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POD
in assoc. with DEF JUX records presents the hottest property in US hip
hop 2001....
“Let’s not mince any words: this is the best hiphop album for a long long time.” THE WIRE. CANNIBAL OX AESOP ROCK DJ Cip
POD, Harcourt St. Fri 5th Oct. Doors 7:30pm. **early show** Tickets £12 from Ticketmaster and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie. Ph: 1890 925 100 The most talked about property in hiphop today CANNIBAL OX have announced an Irish date on their eagerly–awaited debut European tour next month as part of a Def Jux Records night which will also feature their New York labelmates – the equally-hot although more experienced AESOP ROCK. Fuck The Strokes – this is real New York street music – with passion not posture, as uncontrived as it gets. Cannibal Ox’s debut album ‘The Cold Vein’ has just been released to huge acclaim and is already looking like a contender for album of the year – with many wizened figures convinced it is already a milestone album that will pave the way for a new type of hiphop for the next decade or more. NME described it as a (Marvin Gaye’s) ‘What’s Going On?’ for the hiphop age in a 9/10 review, while THE FACE declared it ‘the hiphop album of the year – already’. Aesop Rock’s imminent third album is his first on the trendy Def Jux label. Described as ‘the rumbling orchestra of the F train barrelling down New York City’s 2nd Avenue’; it has held the #1 spot on mp3.com for a month straight! Both od these With their own DJ Cip filling in the blanks, this show is set to blow Dublin away and make every other hiphop show this year pale by comparison – remember where you saw them first! CANNIBAL OX Ox (noun): a slang term used to describe a sharp blade In 1996 hip hop was in a state of flux, the mainstream was a turgid sludge of reheated disco and soft rock beats, as DJ Shadow neatly paraphrased on his track ‘Why Hip Hop Sucks in ‘96’; “It’s the money...” The underground scene offered a vibrant alternative, united under the banner of the Rawkus razor, the likes of Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Sean J. Period and the Arsonists captured the imagination of the kids world wide. A seminal moment in this creative renaissance was the release of NYC visionaries Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus, a lumbering juggernaught of an album, producer/rapper El-P and cohorts Bigg Jus and DJ Mr Len tore up the hip hop template with their verbose lyricism, dark futurist beats and scratches. Company Flow inspired a whole generation of disaffected hip hoppers to think differently about rhymes and beats. However in the fives years that have followed, most underground hip hop has stagnated, failing to live up to the high standards set by Co Flow, slipping back all too easily into the well-trod dusty jazz/funk loops which in all but the most accomplished hands (think Madlib, Cut Chemist) slip into musical lethargy. Meanwhile the neo funk of wunderkinds The Neptunes and the acid spiked beats of Timbaland continue to push the production envelope by melding hip hop with dance. The torch of innovation, once the sole province of the underground had been well and truly handed to the mainstream, forcing the underground to justify its very existence. Enter Cannibal Ox. With their debut album The Cold Vein, MC's Vast Aire and Vordul Megilah have scaled the dizzy heights of innovation and brilliance set by Funcrusher Plus. With production fittingly handled by El-P, The Cold Vein is a masterwork, allowing us to peer into the murky world of two Harlem youths, translating the world around them into an apocalyptic future. From the swirling guitar of opener ‘Iron Galaxy’, to the squirting bass and stacatto drum patterns of ‘Raspberry Fields’ with Vast and Vordul trading looming battle rhymes; “with ya poker face/I punched you in the stomach and you folded” Can Ox display their tenacious mic mastery. ‘The F-Word’ describes a heartfelt love story, while ‘Pigeon’ is an understated ghetto paen; “Birds of the same feather flock together / Congested on a majestic street corner.” In addition to marking out the arrival of Vordul and Vast as consumate lyricists, The Cold Vein, sees El-P re-establishing himself as a production auteur of the highest order. Similar to many of today’s premier beat merchants, El-P’s morbid gothic soundscapes show evidence of European influence, from the slo-mo synths of Boards Of Canada, to the wilfull experimentation of Radiohead. Just as Company Flow before them, Cannibal Ox have torn up the rule book, sweeping aside the tide of pretenders and making underground hip hop relevant again. 2001 is the year of the Ox... AESOP ROCK Having created intense interest through his highly limited CD albums Music for Earthworms, and Appleseed, and Float on the Mush label, Aesop Rock AKA Ian Bavitz is set to re-enter the spotlight with his debut release for Definitive Jux, Labor Days. This opportunity arrived when Aesop hooked up with Def Jux impresario and fan El-P (of Company Flow); "He's an angel," say El-P in admiration. "He's definitely one of the most talented cat's I've ever met." Having made the decision to join forces with Def Jux, things have never looked better for this Lower East-sider. Following in the considerable tracks of label mates Cannibal Ox, who have given us one of the albums of the decade in The Cold Vein, Aesop is poised to let you in on the secret that's kept dedicated indie hip hop heads buzzing for quite a while. Such is the strength of support for Aesop on the underground, that he had the #1 download on mp3.com for a month straight. Indeed, the hype began largely through the net, with his hard to find early albums traded on napster, soon Aesop was the hottest property in underground hip hop; "It's crazy, I don't even have a computer!" puzzles Aesop. "I don't know how I became an internet "hype", I find the whole thing scary. I think sometimes it does more bad then good; granted people got to discuss my music and learn about it on the net, but the net is also the reason why my new record is being bootlegged two months prior to its release. I'm a much more flesh and bone type of person." Once again teaming up with production partner Blockhead, Aesop brings his rhymes to life over a swirling miasma of delta blues, orchestration and sitars that veer from the underground funk of the lead single 'Coma' to the cello-plucked 'No Regrets', to the spaced-out melodic rant of the title track. Influenced by the varied likes of Public Enemy, Outkast, and the Beatles, Aesop's sheer ability, creativity, and tenacity shine like never before, his lyrical flow setting him aside from your average backpack emcee, painting pictures with his words. Aesop's subject matter ranges from the cinematic storytelling of 'No Regrets' to his seething polemic on the American working life on '9-5ers Anthem'; "I hate the routine aspect of 9-5 jobs, which played a big role behind some of the concepts on the album; wake work sleep repeat." Frowns Aesop. "I usually get inspired to write by thinking about whoever pissed me off recently. To me, life could be real simple for everyone, but I feel like mad cats just act dumb instead of building forward. That shit gets to me, which in turn makes me write." Having achieved a loyal and dedicated fan base the world over, the release of 'Labor Days' is Aesop Rock's crowning achievement so far, as he puts it modestly; "I'm just trying to make some honest shit from the point of view of your average citizen."
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