Tuesday, March 13, 2007

No Words Part Four

In 1996, indie label Bulk Records released what later would become a cult classic and one of the definitive underground hip hop/”backpacker” albums. Produced almost entirely by the now legendary producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura (with help on “Technical Difficulties” and title track “Dr. Octagon” by the beast behind the boards Kut Masta Kurt), Kool Kieth and his apprentice Sir Menelik delivered the Dr. Octagon “Octagonecologyst” LP. Later the album would become so popular that Dreamworks/SKG would buy it and rerelease it. The legend goes that Keith was given a balloon payment of $25,000 after the album was bought by Dreamworks and he blew the majority of it on porn. As much as I liked the “Dr. Octagon” album I think I like the instrumental album even more. Here it is, the Octagon beats:

Instrumentalyst (Octagon Beats) (1996)
http://www.mediafire.com/?9myteznzdyk

Company Flow was already about to go their separate ways as a group and they were at their wits end with Rawkus when “Little Johnny From The Hospitul” was released in 1999. They were underwhelmed with Rawkus’ promotion of the product as well as their ability to distribute it. Co Flow eventually broke up and El Producto started up his Def Jux label while Mr. Len started up his own Dummy Smacks label (Big Juss was already an A&R at the short lived indie 3-2-1/Zero Hour Records with Fiona Bloom). This is Company Flow’s final Rawkus release featuring 16 beats that were never spit on (unless you count the rash of rough demos between 1999-2000 with emcees spittin’ over these joints). I got this one on preorder from Sandbox Automatic eight damn years ago...how time flies. Check it out:

Little Johnny From The Hospitul (1999)
http://www.mediafire.com/?brfwyylzwnn

Last but not least comes the instrumental album for “Fantastic Damage”. El-P produced the entire project himself and it would go on to become a critically acclaimed underground classic album. This was one of the most definitive (no jux) post 9/11 New York albums released and it along with Cannibal Ox’s “The Cold Vein” helped to define the sound of Def Jux for it’s audience. I survived many shifts working overnight playing these very instrumentals at 3:00 AM and now you can posess them as well. Here they are:

Fan Dam Plus (2002)
http://www.mediafire.com/?2mzmzuwi1yz

One.

2 comments:

Strong Arm Mike said...

Little Johnny is one of my favorite instrumental albums, and I think its some of the best stuff made by Mr. Len and El-P. Special thanks for the post and the lowdown from Dart Adams.

Dart Adams said...

I fixed the link...One.