CUNNINLYNGUISTS' DJ KNO PUTS DOWN MF DOOM'S NO-SHOWS

Touring in hip-hop is one of the few things still remaining in the business that holds an utmost amount of integrity and wholeness. Albums and songs are being illegally downloaded at ridiculous rates while record labels are progressively fueling the industry with their deceitful marketing tactics and procedures. During concerts and shows, none of those corrupted changes stand in the way between the fans and the artist. Rappers need tours just as much as their fans do. For both parties, it's a perfect escape from the struggles of reality in this difficult time.

But what happens when the artist doesn't take touring so seriously? What happens when the magic and memories at a concert disappear to nothing but the detrimental money methods that are ruining the industry today? Ask MF Doom. For the past year, the infamous rapper has been hiring replacements to "perform" at his shows in place of himself. Call them imitators, impersonators, impostors, or whatever you like. One thing's for certain: they are not MF Doom.

The most recent of these impostor sitings occurred a couple weeks ago during the Rock the Bells stop in San Bernardino, California. A fake Doom took the stage with a few hype men and began lip-syncing through the set, awkwardly pacing from left to right, staring at his shoes with no crowd interaction. Fans began to realize that this isn't what they paid their hard-earned cash for as they started to boo and throw objects on stage. Video footage of the incident can be seen here. In the past, there have been reported circumstances when the MF Doom impostor actually stole the venue's ticket sales after running off the stage and immediately out the door in the middle of the set, ensuring that the crowd will not be able to get a refund. Talk about bizarre.

DJ Kno, one-third of the critically acclaimed underground hip-hop group Cunninlynguists, found out about the MF Doom scandal in San Bernardino and had a few words to say about it. On his record label's website, Kno conducted "An Open Letter to Mf Doom" where he bashes the MCs no-shows, calling them "completely foul" among other things.

See, people don’t buy much music anymore. Touring is what allows artists who aren’t supervillainous children of Latverian gypsies bent on world domination to meet our fans, fuel our art and put money into our projects and pockets. As part of an “indie” act that operates in the same ever-narrowing circles as you, I can definitely say the ability to book proper gigs with reputable promoters and venue operators is becoming more and more scarce by the month, especially with the poor reputation live hip-hop has for professionalism and punctuality as well as the economic woes of many venues and agencies. The recession is a sumbitch.

So, if any artist pisses off these promoters, fans or venue owners then ultimately they are fucking with my money.

I'm not here to judge a way a dude makes his dough, but unfortunately, this ain't about money. It's about artist integrity. As much as I am a fan of MF Doom's work, who does he think he is? He needs to stop hiding behind his protective mask and rethink the pleasure he gets from scamming his loyal fans and the venues. Without his fans, MF Doom will be no one to this day. Marketing technique or not, this entire impostor scandal is not what concerts are about, and it's definitely not what hip-hop's about. It's too bad some artists just don't care.

Kno's full blog post can be read here.