Man, I really wanted to like this one, and even now it still baffles me why I don't; the producer is EL-P, mastermind behind
Funcrusher Plus, one of my favorite hip-hop records of all time, and Cannibal Ox, lyrically, cover similar themes (science fiction, surrealism)--except maybe even to a more extreme extent than Company Flow. So what's the problem? The problem might lie in the beats--while the beats on
Funcrusher were a bit odd and skewed compared to most hip-hop production, there was still a solid enough low end that the songs never floated away--a track like "Silence" was as funky as anything the Roots ever did. This album, though, mainly focuses on the "creepy" side, and the songs kind of fly away with it. Also the guys in Ox are nowhere as good at rapping as Company Flow were--while the first half of
Funcrusher Plus was alive with memorable lines ("mute like Maggie Simpson"; "I see through pussy like the Invisible Woman") there's almost nothing here to latch onto--they're trying to be too weird, and frankly, when it comes to surrealistic lyricism in rap,
nobody is ever going to outdo Kool Keith on
Dr. Octagonecologyst, so best not even try. It might not seem fair to constantly bring up another record when looking at this one, but
Funcrusher Plus is this album's most obvious referent, and the similarities between the two are so strong that when listening to this one, all I can hear are its faults. It's great for two tracks, but becomes incredibly numbing for longer than that--every track has the exact same production tricks and atmosphere. Disappointing, all the more so because modern hip-hop could use a bit of branching-out like this album tried to do.
MY RATING:
4.4
Cannibal Ox - "Stress Rap"
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