Album Review: Planetory Destruction by Doctor Destruction
Doctor Destruction, or Doc D, is a ‘new’ and upcoming rapper that signed with Logic’s record company, Bobby Boy Records. However, I put ‘new’ in quotes since there are some rumors going around. Since it seems like Doctor Destruction is cloaking his voice and is wearing a mask, people are assuming Logic has returned to the rap game under a new name. Besides the speculation, Planetory Destruction marks Doctor Destruction’s debut studio album.
The first track from the album is Intro. Pretty simple track name for the opening of an album, but there’s a lot to admire about this track. You get the grandiose sample of Funky Fanfare by Keith Mansfield. You also get a Beastie Boys sample, The New Style. We also get a clever sample of Die Hard with a Vengeance and Back To The Future to end the track. Other than that, we do have some space like lyrics from Doc D in his first verse.
The title track, Planetory Destruction, keeps up with the samples. This track samples Genius of Love which has been pretty popular in the sampling community. This track also seems to feature some of the different characters presented on this album, like DJ Buck Naked and Kyle. Many people feel like this track is a dead giveaway that it’s Logic with his flow and some of the things he mentions. Other than that, he keeps up the space-like theme and also mentions this takes place in the year 2097.
After that we come to Better Text Back. We also get some more smooth, jazz like instrumentation with the saxophone and a drumbeat backing it. The introduction talks about how Doc D can be a very dangerous guy involved in space. After the introduction, Doc D finally comes in and talks about how he could explode the entire galaxy if he needs to. Other than that, I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t get more of his rapping from this track.
Green Juices has a favorite sample of mine. At the beginning, it has a conversation between Agent K and Agent J from Men In Black which was a blast from the past. Behind the snippet from Men In Black, the backing track is the track Summer Nights, but I’m not too familiar with the track. Doc D also gave a shout out to Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest. The Green Juices part of the track references about drinking more ‘green juices’ which is often referred to as a health drink.
The first skit from the album is Cosmos 105.7 (Skit 1). This skit reintroduces some of the characters on the album, DJ Buck Naked, Kyle, as well as Doc D. This is like an interview between DJ Buck Naked and Doc D. The radio host asks why Doc D hides his voice, and Doc says that he replaced and altered his voice with a vocoder. He also talks about why he has to alter his voice since he wanted to sound like one of his favorite rappers, as well as sound like a villain.
We get some more great samples on Double Sample. This track samples a Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson track, We Almost Lost Detroit. It also samples a track from The Supreme Jubilees. The strange part is that none of this track features a part from Doc D, unless we want to count the introduction part where it talks about being tuned into Cosmos Radio. It’s an interesting concept I guess, but people have said that Logic produced this track on a Twitch livestream.
Backstory, as the title explains, is the back story, or background for Doc D and his character. The backing track is rumored to have been used on a demo version of Soul Food II. Based on the lo-fi samples, it would have fit perfectly with the vibe of the album. Doc D basically talks about how everything went down hill when his girlfriend, Sharon, left him. That is basically when he went down the path of destruction, in a literal sense as well as a mental health destruction.
We are back with another skit, Cosmos 105.7 (Skit 2). Again, the radio host is asking more questions to Doc D and wants to know why he’s destroying our universe. Doc D gets upset, but says that it all comes back to Sharon and he wants to go back in time to destroy as many versions of Sharon as he can. The radio host asks Doc D if Sharon is aware, but he says he’s not aware. Doc D says he has had enough and has some more planets to destroy.
Back to the Basement seems to focus on what Doc D mentioned in the previous track. On the skit, he mentioned how he used to develop the technology in his mom’s basement. It also seems to talk about hanging out in the basement with some of his friends back in the day. The track also seems to feature several other artists, which aren’t too huge in the rap game. As for the beat, it features a beat from A Tribe Called Quest, 8 Million Stories.
Outer Space Gang is another track that features Doc D as well as some of his other friends. The introduction and sample seems to talk about the connection between love and hate, and creation and destruction. As many have pointed out already with the masked persona, he name drops MF DOOM during his verse. JMars also seems to pay homage to MF DOOM, but moreso by mentioning his last name. Besides the voice samples, the smooth jazz and lo-fi like beat makes this another memorable track.
Butt *ss Naked opens up with none other than DJ Buck Naked, which the track name may be a reference to. If you can’t tell by the title of the track, this is a very suggestive track about getting naked for this person. Doc D throws in some very suggestive innuendos, but also has to throw in some space references as well. I’m surprised they threw this track on there, but it can be very cringey at times, no matter how good the beat is.
After that suggestive track, we come back with Ready Player Gun. The track seems to have some more jazz instruments and a drumkit. After doing some digging, this actually features Logic’s track, Young Sinatra. While this album has featured some smaller artists, I’m glad to see a feature from Buddy on here. Overall, this seems like a feel good track from them since they talk about smoking as well as just wanting to have a good time.
We’re back with our third skit, Cosmos 105.7 (Skit 3). Ofcourse, this skit is led by DJ Buck Naked, but this time we don’t hear from Doctor Destruction. However, he talks about getting calls from people about seeing Doc D and potentially destroying their planet. Then of course you have some raunchy jokes and southern jokes as well when a caller calls into his show. Other than that, a bit disappointed we don’t hear from Doc D.
20 Million Woolongs is another track where we don’t see from Doctor Destruction. For the most part, we get some new lo-fi beats with a flute and drumkit. At the beginning, we hear a short skit from Gordax and JT. They talk about seeing Doc D’s ship, but it’s camoflauged. Towards the middle of the track, we finally get some rapping from Punch. Besides the space lyrics, it seems like he’s talking to Doc D’s ex-girlfriend since she said her ex was going on a rampage.
Bounty Law brings back Doctor Destruction as well as some interesting features, like Ghostface Killah. The beat does seem to be a little bit more space-inspired compared to some of the beats we have been hearing on the second half of the album. Doc D seems to talk about his past when growing up, which sounds similar to how Logic grew up. As I said before, Ghostface Killah does get a feature on this track, but I wish he was involved a bit more.
Now we’re at the fourth and final skit, Cosmos 105.7 (Skit 4). DJ Buck Naked was able to get Doc D on the phone again. He also brought a surprise guest to talk to Doc D, his ex girlfriend, Sharon. Sharon seems to be upset and wants him to stop being evil and killing everyone. She also reveals that his name is Clarence, and talks about how she could never love him again ever since he changed his face and his voice. This is by far the best skit on the album.
The final track on the album is Death of Destruction. The beat is definitely more lively and we get some exciting horn sections thrown in there. We don’t really get anything from Doctor Destruction, but we do get quite a bit of a commentary, especially from DJ Buck Naked. He talks about how everyone in different dimensions are teaming up to destroy Doc D’s ship, the Sharon Destroyer. He says that it looks like there will be hope for their universe and future. However, at the end of the album, we find out that Doctor Destruction was able to escape.
While I was definitely not expecting this track, I think all of us can say that this album is paying homage to MF DOOM, especially with the ‘masked villain’ aspect of the album. Also, if this is Logic, I can say this is one of my favorites that he has released and I’m excited to see if he continues down this route for the future.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Favorite Tracks: Intro, Planetory Destruction, Back to the Basement, Bounty Law, Cosmos 105.7 (Skit 4), Death of Destruction
Originally published at https://www.lazymusicguru.com
