So mom used to say if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Hmm. One to think on. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Makes sense too. Both of these lil’ cliches are kinda rolling around in the old noggin as I start this review. But at the front of Mr. Dome piece is how f^cked the media is because nobody has any balls. Guess we gotta start some place. 8 bit has gotta go. The gimmick of robot suits and 80’s video game visuals are clever and well timed given the throw back trend but sh_t, what about some content. This gimmicky, half-assed rap about sucking balls and drinking and smoking detracts so much from any kind of music but especially hip hop, where so many artists are trying to distance themselves from the main stream garbage that has become what the scene is known for. Think about being a pacifist Bin Laden sibling, who’s gotta answer questions about his asshole cousin who just blew a grip of people up. It’s not fair and it’s not cool. Of all the shows I have been to only one emcee has ever pulled a more negative response from a crowd. That cat was preaching the word from that book (you know the one full of all the rolling papers) and rapping about how all he saw was Muslims killing Christians and that everybody that had gotten killed in the Tsunami should have known it was coming because they didn’t dig the same character he did from the before mentioned comic book. Anyhow, Doom fans love their boom and bap, so they did not take too kindly to the robots that had nothing to say. The booze flowed like booze and pretty soon one of the robots that sounded a bit like a pre-pubescent boy started asking why the audience was full of haters. My heart started to go out to them until the same robot had the nerve to jump into the audience and rap an entire song about being a bitch right in the face of one their detractors. Hey man, we all lash out but the punk who kicked at another audience member from the stage damn good thing you got a mask homes. Sh^t don’t fly. Lucky, from the Living Legends who was the host for the evening actually apologized to the crowd and hucked a lot of free stuff to the peoples.
Any way with all the bad behind, Jiminy f^cken Christmas what an awesome show. Pigeon John has been making a name for himself in hip-hop and deserves all of it. It was the first time I ever heard his music but there no reason for that dude to not be headlining shows. It was organic hip-hop done in a toned down vein of Ozomatli with Chali 2na. It’s the music hip hoppers can take their not so hip-hop girl to and not have to try and justify lyrics like (please insert any lyric by Cage or Kool Keith.) The man had energy, a live drummer and a great sound that made me want to bob my head and shake my ass at the same time.
Between acts some top-notch break-dancers entertained the near capacity crowd. The crew had won the crew battle at the Furious Styles birthday party the weekend before in Phoenix. I actually think one of the heads might have been from the Furious Styles.
So finally the man of the night made his way to the stage and proceeded to kill the place. Doom has been doing his thing for so long that it is impossible to get every jam in that should be performed at a show. Not to be whiney but I wanted to hear some “Viktor Vaughn” and different Mad Villain cuts. Man straight crushed it any how. He popped out performing “Super” and rolled onto perform “All Caps” and “Accordion”. People were straight loving the show and Doom was giving back. He was constantly jumping from one side of the stage to the next slapping any hand he could reach. The man captured the comic book feel through the entire show. It was in his posture and body movements. The highlight was in a song I never heard before. Doom dropped a line about jumping off the stage and had some theatrics where his back up men grabbed him as he went running toward the crowd. Mans not obese by any means but that’s a lot to catch. It was an awesome little break to throw into the music. The special guest performer is worth some pointing out too. GZA of Wu-Tang hopped out and performed a quick verse. It’s too bad he only stuck around for one verse. They probably did not want anybody stealing the show. At the end of the night I was heading out and heard somebody say they were bummed about not hearing anything off of DangerDoom but didn’t care cause the show was so ill. I’ll second that. I did not get to hear the exact jams I wanted to but got more of an appreciation for the ones that I thought were okay. Doom’s beats have a different bump when done live. Add it to the list of shows you just don’t miss.
