Honestly, I don’t think there’s a better album to walk the streets of New-York on a grey, rainy, foggy afternoon…
Cannibal Ox one and only record is undoubtedly as emblematic of its time as “Enter The Wu-Tang” was back in ‘93. A vertiginous evil opening to the 21st century, made of metal, blood and bile. The twin-towers will blow up in a few months, from their bunker in Manhattan Cannibal Ox set the scene. And unleash “Definitive Jux” golden age…
Catch your breath and press play, what you can smell right now is the imminent apocalypse that has already started to spread on the streets, a suffocating urban decadence all melted in fear, paranoia and violence. The signs are already here for those who know where to glance.
And when Vast Aire (who definitely eclipses the performance of his mate Vordull) finally grabs the mic, you’re sucked in. There’s no turning back. The 14 tracks of the album are the sick organs of the big city, never asleep, always crawling like a nest of worms, dying but refusing to die, perfused with acid and gasoline, on its way to a final, pale chemical sunset. Tales of perdition, substance abuse, poverty and New-York. New-York as a backdrop to all these subway corridors, dark alleys, devastated apartments full of mutant cockroaches and crackheads. New-York, gross and merciless for the weak. As opposed to the traditional ghetto tales in hip-hop culture, Cannibal Ox brings a sci-fi vibe taking place in the present, a soundtrack atmosphere to any K. Dick novel, where what you commonly refer as “reality” disappears as your synapses collapse. In other words: not recommended to the claustrophobic.
Cannibal Ox created a monster and still today, “The Cold Vein” and its legacy, are unmatched in indie hip-hop.
Purchase it here
Below is a small dutch documentary about “Definitive Jux” (EL-P’s label), really poorly shot but featuring a bunch of cool appearances from EL-P and Vast Aire (charismatic as fuck).