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Underground > Radio & Music >

Cannibal Ox-The Cold Vein: Hip-Hop's Invisibles?

20:55 / 26.02.04

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I 'm happy that the board dropped the whole private thing so I could finally join and contribute.

Here's an interesting thing. around September of Lat year, I started to read the Invisibles series. I'd always been a G. Morriosn fan but I has never actually read the book. While I was reading the book, I was consistently listening the the Cold Vein, which was easily thre single best Hop hop album in 2002 IMO.

Tell me why the undercuring theme of the album is the practical PERSONIFICATION of the message of the invisibles. The last two tracks, especially, illustrate this.

Pidgeon is a poetic diatribe about living life in society's gutter.
lyrics(imperfect, though) here: http://ohhla.com/anonymous/cann_ox/coldvein/pigeon.cox.txt

Scream Phoenix, however, is truly the album's piece de resistance IMO. Is is straight up hip hop trandendentalism. It evokes Gnostic themes within it's hook, and calls for everyone living in this dreary 'pideon existence to worry not for there will be a time when we shall 'soar among the stars'. I listened to this then ever IO read the last issue of Invisibles, as symbolizing Barbelith/VALIS and the Supercontext.

Here is a page with some Can-O playable audio on it, inclusing Pidgeon:
http://www.definitivejux.net/av/cannibal_ox/
more:
http://ughh.com/search/searchresults.asp?searchby=Artist&keywords=Cannibal

15:51 / 08.03.04

Holy shit, the whole of Def Jux back catalogue could be Invisible (except for RJD2, who I used to think rocked, but now just gets on my tits)! "I, Phantom" by Mr Lif? "Delorean" by El-P? And I'm pretty sure that Aesop Rock is on some crazy invisibles shit, if I could understand what the hell he was going on about.

"but I'm exhausted by the scope of this dark god on opiates
breakfast for dystopian ruthless hope movements
seasonal and festive the butchery's lookin good
and now writers block is a prison camp where free press regress"

from "Accidents Don't Happen", El-P

p.s. By the way, if you haven't got it yet, buy "Little Johnny from the Hospital" by Co-Flow. Now that's disturbing.

16:08 / 08.03.04

cripes is this the first canOx thread there's been? i assumed i'd missed it. they've split now, sad. best hiphop album (best album)since fear of a black planet to my mind, but don't mind me.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

16:10 / 08.03.04

I feel the same way about Rjd2. If you want that old timey feeling, though, check out Blockhead's upcoming solo CD, Music By Cavelight. It's everything you've ever wanted.

Can Ox, I think, is more Marvel At Its Most Stan And Jack than it is Invisible. It basically sounds like what Fin Fang Foom would if he/she/it was a Hip Hop Album.

Sure, there's some Builderberg references and what not but it's much less socio-political than it is Becoming Galactus And Leaving The Dirt And The Filth Of The World Behind You.

Hm. I guess that is pretty Invisible.

I'm just not a fan of stapling together ideologies of different mediums, simply because the same person (or type of person) likes them.

And I, Phantom is much more PTA meets Oliver Stone than it is Invisible. (Except "Return Of The B-Boy". That's some Magic Mirror Danger Room shit.)

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

16:11 / 08.03.04

According to a sample on Aes Rock's Bazooka Tooth:

"And, no, Cannibal Ox has not broken up."

Has there been word since then?

19:06 / 08.03.04

Cannibal Ox - last I heard, they'd definitely split (http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=2466) - probably had a beef over who was the most cannibal. Or possibly the most ox. Whichever it was, it's a damn shame.

Anybody for starting a thread on Dead Prez?

cheers y'all

19:09 / 08.03.04

Also

"I'm just not a fan of stapling together ideologies of different mediums, simply because the same person (or type of person) likes them."

Ditto, but given that the same person (or type of person) likes them, that in itself is enough to set up a little meme-chain upon which all kinds of magic can be wrought.

Besides, deep in your heart you know that there's not enough hip-hop on barbelith.

The Natural Way

20:17 / 08.03.04

prize to bb for being able to discern so many words from the last aes rock lbum also

20:22 / 08.03.04

Although when you think about it, he could pretty much tell us anything, claim it was Aesop, and how would we know any different?

Only joking, natch. Much love to Aesop Rock, although that 'extreme backpacker' tag is going to be hard to shake.

autopilot disengaged

21:29 / 08.03.04

can o haven't officially split, but they are working on separate projects. if they do come back as a unit, i only hope they do so with el-p at the controls. to be honest, that one release without his production was pretty ordinary in comparison to 'the cold vein' (and, for that matter, 'fantastic damage').

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

21:35 / 08.03.04

God damn it that's awful about Can Ox. That was the one group I was really looking forward to watching as their career progressed. Hopefully El will produce at least one of their solo albums. I won't say whose.

autopilot disengaged

19:40 / 09.03.04

from the def jux site:

10.20.03 – News Update
The e-mail sent out stating that Cannibal Ox has broken up is apparently bogus. We have just spoken to Vast of Cann Ox. He confirms that they have cancelled the tour due to internal difficulties but denies rumors that they have split. They are both focusing on solo records at the moment. As we have been told the official status is that they are on hiatus. In regards to the Jean Grae tour we will be announcing the cancellation of said tour due to Cann Ox's internal issues but It is not our place to say that Cann Ox has split.

20:25 / 09.03.04

latest news here, and it's all good...

http://www.hiphopsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4785

07:06 / 10.03.04

For my money, Vordul and Vast are way mediocre MCs, redeemed only partially by a cracking turn of phrase at times. Their flows are just too weak. My euphoria on first hearing The Cold Vein was largely due to further confirmation of El-P's status as an earthbound god. He owned that album, easily had the strongest voice despite hardly rapping on it.

17:32 / 16.03.04

*eyes wide as saucers*

El-P better than Vast and Vordul?

I think not.

Quite frankly, Vordul's combo of flow/delivery/voice was by FAR the best on that album, IMO.

Vast's lyricism was brilliant in thier double/triple/quadruple meanings

El's verses were excellent, but I din't think he outshone Vast or Vordul at all.

I do think that El-p's flows on Cold vein were superiormthan the majority of fantastic Damage though.