Those that read my Murs-athon post discussing the 2002 release Murs Is My Best Friend may have noticed that, during the write-up on the track "Lokey", I said how I really needed to get into Company Flow as soon as possible. And, true to my word, it wasn't long before I decided to pick up the group's first full-length effort, Funcrusher Plus, an album that surely has the greatest album cover in the history of hip-hop. I mean, just look at it!
Company Flow is widely regarded as one of the more influential and groundbreaking groups in underground hip-hop, with the debut I'm discussing today often being regarded as a pinnacle for the abstract, experimental shit that the major labels were to afraid to put to their names in fear of not making as much money as they'd like. Formed in the early to mid '90s, the group was almost like a left-field, very angry version of A Tribe Called Quest - we had one bloke who could rap, one who could produce, and one who could do both, and it was that latter member who ended up being the most celebrated. El-P continues to thrive in the genre to this day with his Run the Jewels projects, and throughout the 2000s he released a few excellent solo albums, and started up an independent label to dig even deeper into the underground than the label he had just left, Rawkus Records. And yes, Rawkus was the label this project was released on - the same one that kickstarted the careers of Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Shabaam Sahdeeq and even, to an extent, Eminem. El-P was clearly the head of the trio, providing pretty much all of the beats on this debut and a lot of the verses, but lets not forget about Bigg Jus - sure, his solo career never really took off at all, but back in the late '90s there was no denying the skill the man had. And as for the third member DJ Mr. Len, he was purely invited to proceedings for his skill at moving records back and forth on the turntable along with the rhythm - well, this is an underground release. Of course it needed a full-time record scratcher!
Now, Funcrusher Plus wasn't always intended as a full-length studio album. Initially, it was simply an EP entitled Funcrusher, released on a generic vinyl sleeve in 1995 into the streets of Brooklyn to huge acclaim from the group of seven that actually heard it. However, one of these seven people had friends in high places at the fledgling label Rawkus Records, and when he bought this EP to the chairmen, their minds were blown. They signed Co Flow, and asked them to take the EP they had and expand it into a full-length release. The group did as they were told, and what came from the new sessions was nothing short of a masterpiece, that pushed Rawkus to the forefront of the underground scene, where it would remain for a few years until it turned out they were actually quite shady with their money - I mean, El stated himself that he would "rather be mouth-fucked by Nazis unconscious" than sign to the label again. His words, not mine.
It's pretty much an undisputed fact that Funcrusher Plus is one of the most important hip-hop releases of all time, and that surely means it deserves a write-up here. So, is this album as good as people say, or is it even better? Let's get into it.
1. Bad Touch Example (prod. El-P)
Now, when sequencing your album, there's always that big question of what song to put first - this factor is even more important when it's a group that's actually debuting to the public on that particular album. And I guess the ever-rebellious members of Company Flow decided that they were gonna show the world that they weren't afraid of alienating their entire audience, and start the project of with a soundbite from an old child safety video telling children "not to let strangers touch them". I mean, why exactly did we need to hear this? It's very randomly placed and makes it difficult to play this one on the aux the way through - a big shame, as the remainder of this song is actually pretty fucking fantastic. El-P's bass-heavy instrumental is one of the darkest and most haunting on this whole, uhh, LP, and both him and Bigg Jus prove the listeners that they as MCs are nothing short of marvellous, dropping flows and bars that are completely ridiculous and left-field, but also very often hit that sweet spot - I mean, how can you not like "my supersonics leave you mute like Maggie Simpson"? This is a brilliant song - but maybe shy away from the random and awkward documentary clips next time boys?
2. 8 Steps To Perfection (prod. El-P)
3. Collude / Intrude (feat. J-Treds) (prod. El-P)
One of the more light-hearted cuts on the album features verses where El-P and guest star J-Treds seem to battle the major label corporations, almost in rap battle form, only with the opponents not actually dropping any rhymes themselves obviously. The opening of this song is a bit of a cluster of noises, which doesn't make for the most easy of listens, but as soon as the bass drops in you know you're in for something fantastic, and that's exactly what you get. First of all, this bassline is absolutely brilliant, something more light-hearted than what we've heard on the previous two tracks, but still standing as a great backdrop for these fantastic rhymes. I actually think that El's verses on here are his best yet on the album, with more quotables than a '90s season of The Simpsons - my favourites include "for thoughts icy hot like free meals with a cot included" and "fuck Time/Warner and it's affiliates, for runnin' that wannabe Big Willie shit". El's takedown of the major labels is something to be marvelled at, but don't think for a second that J-Treds doesn't pull his weight too - his performance is very nearly as good. The structure of this song is crazily cool, and only made better by the fact that the beat and the rhymes are astonishingly good. Brilliant stuff.
4. Blind (prod. El-P)
5. Silence (prod. El-P)
The first song of quite a few on this album to only feature rhymes from one MC, but the second to only feature one member of the group - "Collude/Intrude" only had El rhyming alongside the guest. This one is left up to Bigg Jus, but we've still got El-P on the beat, a good thing, as anyone with ears would realise that he's been killing it so far. The beat on here is pretty intense and utilises some interesting synths, making it the most accessible beat yet, and Jus rocks it well, with some rhymes that paint the man as some kind of superhuman entity - then again, a lot of rappers take part in such self-uplifting, so I shouldn't be surprised. The two verses on here are pretty excellent, and I also love the scratch of "breaker down with the fuzz", or whatever it is - that shit sounds dope as hell. This is an excellent Jus solo cut.
6. Legends (prod. El-P)
"How hard can that erection be now??"
Speaking of the levels of humbleness present on this album, here's an El-P solo song entitled "Legends". Great. And it's a title that doesn't exactly fit the mood of the song either, as instead of bragging, El uses this one to paint himself as some sort of deranged scientist, or perhaps simply just some utterly insane man with some rather disturbing thoughts in his mental. This is definitely a bit of a weird listen, but it's still pretty great, even if the filter put over El's vocals makes it more than a little difficult to hear what he's saying sometimes. The dark, plodding beat on here works very well, and I loved El's verse on this thing too. Fantastic cut.
7. Help Wanted (prod. El-P)
Since I'm not made of money, I didn't end up getting an original 1997 copy of this CD, but rather I picked up a 2002 re-press, which is fine, except for the fact that track 9 "Lune TNS" is listed as track 7 on the back cover, and the two songs before it are then moved up a spot. I mean, how hard can it be to not make such a stupid mistake? I simply don't understand. Still, whatever - that'll teach me for buying the re-press version. This track is more of an interlude that features various slightly disturbing film samples over a creepy but not too creepy instrumental, and it does a great job of setting up the next track. That ending is brilliantly haunting too. Not bad, for a skit.
8. Population Control (prod. El-P)
Aside from R.A. the Rugged Man's aimless ranting during the chorus, this one easily stands as one of the best cuts on the whole album, and I'd be surprised if anyone thought otherwise. The track starts as El-P goes in acapella, before some hard drum kicks set in, and then finally the incredibly creepy melody comes in in the instrumental, and this is easily one of the hardest moments on the whole album. The beat on here is as hardcore as it gets, and it doesn't stop there - El-P's rhymes on here are brutal and brash, occasionally being randomly abstract, but more often being directly aimed at the competition. Perhaps the best line on this whole record comes in the form of "I don't try to be different, I am / so inevitably my style will survive when your now turns to then". I mean, just look at that! And the drop as Jus' verse comes in is perhaps even harder than that for El-P - his verse is phenomenal too. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the main sample for one of the most brutal and aggressive songs in hip-hop history was from a 1977 animation of The Hobbit. How crazy is that? This song is incredible, and another timeless classic from this album.
9. Lune TNS (prod. Bigg Jus)
According to El-P, this song and one more later on were both created after the label had requested a full-length album from the trio - he felt that they needed some more personal tracks to go alongside the aggressive battle rapping that appears all over this thing. Bigg Jus takes over production duties for the first and last time on the album here, and decides to handle all of the rhymes on this track too, I suppose meaning this is really a taster of what to expect from Jus' later work without El-P behind the boards. And I ain't gon' front - I really don't think this track is that great. The instrumental is OK, but sounds way, way too mainstream and bouncy in comparison with what we've heard so far. I mean, this instrumental is miles away from the previous few. However, it's not the beat that sends this to the maligned spot of "worst song on the album" - it's mainly Jus' actual rapping. This track seems to serve as a song-length shout out to all of the graffiti artists that have inspired Jus over the years, and whilst that's very wholesome, it really doesn't make for something I actually want to listen to. Heck, the guy doesn't even bother to rhyme most of the time on here. Still, the outro was pretty hilarious - "for niggas that don't understand, obviously this wasn't made for you: so fuck you!". Shit, aight man.
10. Definitive (prod. El-P)
El-P decides to send Jus to the naughty step for wasting a whole instrumental on bullshit, handling this almost six minute long song all by himself, and the results are hell of a lot better. El drops three fairly long verses over one of the hardest and most underground beats on the whole album, and each of them stands as a fantastical lyrical onslaught that discusses various things including murdering whack MCs, murdering whack MCs, and murdering whack MCs. Nah, I'm just kidding. There are some other topics discussed in here too, such as the odd line "never again I'll let a record label trap me" - I mean, wasn't he spitting this line on a record label, and a label that was also his first? That line makes about as much sense as the act of eating an entire notepad of important scientific revelations, but as for the rest of this shit, it's one of the best songs on the whole album - the KRS-One samples in the interludes are nice as hell too. This defines early El-P.
11. Lencorcism (prod. Mr. Len)
A short little interlude that involves some nice scratching from Mr. Len over a bassy beat that he apparently produced himself. Also, that "lyrical punisher" is taken from an early Co Flow track called "Juvenile Technique" - aren't I a clever chap?
12. 89.9 Detrimental (prod. El-P)
El-P drops a radio freestyle over the instrumental that will be used in the next song (presumably a song previously released before this whole album, as otherwise it wouldn't warrant such a build-up). Listen to this freestyle, and tell me El-P isn't a genius. Go on. Do it.
13. Vital Nerve (feat. BMS) (prod. El-P)
We already knew the beat would be incredible from what we heard on the last track, but still this one manages to shock by how great it is. This beat might well be stuck in your head for days after a couple of listens, but so will El-P's bars - not as quotable as they were on the freestyle, but arguably even more clever. The chorus on here is by far the best on this whole entire record, and El-P manages to drop three phenomenal verses on this bitch and still leave room for guest star BMS, who now goes by the name of Buddy Slim apparently (a much better title, might I add). And, as much as he does good, there's no stopping El-P by this point on the record, who drops is battle rhymes with professionalism and yet just the right amount of pure anger and aggression. This is yet another classic joint, albeit one that could have used a little more experimentation in the beat. Still, that's it as far as criticism goes.
14. Tragedy Of War (In III Parts) (prod. El-P)
Bigg Jus seems to have been let back into the studio, only he's been warned to stay away from the production equipment under all circumstances, and his encyclopaedia of New York graffiti artists has also been confiscated. This seems to have given the man a new focus, too, as his opening verse over a dark and pulsating instrumental is really stellar, with him once again rapping about his own ability as an MC - he also mentions Stormtroopers, which was always going to be funny. After his verse, we get a breakdown with some scratching (that includes one line from the earlier song "8 Steps To Perfection"), before El-P goes in over a completely different instrumental that stands as probably the most chilled out on the whole record. On his verse, things get a little more serious, as he raps from the perspective of a soldier who went down in his plane, only to have the revelation that it was his own country that were the enemy, and he vows to reap revenge on those that sent him to the hellish battlefield. El would later expand on his hatred for war in the song "The Nang, The Front, The Bush and The Shit" from his debut solo record, but for now this verse keeps us going - it's really fucking good. This is one of the more inventive songs on the album, and I absolutely love it.
15. The Fire In Which You Burn (feat. J-Treds & The Brewin from The Juggaknots) (prod. El-P)
16. Krazy Kings (prod. El-P)
This one right here is yet another Bigg Jus solo, and he dedicates his verses here to dealing with violence in the hood, and also police brutality - yes, it's a subject that's been discussed before, but with something like this it's probably for the best that we're getting lots of awareness on it. El-P's instrumental on this song isn't really one of my favourites on here, as it's a little too low-key to really engage throughout this track, and I also think the song lasts a little too long for not having the most engaging beat, and also having a slightly annoying filter on Jus' voice that makes him sound like he's a few metres away from the actual microphone. Still, the lyrical content is engaging enough on here to keep things going. If this was a bit shorter, it'd probably land higher on my ranking.
17. Last Good Sleep (prod. El-P, intro prod. by Mr. Len)
This is the other of the two songs that were created to be in a more personal vein. In this song, El-P tells us the story of the night his stepfather put his mother within inches of her life by slamming her head repeatedly into a brick wall. On one of the more harrowing hip-hop songs in existence, El-P relays the night it happened with vigorous details of things that happened that day, thereby showing just how much the event truly effected him. I don't really think there's much I can say here - this song really does convey perfect emotions of guilt, confusion and anger, and also makes me enormously glad that I've never had to go through anything even slightly similar to what El was put through that night. I suggest checking this article, written by El himself, out if you want to read more about the event, and this song in particular. This is quite probably the most powerful and disturbing song I've ever heard.
18. Info Kill II (prod. El-P)
The first "Info Kill" was one of the singles Co Flow dropped before the release of this project, I believe. This one right here is a dramatic sounding track that ends the album in an interesting fashion - this shit sounds like the type of thing you might hear in the end credits of a sci-fi film, and that is pretty perfect considering the generally spacey atmosphere we've felt on this album so far (spacey as in it sounds like it was made in outer space). The two verses on here aren't anything to wow you except for El's delivery of the line "scored in the top 5 percentile of the country, quite easily" - I just always find the way he says that line to be pretty hilarious. In fact, my favourite aspect of this one might actually be the hook, when the instrumental builds up a bit into something wonderful, and we also get a sample from Redman's verse on EPMD's "Hardcore" (that's his first appearance on wax ever, ya know?). This is a stellar way to end the album.
19. Funcrush Scratch (prod. Mr. Len)
The other scratch-fest on this album is also entirely provided by Mr. Len, albeit this time we've got something much longer than "Lencorcism". This is an intriguing end to the project, and the little "don't touch me, man" at the very end was a nice callback to the opening track, even if the thing it's calling back to isn't actually a part of the album I liked. Great little send off for the project right here.
Imagine Method Man & Redman's Blackout! had a baby with El-P's Fantastic Damage, and then left it on an unfamiliar planet for it's growth years, where it was surrounded by weird, otherworldly creatures and technology. That's what Funcrusher Plus is. This album is one of the weirdest, most deranged, most otherworldly things I have ever listened to, and I absolutely and positively love it. This album is easily one of my favourites of all time, and for something that's well over 70 minutes long it's quite impressive that this thing manages to stay so damned consistent. The beats on this album are nothing short of phenomenal, whether it be the poignant "8 Steps To Perfection" and "Info Kill II", the rugged "Population Control" and "Definitive", or the more relaxed "Bad Touch Example" and "Tragedy Of War". Pretty much all of these beats are some of the most unique, creative and yet equally banging I have heard, and if we remove Bigg Jus' beat on "Lune TNS", then this is honestly in conversation for best produced hip-hop album of the 1990s. That's how good these instrumentals are. The scratching on here is great too, and Mr. Len's contributions to these tracks always feel like they fit in the song without distracting from the verses. I do love me a bit of record scratching. And as for the rapping, sure it's not the most in-depth or diverse selection of lyrics, but the amount of quotable lines and brilliant verses on this thing make up for that - and what is the underground known for if not battle rap? Battling is something that defines hip-hop, and it can be seen in spades throughout this album. And it's not all that either - "Tragedy Of War", "Krazy Kings" and "Last Good Sleep" all prove that these guys are capable of rapping about more deep subject matters without falling apart lyrically. And the latter of those songs... man. And that's another thing - the highs on here are some of the most astonishing hip-hop songs ever made, and as a whole this thing continues to show its influence to this day. This isn't just one of the most important releases in hip-hop ever, but it's also one of the best, and would make my top 30 albums any day of the week. This album is truly astonishing. And look at that album cover!! Just look at it!
Best Tracks: Pretty much every song would end up in here
Worst Tracks: Lune TNS
I'll be continuing with the discographies of these guys in the future, so I'm sure you'll look forward to that!
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