Sour Soul from Ghostface Killah and Badbadnotgood is out very soon, and the supreme team has released a new track to tease us. Street Knowledge is a change of pace from Ray Gun with MF Doom, but still has Ghost dropping classic lines.
http://www.audiomack.com/embed4-large/dj-arabmixtapes/street-knowledge
We don’t know much about J-PRIMZ, but this first effort from them is a decent intro. Of course, it helps somewhat that the beat happens to be from MF Doom. Listen to Lemon Juice below and let us know thoughts.
Cast your mind back to 2001. Years before Run the Jewels, El-P was already a hero of New York’s underground hip-hop scene. Four years had passed since the release of the seminal album Funcrusher Plus from his group Company Flow. But in the short years since then, the group had disbanded, and that late-90s golden era of independent hip-hop labels had started to die fast. Bobbito’s Fondle’em Records was on its very last legs, and even Rawkus, the label that had released Funcrusher Plus and so many other incredible records in such as a short space of time, was in decline.
El-P was doing everything he could to keep the spirit alive though, and by now his Definitive Jux record label had built up solid momentum as the new flag-bearer for all things quality indy rap. In the next few years, Def Jux would release a run of incredibly creative hip-hop records that would gain critical praise and cross-over appeal, and breath new life into a sub-genre that tended to get pigeon-holed rather pointlessly as ‘alternative hip-hop’.
The line-up of talent on the label was a mixed-bag of new voices and established ones, often bringing out the absolute best in artists like Murs, Mr Lif, Aesop Rock, RJD2, and El-P himself. Def Jux would eventually shut up shop less than a decade later, but the legacy it left is still felt today, especially in the spirit of modern independent hip-hop labels like Rhymesayers and Mello Music Group.
Back to 2001, where Def Jux put out their finest release of all; Cold Vein, the debut album from Cannibal Ox. A genuine game-changer, it was a record that embodied everything the label stood for, and was about as far as you could get from a commercial rap record. Fans loved it, critics loved it, and it was instantly hailed as a classic.
And then, nothing. We’ve since had a handful of impressive solo albums from both group members, Vast Aire and Vordul Mega, but no full length album post Cold Vein (we aren’t counting the live album from 2005).
We all got pretty damn excited then when it was recently announced that the group would soon be dropping Blade of the Ronin, a brand new album at last. Our hopes were crushed again however, when it became obvious there would be no input from El-P.
It’s unfair to say that El-P’s production was the best thing about Cold Vein, but it was certainly the driving force, and the most overtly refreshing and unique element of the album. There is no doubt that Vast Aire and Vordul Mega are incredibly gifted artists and writers, and the hip-hop scene has been itching to get more records from both of them. But take El-P’s soundscapes out of the equation, and it will be hard for the new album to make anywhere near the same impact as Cold Vein.
Blade of the Ronin does have some good things going for it. For starters, and as already stated, both members of the group are superior rappers. The guest list also happens to include spots from Elzhi, Artifacts and a certain MF Doom. But on the leaked credit list, there’s still not a single mention of El-P anywhere. Production duties seem to be resting on the unknown Bill Cosmia instead. And with all due respect to Bill, when we read that, our hearts sank even further.
To try and make another album like Cold Vein would of course be a mistake anyway, and even if they did get El-P, his sound has changed dramatically since 2001. But without him at all, we fear this may be one long-awaited return that might just disappear without much of a trace. We hope to be proved wrong, and that come March, you’ll be seeing us eat our words.
UPDATE: The group recently previewed the MF Doom featuring track Iron Rose. It’s pretty good, so those words we hope to be eating may be consumed sooner than we thought.
Blade of the Ronin is set for release on March 3. Pre-order now.
DJ Premier has been busy conducting interviews over the last few days, documenting the sad demise of his beloved D&D Studios. We’ve been reading along with a few tears in our eyes, but there was also some enticing details from Primo about an extended deluxe version of the PRyhme album. That alone would be exciting enough, but when Preem added that one of the tracks will feature MF Doom, us and everybody else started losing our shit.
There’s many artists we’ve dreamed about hooking up with Metal Fingaz over the years, but Premier has always been right around the top. Catch them both at their best, which is pretty much always, and this could be incredible. It would also be the prefect way to kick off a year that, metal fingers crossed, will bring us a lot of Doom.
There’s that long-delayed and almost mythical full length album with Ghostface Killer. GFK himself recently hinted it is coming this year, and for now it has at least been confirmed that Doom will feature with Ghost on his upcoming Sour Soul album with BADBADNOTGOOD.
In a rare interview with Bonafide magazine last year, Madlib also seemed to suggest that he and MF are at the very least throwing around ideas for the next Madvillain project. That news almost trumps everything else listed above.
Who else is on that list of our dream MF Doom collabs, you ask? Well, some are from way back, like the thought of him sharing the mic with Sir Menelik (currently somewhat AWOL from the game), Company Flow era El-P, Edan, Ill Bill and Kool Keith (before you purists go nuts at us, we know Kool Keith was on Venomous Villain, and there are also tracks with El-P dotted around online, but we want a more significant set of hookups).
Current artists on the wishlist include Action Bronson, Your Old Droog, and the modern era El-P (riding shotgun with his Run The Jewels partner Killer Mike of course). A few months back, 9th Wonder also mentioned how he’d love to work with Doom, and the prospect of that is equally incredible.
If just some of these projects see the light of day, this could be another vintage year for good hip-hop music.
Images of MF Doom without the mask on are rare. Dig around YouTube and you’ll find some of those old KMD videos with him in, back when he was known as Zed Love X. Since then though, clear shots of the man with the government name Daniel Dumile have been hard to come by.
Look closely at the Viktor Vaughn Mr Clean video and you do catch some glimpses, but these are obscured by the animation. It all adds to the mystique of course, and its one of the things we love most about the mythical Metal Face Doom.
A little insight is nice once in a while though, which makes this little gem of a video doing the rounds yesterday a bit special. Its from 1991, where a fresh-faced 19 year old Zed Love X addresses congress peeps about Rock the Vote and other initiatives to get young people voting.
It’s interesting to hear him drop knowledge, but even more fascinating when you remember this is the same man that has gone on to give us so much good music since. Watch the clip here:
http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4513596
Read our review of NehruvianDOOM here.
Few artists have released as many consistently great albums as MF Doom. Partner him up with one of the most gifted rappers of the new generation, and this could have been a classic in the making.
Sadly, it isn’t. NehruvianDoom is a very good album, but never quite lives up to the promise. The biggest problem is Metal Fingers himself, or more specifically, the lack of him. He’s absent on all but four tracks, and Om only has him doing the hook. To be told we are getting a new project by one of the most skillful artists of all time, to then find he’s not on every track is frustrating, especially when the album has been packaged with the same mashed-up naming convention as MF’s other great collaborations (GhostDoom, DangerDoom, JJ Doom, Madvillian).
When he does feature though, he’s on point as ever, effortlessly dropping gems like “A game winning strategy/support your favorite charity/playing with polarity could drain a whole battery”. He also produces every beat, and there’s little to fault here either. He can even still just about get away with having long skits.
As for Bishop Nehru, it’s the perfect showcase for a talented emcee that seems to grow in confidence and skill each outing. There’s no denying the kid has a bright future, although his lyrics can start to wear thin over the course of a full album, even one as short as this (NehruvianDoom is just 10 songs deep, weighing in at a slender 36 minutes).
It’s by far the best thing Nehru has achieved in his short career, and will help keep him at least a tiny bit rooted to the underground scene when the inevitable major league debut comes.
For MF Doom, its falls some distance from the quality we got with Madvillian, Viktor Vaughn and other Dumile classics, but still a better album than most other artists are capable of. As an elder statesmen of the game, it’s refreshing to see Doom passing the baton to the young Nehru. Fingers crossed he doesn’t go and drop it.
NehruvianDoom is out now, on Lex Records.
