly supervillain with the Brillo Pad beard also deigns to grab the mic, but its the duos shared off-kilter sensibility that gels the listening experience. And when they team up for the positivity-packed Great Things, its as if Doom has temporarily let his mask drop to embrace a nostalgic revisiting of the original K.M.D. vibe. THE VILLAGE VOICE