Unmasking US rap iconoclast MF Doom’s final years in West Yorkshire

MF Doom performing at Alexandra Palace in London in 2011. He had been barred from re-entering the US in 2010. Photograph: Jim Dyson/Redferns

The hunt for clues about the life of the masked rapper MF Doom had taken Adam Batty to some strange places, none more so than a remote-control car shop in the market town of Otley, West Yorkshire.

Rumour had it that Doom, who died in Leeds in 2020, had spent thousands in the shop. Other sightings placed him in the indie venue the Brudenell Social Club.