The Doomtree crew hail from Minneapolis and consist of 5 rappers – P.O.S., Sims, Cecil Otter, Dessa and Mike Mictlan; 3 producers – Lazerbeak, Paper Tiger and MK Larada and a turntablist – Turbo Nemesis.
Having grown in stature in their home town, they put on a concert in December 2005, named the Doomtree Blowout, which was held at the Varsity Theatre. The year after that, they moved up to the legendary First Avenue for their second annual blowout, which is documented in this DVD.
As well as incredible live footage from the event, including a full run of the interval, which saw the best breakers in the Twin Cities hit the stage as MK Larada stepped to the decks, the DVD features every video the crew has made to this point. Videos featuring yours truly as a bellhop, clown make up, old cars, enormous amounts of bikes and even animation, there is so much to enjoy, it gets to the point of being ridiculous.
Not only is there live footage and videos, but you get a whole heap of extras too. From Turbo taking 20 minutes to tell a story that could have been told in 2 [honestly, one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen] to the incredibly inventive previews made for the release of the crew’s debut collective album, you will be glued to the screen peaking at it all.
But to get a real idea of what makes these cats tick, there is a documentary made about the lead in to the Blowout, which goes backstage and speak to all the members, giving their history, their passion and their will to make each show the best it can possibly be. If there was any justice in the world, this lot would be raking it in, but for now, this DVD is good enough to tide you over. A must have.
Abjekt [can you guess which Londoner made the final cut of the doc? Hmmm?]