…A S.W.A.T Healin’ Ritual

A decade before Williams Street made him labelmates with Dethklok (and an antecedent of future Dungeon Fam [adult swim]mer Killer Mike), Witchdoctor’s connections notched him an Interscope debut too uncanny for the majors. As a rapper, his whole style is an enigma: a lyrical simplicity that scans like a lesson plan, a perspective that uses the supernaturally unreal to make reality clear, and a voice that seems almost uneasily measured no matter what abyss he’s staring into. It helps that he makes the rules of surviving that abyss feel like koans, run through with spiritual-minded meditations on what happens after the triggers get pulled and the product hits the streets: a potential killer who strives to be a mental healer, made a collective effort with high-grade guest verses from his DF cohort (Goodie Mob and OutKast alike, along with an on-the-brink Cool Breeze). And Organized Noize give him one of their most intensely somber blocks of beats, the kind of sweaty-palmed, stuck-inside-your-own-head minor key funk that skulks like gospel for goths.