If the new popcorn bucket for Gladiator 2 looks familiar, that’s because it’s literally the inspiration behind a hip-hop legend’s mask.
Pictures surfaced online today (Oct. 8) of the popcorn bucket that incorporates the design of the gladiator helmets from the movie Gladiator. Eagle-eyed hip-hop fans recognized the helmet as none other than MF DOOM’s signature mask.
It’s no grand secret though — MF DOOM himself has been open about where his iconic mask came from.
"You know the movie Gladiator? Well around that time, they started selling these 'gladiator masks' that were replicas from the movie. So what it was is that a friend of mine told me he saw this mask that would be perfect for the DOOM character,” he revealed in a conversation from 2009 aired on The House List podcast in 2019. “I trusted him, even though it was kind of expensive. So he went and bought the mask, which was this collector's item thing that came on a wooden stand and all that.”
“It was a total replica that came on a stick with a stand for displaying and shit,” he continued. “There was this top piece on it too that my friend just tore off. He took off the stick and everything else and just kept the faceplate. You know how construction hats have a plastic thing on the inside that you can tighten? Well, he just took one of those and fastened it to the mask. So he rigged it up for me. Since then, I chromed it out, added a ruby to it too. That’s how the mask came about."
With the 20th anniversary of MF DOOM’s fifth album MM..FOOD right around the corner, it would be wise to get a hold of the bucket — if no other reason, than just to pay homage to the legendary rapper.
The story behind DOOM’s mask, upbringing, and presumably much more, is set to be released on Oct. 29. The long-awaited biography, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast, was previously announced in 2022.
"Broken down into five sections: The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music, and The Legend, journalist S. H. Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in Long Beach, NY, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs, and across the many different cities Daniel called home," the book description reads.
As for Gladiator 2, you’ll be able to go see it on November 22.
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