After conscious crew KMD splintered in 1993, MF Doom (f.k.a. Zev Love X) disappeared for years and returned as a self-made metal-faced villain. His forebears inked his origin story: He was weaned on the whip-smart lines and wild rhyme schemes of Rakim; Big Daddy Kane's pop-culture punchlines and pro-black bent shaped his artistic worldview; and Madlib's impish cartoon alter-ego Quasimoto was an ally in Doom's search for a dastardly new direction.