Who is Mr. Fantastik?

The identity of Mr. Fantastik is perhaps the biggest unsolved mystery in the history of rap music. 

To this day, nobody is 100% sure who he is. He doesn't have an album, and he's only appeared on 2 MF DOOM tracks: "Anti-Matter" on Take Me To Your Leader (2003) and "Rap Snitches Knishes" on MM..FOOD (2004). That's it. He doesn't have any social media and there's no known interviews with the guy. As far as we know, he did those 2 songs and that's it.

Like pretty much everything else in the world of DOOM, Mr. Fantastik is a complete mystery.

Luckily, we have the Internet and their endless supply of theories. I've compiled some of the best below.

In terms of facts, here's all we really know:

1. Fantastik only has 2 confirmed appearances ("Rap Snitch Knishes", "Anti-Matter")
2. Count Bass D said on a livestream that he wasn't Fantastik and didn't know who he was
3. According to this old article, "Rap Snitches" was a last-minute addition to the album

Now, the speculation:

1. On "Deep Fried Frenz", DOOM says he first met Mr. Fantastik at an "arms deal" 
2. Fantastik possibly used to be known as "Pure Math" and claims to be from NY
3. In a 2003 interview, DOOM apparently said "Mr. Fantastik no longer exists"
4. At one point, there was supposedly a collaboration album in the works between the two

So, who is he?

Schizo tier:

1. MF DOOM alter-ago (would be cool though)
2. RZA from Wu-Tang 
3. 50-Cent

Reddit tier:

1. Mr. Fantastik from Euphon

Kinda/sorta sounds like him tier:

• U-God from Wu-Tang
• Pablo from Peanut Butter Wolf's "Rock Unorthodox"
• Kev-Rock from Dark Mind
• Del the Homosapien

Most likely tier:

1. Rodan from Monstar Island Czars
2. Spiega from Monstar Island Czars
3. Some random guy

Unfortunately, searching the ASCAP site doesn't give us any clues. Both tracks are credited solely to the villain, real name Daniel Dumile:

Without question, the most popular theory seems to be that Mr. Fantastik is actually Rodan from Monsta Island Czars. The Czars were basically Wu-Tang, but obsessed with Godzilla movies instead of Kung-Fu flicks. Rodan was arguably the most talented member of the group. Comparing the two... they sort of have a similar accent and both use big ass words. Rodan, however, raps way faster than Fantastik and has a much different cadence. Here's where a big part of the theory comes in - that Rodan's vocals were digitally altered and "pitched-down" to create the voice of Fantastik.

If you go to YouTube and slow down a Rodan verse, you can sorta hear it. Try it here at like 90% playback speed.

One interesting note is that on the King Geedorah Take Me To Your Leader album, the song with Rodan ("No Snakes Alive") is right before the song with Mr. Fantastik ("Anti-Matter"). The former features everyone rapping at breakneck speed. This is then juxtaposed perfectly with Fantastik's laid-back style on the following song - now that would be a clever trick, wouldn't it?

However, there's another member of The Czars that fits a little better. Spiga, named after a giant spider that once clashed with Godzilla, actually sounds more like Mr. Fantastik than Rodan. Style-wise, it's also a better match.

So did the villain have one of his buddies from Monster Island Czars assume a new name and identity just for a few songs? It's definitely possible. It'd be just another day at the office for one of these guys. Every single damn member has at least one alter-ego already:

DOOM also dissed the entire group on "El Chupa Nibre" in 2005, referring to them as "Midgets Into Crunk." If Fantastik is indeed one The Czars, this could explain why he never worked with DOOM again after that song came out.

However... if it wasn't one of these guys, Occam's Razor leaves us with a simple answer: nobody knows who he is because he's just some random guy DOOM ran across one day.

What if, in classic supervillain fashion, DOOM concocted a scheme: he would give this fella a mysterious persona, and then do a couple songs with him specifically just to fuck with the fans' heads? Perhaps he also wrote even wrote the verses for the guy, and only had him record the vocals Dr. Dre-style. Keep in mind, DOOM is infamous for sending fake impostors to perform his shows for him - so you shouldn't put anything past him (MF DOOM BODY DOUBLES). If he's willing to stand in the audience of his own concert and heckle "himself" while drinking a brewski... he's willing to do anything. He'd probably get a great chuckle of this article.

If this was all a grand scheme, it worked. We're almost 2 decades in to this mystery and there's still more questions than answers.... or is there?

2 years ago, The House List released an interview from 2003 recorded with DOOM right before the release of MM..FOOD. At around 20 minutes in to the interview, DOOM mentions that Mr. Fantastik will be joining him on the album.

The interviewer almost got us a definitive answer. "Who is that?" he asked.

DOOM: "That's Mr. Fantastik! That's my man. He's from New York, but he moved out to Atlanta before I did. I know him from New York from back in the days type shit. He moved down to Atlanta... he's been down here for a while. He wasn't trying to get me to get a crib down here. I've been coming back and forth, chilling with him... he's straight baller status, so any time I come down, it's like whatever, everything is on him, strip clubs, all that shit. He's the one who introduced me to down here."

Starrh, who was also featured on Take Me To Your Leader, found herself working with DOOM in an eerily similar way. From a 2019 Complex article:

At Atlanta underground hip-hop nightclub MJQ in the early 2000s, rapper Stahhr freestyled at a pre-release party for The Micronauts sophomore album Obelisk Movements. Also residing in Atlanta at the time was DOOM, who was briefly introduced to Stahhr, but it wasn’t until a 2001 showcase for record label Sub Verse Music at Club Kaya that their conversation continued. After exchanging contact information, Stahhr did a feature on DOOM's King Geedorah album, Take Me to Your Leader, a week later.

“Back then, he could go out and be okay [without the mask]. He was living out here in Atlanta in the boonies, so nobody knew who he was,” Stahhr recalls of becoming acquainted with DOOM. “He came to a couple of my shows without the mask and nobody really made the connection. 

So it sounds like DOOM followed this mysterious Fantastik fella down to Atlanta, found Stahhr at a club, had a huge creative streak, and started cranking out material for his next few albums.

Going back to the DOOM interview, there is always a chance DOOM concocted the Fantastik story off the top of his head just to troll us... but I doubt it. At about 20:25 in the interview, DOOM almost says Fantastik moved to Atlanta "a few months ago," but cuts his sentence short and changed it to "a while." Why would DOOM censor personal information like that for a person that doesn't actually exist?

To further support this theory, it's hard to believe that an industry rapper would appear on DOOM songs without songwriting credit for royalties. A street dude, on the other hand, would gladly do a couple verses for money under the table.

But what was with the eerie words of DOOM when he supposedly said "Mr. Fantastik no longer exists"? (I say "supposedly" because I can't find exactly where he said this.)

If what many believe is true, then Fantastik is/was some sort of level 99 thug in the streets. Perhaps he did a couple jams with DOOM, then got locked-up.  That would explain why we haven't heard from him since '03/'04. On "Anti-Matter", he claimed "the feds always miss me" - perhaps he jinxed himself with that line? It would also explain why there was a brief bit of hype regarding a possibly MM FOOD - FM MOOD collab between the two that fizzled out just as quickly as it started. There's not much info on the album online, but it was apparently a brief headline on mfdoomsite.com back in the day. 

So what do you think? Random guy from the streets? An augmented Czar of Monster Island? DOOM himself via studio wizardry? Was Count Bass D lying? Or was it another epic troll from Curtis "50 Cent" "Mr. Fantastik" Jackson? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You shouldn't hold your breath, but there's a small chance that Mr. Fantastik might pop back up on any one of DOOM's many fabled projects still in the works, such as the recently-announced resurrection of KMD. If we're lucky, perhaps he'll grace us with his presence once more. 

Side note: while researching this, I came across an interesting rabbit hole. Open Soundcloud and search "Mr. Fantastik." It appears the Internet has been flooded with fake Fantastiks in order to make this impossible mission even more impossible. Produced by Mr Head? This has to be some sort of government psy-op.

Are any of these men any real? Are ANY of the rappers on Soundcloud real? 

That will be another article for another day. Until then: