Richmond, Virginia is introducing a new bike lane street sweeper, landing on the name “MF BROOM” as a tribute to MF DOOM. Using a March Madness-style bracket, community organization Venture Richmond crowdsourced possible names for the street sweeper, including “LeBroom James,” “The Grim Sweeper,” “Kate Brush,” “Meryl Sweep,” “Dirt Reynolds,” “Bike Dyson” and, of course, MF BROOM. The name, a nod to the late Madvillainy rapper, won with 59% of votes and beat out The Grim Sweeper, which came in second with 41% of votes.
“We crowdsourced name ideas, you voted, and the name of the new @DPW_RichmondVA bike lane sweeper is… MF BROOM,” Venture Richmond tweeted on Friday (August 5). The city will also host an upcoming naming ceremony for the street sweeper, over a year after DOOM was honored with “KMD-MF DOOM Way” in Long Beach, New York last June.
The people have spoken! We crowdsourced name ideas, you voted, and the name of the new @DPW_RichmondVA bike lane sweeper is… 🥁 🎉 MF BROOM 🎉 The @CityRichmondVA will host a naming ceremony—details coming soon. Until then, enjoy your clean bike lanes! #RVASweep16 pic.twitter.com/fYcEpVwZVC
— Venture Richmond (@VentureRVA) August 5, 2022
The people have spoken! We crowdsourced name ideas, you voted, and the name of the new @DPW_RichmondVA bike lane sweeper is… 🥁 🎉 MF BROOM 🎉 The @CityRichmondVA will host a naming ceremony—details coming soon. Until then, enjoy your clean bike lanes! #RVASweep16 pic.twitter.com/fYcEpVwZVC
— Venture Richmond (@VentureRVA) August 5, 2022
The Grim Sweeper vs. MF BROOM
— Venture Richmond (@VentureRVA) August 3, 2022
The announcement comes one month after what would have been the rapper’s 51st birthday, when fans and former collaborators flocked to social media to praise “Metal Face.”
Happy Birthday #MFDOOM pic.twitter.com/X85ehgIbqS
MF DOOM FOREVER pic.twitter.com/8CzAlcJ4S6
— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) July 13, 2022
MF DOOM, enjoy your 51st year of immortality. Happy birthday. On behalf of every artist doing things on their own terms, thank you a gazillion times over 🙏 here’s a behind the scenes look at Lamour Supreme’s homage to Fantastic Four 82 (by Jack Kirby). RIP #MFDOOM pic.twitter.com/jM7l6CBabw
— CZARFACE (@Czarface_Eso) July 13, 2022
The late rapper will have a posthumous appearance on Black Thought and Danger Mouse’s collaborative album Cheat Codes which releases on August 12. DOOM’s life and legacy will also be chronicled in the forthcoming Astra House biography, The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast, by journalist and author S.H. Fernando Jr. According to the publishing house, the book is a “sweeping and definitive biography” that will “recount the rise, fall, redemption and untimely demise of one of Hip Hop’s most enigmatic and influential figures.”
In THE CHRONICLES OF DOOM, @SkizFernando will recount the rise, fall, redemption, and untimely demise of Daniel Dumile AKA @MFDOOM, one of rap's most enigmatic and influential figures—from KMD, to @adultswim, to escaping death in the public eye for months before it was announced. pic.twitter.com/gVSH8TwWdo
— Astra House (@astrahousebooks) May 17, 2022