October 13, 2004 - 1AM - RJD2. So upon entirely missing Jean Grae at Crash Mansion, and instead hanging out watching some Brooklyn Academy rappers berate their audience for being so "shitty," I headed back to the inconveniently located Irving Plaza for two shows, RJD2 & Mixmaster Mike, both of whom were on my shortlist of requests for the marathon. I have RJD2's "Deadringer" album, which is quite good - lots of instrumental hip-hop and a coupla good MC'd tracks - so I was curious to see what his live set was like. And it turns out it was awesome. If you have the chance to see him, do - he's an exceptionally competent mixer and is having a ton of fun to boot. He kept smiling and getting excited at playing, which for me is one of the most important things. I always want to see that the performer is having a good time while performing. You can't really tell from this photo, but he had four turntables set up, as well as a sampler and a drum pad. And the entire show, he was running back and forth, no headphones on, mixing it all together on the fly, and it FUCKING BANGED. I was nodding my head, the crowd was into it, there was lots of cheering - so much fun. One of the best shows of the marathon, hands down.