THE HIP-HOP APOCALYPSE: NOW WITH BUKOWSKI

Indie MCs love to blow up the motherfuckin' earth. Mr. Lif's "Earthcrusher" comes to mind. MF Doom wants to immolate yer hood, too. From Rolling Stone via the Stones Throw site:

The centerpiece of the record is “Cellz”, which explodes with apocalyptic fury. On it, the late, great American poet Charles Bukowski reads of one of his best poems, “Dinosauria, We,” for almost two minutes while missiles fire and the Earth is laid to waste.

“Don’t freak with old Buke. Buke is nice. He’s as good as the rest of the rappers on there,” Doom says. “He kind of sets the tone for the record, being that we’re living in what he was kind of describing. He might’ve been reaching for the worst description based on what he saw us heading to, but it happened and that made me go, ‘Wow, that’s ill. Kinda prophetic words.’ ”

But dude is actually more on the metaphorical tip:

Lasering in on Armageddon on his new disc puts Doom smack in the middle of a morbid trend, with the Dow melting away, Watchmen blowing up the box office and the globe warming. But the ending of “Dinosauria, We” also posits a beautiful new beginning, begging the question: is the apocalypse actually cleansing?

“No doubt,” says the father and admitted McCain voter. “If something ends, then something’s gonna start. So it’s like, what side are you on? Do you feel like your world is ending? Or do you feel like, ‘Wow, it seems like that’s ending and it’s the start of something new.’”

So, y'know, maybe the song is actually about John McCain.