October 12th saw a gig tipped as "Hip-Hop show of the decade" take place in London, featuring the two components of critically acclaimed duo Madvillain - masked maniac rapper DOOM and the extremely talented producer Madlib - supported by a number of heavyweights and up and coming artists from both sides of the pond, including J Rocc, Freddie Gibbs, Kutmah, Illum Sphere, Dels and Jehst.
En route to an unlikely music venue in the middle of nowhere that is Alexandra Palace for the I'll Be Your Mirror event (July 23), the sad news of Amy Whitehouse’ untimely passing has filtered out through the grapevine. Rather than dampen the event it only adds to the magnitude of witnessing the elusive and enigmatic MF DOOM, legends of the Hip Hop underground Company Flow (specially reunited for the occasion) and music innovators Portishead all under one roof for the first day of a two day mini festival featuring a diverse range of artists selected by Portishead to perform.
Upon entering the venue just in time to see Doom and his Fat Man Scoop look a-like hype man take to the stage in the Great Hall, one thing becomes obvious – his stage show consists of one glowing apple from a Macbook resting on a table. No DJ, just an iTunes play list of instrumentals for Doom to rap over and even more product placement for Steve Jobs. For any other artist this would constitute as taking lazy liberties, however Doom is not just any artist and due to strength of his material and distinct charismatic delivery – he manages to get away with such liberty taking.