Art by Kmeron
It’s been a decade since Madvillain, which I already spent 16 years of my life lionizing earlier this summer. Less remembered is this live show that DOOM did that January at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge. It eventually found it’s way to outside oxygen, courtesy of Nature Sound’s, Live From Planet X. The entire 5-hour show is available at Archive, but thanks to Simon Cohn,, we have an edit just of DOOM’s 45 minute set, complete with minor bits that I don’t believe have yet made their way onto the Internet. (Don’t quote me on that).
You don’t need me to reiterate the impact of DOOM in this day and age. But back in ’04, he was very much a phenomenon of the pre-Internet underground — which is a contradiction in itself because Madvillainy was one of the first leaks heavily bootlegged on message boards and file sharing sites. Still, six years after Op: Doomsday, this was the first time that DOOM ever graced a stage solo in San Francisco. He wore the mask, played beats off a Roland VS recorder, and came through with all the early classics, including the yet-unreleased “Accordian” and “Curls.” Like all live rap records, there’s something inessential about the tape. But while we wait for new DOOM material not recorded in collaboration with a revivalist teenager, this is a reminder why people still care. This is no sent-in imposter, just one of the greatest rappers of all-time sneering and causing havoc. Stream it now before the super villains at Soundcloud vaporize all traces of it from the Internet.
