Mark your calendars, TMT readers, because now you got something to do. Well, okay, not “something to do” but “something to buy,” and in today’s world, is there a difference? No. So mark that fucking calendar already and save some money, because now you got “something to buy” on May 5.
Definitive Jux has recently announced to me, by way of Tele-Type device, that they will be reissuing Company Flow’s (genius, genre-shattering, status-quo-altering) full-length debut Funcrusher Plus. The album was the first great hip-hop album I bought because I wanted to, not just because my older brother told me to. Originally released in that wonderful year, 1997, to widespread critical acclaim, admiration, and respect from the hip-hop community, Funcrusher Plus is “widely recognized as one of the most influential hip-hop albums EVER, shattering conventions with its musical complexity and uncompromising lyricism.” That’s a fancy way of saying that hip-hop today wouldn’t be nearly the same (or as good) if the album didn’t exist.
Company Flow, consisting of producer/MC El-P, MC Bigg Jus, and DJ Mr. Len, created a musical statement that stood in direct opposition to the hip-hop/rap stylings of the time. Company Flow did away with the last dying embers of the G-Funk era and rejected the new glitzy world that Puffy Dad was building -- instead, they opted for lo-fi, stark, minimalist beats and highly literate lyrics with intense rhyme structures. They also infused the hip-hop culture that followed in the wake of the album with a DIY aesthetic that lives on to this day. As far as I’m concerned, this album started everything that we know now as “Indie Hip-Hop” or “Backpacker Hip-Hop.”
Out of print since 2006, the newly remastered album will be available May 5 on digital, vinyl, and CD formats. The digital release will also feature rare pre-1995 tracks “Juvenile Techniques” and “Corners 94,” as well as post-Funcrusher tracks “Simple,” “DPA,” and “Simian Drugs.” The album will also be repackaged with its original artwork as done by Matt Do and graffiti legend EWOK.
Take it away, press release:
Beyond amassing legions of fans across the globe, few independent releases in recent memory have received the level of accolades and kudos from journalists, critics, and artists of all strata as this landmark album. Now a new generation of music fans will have a chance to hear what the fuss was all about.
