REBEL MOVES
Dark Matter drops some heavy beats
Destiny Claymore and Mad S. of the Boston hip-hop duo Dark Matter first bonded over dance. In 2013, the two met while honing their breakdancing skills at a teen center in Dorchester. Claymore's moves impressed Mad S.; her voiced floored him.
“One day, she started singing and the whole room just stopped to listen,” Mad
S. said.
“Yeah, because I was that bad,” Claymore interrupted, then laughed.
“No, no, because she was great,” he finished. “People's jaws dropped.”
Claymore and Mad S. quickly began collaborating on music as Dark Matter, but they never dropped the dancing. This summer, the duo spent a few weeks on the Warped Tour — they celebrate finishing the trek with a homecoming show tomorrow night at Sonia. The Warped Tour is best known as a showcase for up-and-coming punk bands, but Dark Matter added something to the event no punk band could.
“At something like the Warped Tour, people don't expect to see singing, rapping and breakdancing all done live,” Claymore said. “And they especially don't expect to see it from a girl with a mohawk.”
While Dark Matter makes dance an integral part of their performances, the duo doesn't skimp on the music. Beneath the soul singing and rapid-fire rapping, Mad S.'s production ranges from furious to dreamy and atmospheric — listen to the transition from “(expletive) That” to “Golden Cotton” on their debut album, “The Beast & the Room.”
“The entire album is self-produced, made in our home,” Mad S. said. “It was a really fun process to have complete control, but it took a lot of work. We actually made a whole other album, 13 or 14 tracks, then looked at the track list and said, `This isn't good enough,' and started again and made `The Beast & the Room.'”
To hear the pair combine the furious and dreamy, check out their standout single, “Misfit.” The two boom out bombastic verses over a heavy thump and indie electronica flourishes. Claymore jokes that the song's success comes because “people like to see me talk trash.”
“I usually don't rap, so that can surprise people,” she said. “Plus the video has me riding around in a shopping cart, so that's fun.”
From their beats to their breakdancing, the pair pay homage to the golden age of hip-hop. But it's just a slight nod. Mostly, they look forward with that progressive production.
“We respect our roots and the cultural importance of them,” Mad S. said. “But we look to the natural world for inspiration, where if you don't change, you die. We have to evolve as we work. That's the only way to do what we do.”
That said, you can probably expect a few classic b-boy moves at Sonia.