Thursday night at The Troubadour started off a little something like this: First, a kick-ass set by emcee 2mex, a spontaneous lyricist that wove together intricate phrases almost as easily as he was breathing. 2mex playfully created his set as he went along, dropping fresh beats and placing his old verses over them, once even to Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So.” Then came the two-hour rap party: enter Doomtree.

Producer Lazerbeak stepped out on stage first for a ten-minute solo set during which he performed tracks off of his newest album, Lava Bangers. After his performance, the rest of the crew jumped out to join him and kick the head bumping up a couple notches. They filed out one by one: Paper Tiger, P.O.S., Dessa, Mike Mictlan, Sims, and Cecil Otter, and the rest of the set was an inspiring, feel-good piece of history (or at least it was in my book)!

The crew performed songs from their newest album, No Kings: “Bangarang,” “Bolt Cutter,” “Gimme The Go,” “The Grand Experiment,” “Little Mercy,” and “String Theory.” At some point during these tracks I lost myself in the hype of it all, and when I came to, it hit me. This crew had performed most, if not all of their new album. How often does that happen? They weren’t kidding around, it was a BONA FIDE two-hour rap party. By the end of it everyone was just getting down and groovin’; Sims even jumped off stage into the crowd a couple of times to mosh around a bit.

The crew also performed some ‘ol Doomtree favorites such as “Game Over,” not to mention the members’ own tracks from previous solo albums. Dessa got the crowd going when she stepped up to sing “Dixon’s Girl” beautifully, might I add. The female rapper/singer called it her version of a hip-hop waltz. Next, Cecil Otter performed “Rebel Yellow” while assuring the audience that the song is based on a true story. P.O.S. performed “Purexed” and also dropped a new track called “F*** Your Stuff” (the song is set to be released on his newest album, which he promised us would be out later this year).

Imagine it…You wake up every morning and you make music with your friends, then you go out at night and perform for those who appreciate it. That’s THE life. The members of Doomtree were having a BLAST, feeding off of each other and dancing their souls out on stage. Doomtree ended their performance Thursday with “Team the Best Team,” then came out for an encore with “Fresh New Trash,” both of which are off of No Kings as well. My expectations going in were high for this crew. I’ve loved their stuff for a long time now, so I was just so damn excited to see them and they still BLEW me away!

Here, check out their newest music video for song “Bangarang”!

For more info on Doomtree: Official Site