Joint Contrast

By – TimS

As I sit here preparing to write a couple album reviews (not really reviews, just a couple short articles explaining why I like what I like in a charmingly obnoxious manner that infiltrates your brain matter, therefore causing you to deeply respect my opinion and adhere to it’s merits), I feel obligated to write a brief eulogy.

In the passing weeks and upcoming months we mourn(ed) some of hip-hop’s most brilliant contributors in the likes of J Dilla, Big Pun, Big L, and next month, The Notorious B.I.G. In some way or another the body of work created by these gentleman has shaped the way hip-hop will be remembered as well as the way it will be created henceforth.

But my eulogy is on a more personal note. I recently moved to North Carolina after a brief stint in Rochester, NY. I spent a couple years at SUNY@Purchase (located outside NYC) creating music, making an ass out of myself, consuming copious amounts of drugs and amassing an insurmountable debt. And before that I resided in Ohio, the land of cornfields and smoke stacks, Amish buggies and crack sacks. So it’s safe to say that even though the recent and unreasonably cold weather here in Tar Heel Country provided some slight similarities to my former homes, my time spent braving the brutalities of the northern winter is essentially over. And with that came the reality that I unfortunately will no longer be walking ice-covered sidewalks with a wind chapped face and snotty nose, headphones blasting the ultimate winter soundtrack – The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox.

From the opening vocal sample “Yeah it’s a cold world out there, sometimes I feel like I’m getting a little frosty myself” to the opening line by Vordual Mega, “Life’s ill, sometimes life might kill”, this album is as dark and cold as your soul sometimes manages to feel when hoofing it after the sun’s gone down, and trying to avoid the wind drifted snow as you make it to your destination (pick a metaphor, any metaphor). El-P’s best work? Probably, if only because of the overall synergy between his production (I was going to use an adjective for his production but let’s be honest, there is none), and what Vordual Mega and Vast Aire bring over top it. The production manages to be so cohesive that it feels like the album is one song with multiple acts, yet the songs don’t bleed into each other in annoying redundancy.

And now, a ridiculously over-the-top winter analogy alert… the album plays like a bitter winter night itself in the way the tempo (wind) changes, yet the tone (temperature) remains the same. Those that walk the winsome walk of winter know that the thought process wanders, not aimlessly, but it wanders. Fingertips numbingly grip a cigarette tip, the smoke blends with breath in the frigid air. All this reminds me of the stream-of-conscious rhetoric provided by the Ox MC’s. The subject matter is hard-hitting and fragmented full of grandiose themes, socio-economic observations, verbal middle fingers, self-realization and a few moments of hope.

Sounds like a cold walk home to me. And to be honest, sometimes I miss it. But you know what, it’s not so bad walking home in a t-shirt in February listening to A Tribe Called Quest.

So goodbye old friend. And just know that every time the temperature begins to dip, I strap my boots tight and remember that on this Real Earth every Atom can maneuver through Raspberry Fields like a Pigeon on Painkillers, as long as you remember the F-Word and never Stress Rap. And I’ll never be a Ridiculoid because A B-Boy Alpha begins in my Vein and if the world wants to destroy my Iron Galaxy I’ll tell them to jump Straight Off the D.I.C. and then let the Ox Out the Cage as I prepare for the Battle of Asgard.

And if you don’t know, now you know…