Mos Def Feat. Some Assclown in a Mask
Where's DOOM?
So, as you may have heard, this weekend Mos Def and MF Doom were scheduled to perform at the Congress. It got pushed back from January 29th, but Saturday night, me and some friends faced the bitter cold and headed out to Armitage & Milwaukee. Everything was going fine, until suddenly we noticed that DJ Mike Relm (a visual DJ from San Fran) seemed to be performing for WAY too long. After he exited the stage, about 30 minutes of DJing with the lights on ensued, and an increasingly annoyed crowd started making noise. The poor DJ had no excuses – Mos and Doom weren’t there yet. Out comes local gal Psalm One to hype the crowd up and apologize for the wait, assuring us that “Mos and DOOM are IN DA BUILDING!!”
Around 12:30 AM, Mos Def appears (in a masquerade-style mask over his eyes and a kamono), and the crowd settles. Mos went on to perform three MF Doom songs, a classic (”Hip Hop”), and a couple great tracks of his latest, The Ecstatic. During the set, Mos corrected the sound-person’s work, tried to preach peace to the crowd, and as soon as he came, he was gone. To take his place immediately after? MF DOOM and a couple of hypemen. DOOM was in his traditional mask, a heavy winter coat, and appeared to have shrunk about 5 inches in size. As the main hypeman spit rhymes and got everyone excited, this “DOOM” character proceeded to a.) not once interact with the crowd, b.) sound MIRACULOUSLY like a recording and c.) occasionally forget to put the mic up to his mouth while he fluffed his Gortex-style jacket.
DOOM did it again. I had continuously heard stories this past year of no-shows, fake DOOM’s, and other ’super-villian-iary”. Personally, I’m still getting into DOOM and was way more excited about Mos Def. I know, though, that I was in the minority. “DOOM” didn’t stay on stage for much more than 20 minutes, and it looked like at least a third of the 17+ crowd was under the impression that it was truly their favorite emcee the whole time. This really came as a punch to the gut at 1:30 in the goddamned morning. As my friend said ten minutes into it, “I’m all for artist-integrity, but what the fuck?!”
What really bites me about the no-show stuff is how every other major artist this guy books a show with HAS to be in on this. Right? I will not believe that Mos Def wasn’t aware that DOOM would not be on stage. Had these been $50 tickets (they were just under $30), this crowd would have rioted. I mean, I get it…the dude likes comic books, wants to be a villain, blah blah. I like the element of mystery, but I expect more when I trek out to Congress on a ten degree Chicago night than to stand up for 6 hours and be lied to (at $6 a beer, no less).
This may help answer some questions: http://fakeshoredrive.com/2010/02/promoter-speaks-on-mf-doom-concert.html