There's no exaggeration made when you hear someone referring to Metal Face as one of the best writers in rap: 'Modern Day Mugging' has Doom turning a tired theme like, well, robbing people from a ghetto cliché into a comedic spectacle, delivering a how-to for all aspiring thugs and thugettes: He only carries a. While most underground emcees are content to rhyme about their intelligence, the evils of commercialism, and the general populace's lack of cognizance, Vik finds the perfect balance between complex songs and simple delivery, never hitting you with guilt trips or preaching to the choir. Fly Emcee), a drug deal gone horribly awry ('Lactose and Lecithin'), an argument with a Chinese restaurant owner ('Raedawn') and the hilarious gunning down of a lame open mic night. Situations faced by our favorite masked rhymer this side of '93 Ghostface include the courtship of an underage girl ('Let Me Watch' with Apani B. The pieces here run a larger gamut of topics than the shit-talking he mastered on Operation: Doomsday. Although best known for his more whimsical material, this album has Doom frequently coming off like Wu without the pretension, branching out into more evolved song structures (choruses!) and unusually focused topical and narrative tracks.

Not surprisingly, it plays out much like any other Metal Face project: Doom's sick flow is tied to a fractured cadence, a slurry, guttural delivery, obscure pop culture references ('Unfrozen caveman, look over the contracts') and beautifully simple idioms and metaphors. A joint project between Doom and Sound-Ink, Vaudeville Villain's storyline follows the everyday life of super-villain/beat scientist/drug dealer/stick-up kid Vik Vaughn.

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