On its final day, Sunday, Fun Fun Fun found its ideal medium when Doomtree set fire to the Blue stage. As one act fitting squarely within the Fest’s ethos, the hip-hop collective’s everlasting emergence continued, pleasing a mostly curious crowd with intellectual riot-rap mantras and a welcome smidgen of feel-good.
Straight outta Minneapolis, MCs P.O.S., Dessa, Cecil Otter, Sims, and producers Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger continue to push the envelope, merging subversive themes with more direct, jump-up messaging. Yes, they’d like you to have fun – just with a side of sedition.
P.O.S. still pulls a bit of tone trickery on nihilist banger “Get Down,” with, “I don’t wanna think about it, I just wanna get down!” That generally gets throngs up front in an uproar, unaware (or more likely uncaring) of the message. Sims’ anti-pig trap “They Don’t Work for Us,” meanwhile, pulls the inner revolutionary out of everyone.
One could quibble that only those who like Sims could get away with expressing such an inflammatory sentiment unscathed, but that’s his modus operandi: down-with-the-man. The group reached full peak on the monstrous “Final Boss,” a post-apocalyptic rock-step jam boasting “all hunger, no thirst.”
“Probably got a gas can, too!” screamed P.O.S. on inflammatory single “Fuck Your Stuff.” “I’m not here to fill her up/ We’re here to riot, here to incite!”
Making no attempt to conceal their real colors, Doomtree remains rap’s most punk outfit.
This article appears in November 6 • 2015.
