About

Key to the Kuffs hits all of DOOM's angles, from the well-documented (wise-ass shit-talker) to the underrated (political agitator) to the overlooked (sentimental romantic). And with the co-billed producer angle-- JJ being Jneiro Jarel, the Danger to his Doom and the Mad to his Villain this time around-- there's the added potential to see this as another case of a collaboration providing a new facet to an already ambiguous public face.
Key to the Kuffs has a persona that's a lot harder to pinpoint than Madvillainy's blunted Jack Kirby surrealism or the adult-cartoon goofiness of The Mouse and the Mask. Not that there's a shortage of either; here you get bloodshot pulp crime atmosphere and "Regular Show" clips rubbing elbows in the album's first five minutes. But aside from the loose DOOM-in-England motif, there's not enough of an overarching theme that Jarel's serviceable-but-indistinct production can pull together. Not that cohesion's the most important thing to preserve-- it doesn't take a lot to "get" DOOM at this point, and the blend of big-idea tracks about things like communicable diseases or Frankenfoods mixed in with rapping-for-its-own-sake is comfortably accessible without being all that bland. And there's precedent for Jarel and DOOM working well together-- Shape of Broad Minds' Craft of the Lost Art highlight "Let's Go" attests to that. - Pitchfork