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Avg: 4.0 (259 ratings)
- Date Released: May 15, 2001
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Style: Hip-Hop
- Label: Definitive Jux / The Orchard
Underground hip-hop's grimy ground zero.
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We Say...
Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein blew indie hip-hop wide open in 2001, collapsing the false distinction between “street” and “backpack” rap way before Kanye (and with way different results). Vast Aire and Vordul combined Raekwon’s airtight, stressed-out crime dramas with crackpot Egyptology (“Pigeon”), Marvel Comics pulp (“Battle for Asgard,” possibly the first time African-American rappers referenced Norse mythology) and even a little emo (“The F-Word”). But for all the duo’s rhyme virtuosity and brutalist detail — “You was a stillborn baby/ Your mother didn’t want you/ But you were still born/ Boy meets world/ Of course his pops is gone” — it was El-P’s production that really flipped conservative indie wigs and garnered the duo attention outside of the rap world. At the same time that producers like Swizz Beatz were using high-gloss Casio keyboards to start the party, El-P was power sanding his beats and soaking his hooks in brine. El fashioned a wheezing machinefunk full of biting synth winds blowing through subway stops and sonic quotes from Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio.” The end result was a grimy classic of 21st-century NYC hip-hop that kicked off El’s well-regarded Def Jux imprint and that both rappers and producer have yet to top.
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They Say...
While it can be said that many underground crews have been floundering in the gray matter of indie hip-hop, Cannibal Ox filled that area in with 2001's The Cold Vein for El P's Def Jux imprint. The music press had been quick to point out that Vast Aire and Vordul Megilah's attack is at times highly derivative of the Wu Tang Clan, and the point is valid. Thankfully, El P (a serious candidate for producer of the year) lays out some of the most lushly intriguing sounds and beats that feel as herky-jerky as they sound gilded with silk. It's a bit misleading to harp on the Wu factor that The Cold Vein contains since this record's content is immensely original and the Wu references that seem present are in the enlightened gloomy flow and psychedelic backdrops -- not, (with all due respect) in the kitschy hooks and unfocused rhymes that Wu Tang are also known for. Aire and Megilah swirl around in b-boy posturing and obtuse nonsense as their innovation rears its head at every corner with scatter-shot lines like: "And I ain't dealin' with no minimum wage/I'd rather construct rhymes on a minimum page," and "You were a still-born baby, your mother didn't want you but you were still-born." While there's not a throwaway track per se, the album's length does run a bit long (at least they didn't make it into a double CD as a lot of rap acts have been known to do). To their immense credit, Cannibal Ox and El P have assembled one of the most listenable hip-hop albums in far too long. Headz be aware: Independent hip-hop has a new voice and this is your beat fix for 2001.
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| 01. |  |
Iron Galaxy |
5:56 |
|
| 02. | |
Ox Out The Cage |
3:28 |
|
| 03. | |
Atom |
5:52 |
|
| 04. | |
A B-Boy's Alpha |
4:27 |
|
| 05. | |
Rasberry Fields |
4:01 |
|
| 06. | |
Straight Off The DIC |
4:17 |
|
| 07. | |
Vein |
4:27 |
|
| 08. | |
The F Word |
5:27 |
|
| 09. | |
Stress Rap |
5:31 |
|
| 10. | |
Battle For Asgard |
4:26 |
|
| 11. | |
Real Earth |
3:57 |
|
| 12. | |
Ridiculoid
|
4:46 |
|
| 13. | |
Painkillers |
5:58 |
|
| 14. | |
Pigeon |
6:10 |
|
| 15. | |
Scream Phoenix |
5:05 |
|
15 Total Tracks, 73:48 Total Length
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Credits
- Phil Painson - Mixing // Vassos - Engineer // Vassos - Mixing // Vassos - Recording // El-P - Producer // Emily Lazar - Mastering // Matt Quinn - Mixing // Cannibal Ox - Main Performer // Dan Ezra Lang - Art Direction // Dan Ezra Lang - Design // Vast Aire - Vocals // Tyson Jones - Illustrations // Nasa - Mixing // Nasa - Recording // Alaska - Performer
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