Take Me To Your Leader (20th anniversary)

Most of the film references are going on in the background while guest rappers contribute their own rhymes; while MF Doom the producer deserves a lot of credit for flooding the production space with beats, effects, samples, and plenty of crackling movie dialogue, the combination of high-profile arrangement and dense rapping is nearly overwhelming. "Fastlane" floats a good rap from Biolante, but he's drowned out by the production, with a squealing guitar sample stuck on auto-repeat for three minutes. For "Krazy World," Gigan spits his thin, throaty lyrics over another simple sample, this one a string-heavy descent that often cuts out and back in with no warning, but hangs on for more than a minute after Gigan's rap is finished. For what it's worth, MF Doom's two vocal features make up for much of the mentalist madness. Though the first, "The Final Hour," is far too short, "Anti-Matter" (with Mr. Fantastik) allows the rappers to shine over a swinging, groovy soundtrack. A cold, pummeling, relentless record, Take Me to Your Leader is a quintessential side project: far more extreme and uninviting than Doom could afford to be on his solo-billed records.