''Born Like This'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

) is the sixth and final solo studio album by British-American rapper/producer MF Doom. It was released under the pseudonym "Doom" on March 24, 2009 through Lex Records. It debuted at number 52 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, having sold 10,895 copies as of March 29, 2009. In addition to tracks produced by MF Doom, the album includes production by frequent collaborator

Madlib Otis Lee Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American record producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. Critically acclaimed for his eclectic, music sample, sample-heavy production style, he is rega ...

, as well as

J Dilla James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer, composer and rapper. He emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michiga ...

. The album title is borrowed from

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...

's poem "Dinosauria, We", which employs it as a cadence. The track "Cellz" opens with a sampled recording of Bukowski reading the poem.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Born Like This'' received an average score of 77% based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''Born Like This'' ranked at number 4 on '' The Skinny''s "2009: A Year in Records" list. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' included it in their best albums of 2009, placing it at number 48.

Track listing

Sample credits and additional notes *"Gazzillion Ear" samples "Trouble" (performed) by Brenton Wood and " Theme from ''Midnight Express''" by

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work ...

. The instrumental track for "Gazzillion Ear" is also based on "Dig It" and "Phantom of the Synths", both by J Dilla. *"Yessir!" samples "UFO" by ESG. *"Absolutely" samples a Horn section from " Creep" by

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

. It also uses a vocal sample from " Sun Goddess" by

Ramsey Lewis Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five RIAA certification, gold records and three Grammy Awards ...

. *"Lightworks" samples "Lightworks" by

Raymond Scott Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist and record producer. Known best in his time as a composer of production music, Scott is today regarded as an early ...

. *Instrumental track for "Lightworks" is also based on J Dilla's version of "Lightworks", from the album '' Donuts''. *"Angelz" was recorded in 2006. *"Cellz" samples "Dinosora, We" by

. *"Cellz" is split into two tracks: "Cellz, Pt.1" and "Cellz, Pt.2" on the redux version. *"That's That" samples "Princess Gika" by

Galt MacDermot Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot (December 18, 1928 – December 17, 2018) was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most successful musicals were ''Hair ...

; it also contains dialog excerpts from the film ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...

'', performed by

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''B ...

Personnel

*Mr. Chop – additional instruments *

Paloma Faith Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. After signing with Epic Records in 2008, Faith released her debut album, '' Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'' (2009), which produced the UK ...

(aka “Cat-Girl”) – additional vocals *

G Koop Robert Mandell, professionally known as G Koop, is an American Grammy Award-nominated record producer, songwriter and musician. Early life G Koop is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. His father had a large collection of albums, and his moth ...

– keyboards, guitar, bass * Posdnuos (aka P-Pain) – additional vocals * Prince Paul (aka Filthy Pablo) – additional vocals *

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon ( ), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success following the release of the ...

– additional vocals

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2009 albums MF Doom albums Albums produced by J Dilla Albums produced by Jake One Albums produced by Madlib Lex Records albums