After DJing and organizing local hip hop concerts in the late '90s and early 2000s, Livestock began learning the craft of lyricism with Noah23 after-hours at a vegan restaurant in Guelph called the Cafe Aquarius where Noah was chef.
Among his influences in this period were Will Oldham, Neko Case, Project Blowed, El-P, Anti-Pop Consortium, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Divine Styler, and Warcloud.
In November 2004, Livestock released his debut solo album, Spiral Like the 9, which was recorded in the office at the Cafe Aquarius mainly during business hours while the restaurant was operational.
[7][8] All of the above albums, except for The Big Crunch, were initially released independently by Livestock himself with DIY artwork and individually produced CDs under his own imprint called Train Rawbers Family Productions.
On this release, Livestock was credited alongside MC Tykus under the group name Karma Kings, though no collaborative project ultimately surfaced.
This album was dedicated to a friend of Livestock's named Sean who lived on a boat off the gulf coast of British Columbia.