Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
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Free Music Notes for Funcrusher Plus
Free Music Review: A little too artistic for its own good
Hit: 3 Stars
Company Flow's 1997 debut "Funcrusher Plus" is a landmark album in a number of ways. It was the first release from the influential Rawkus Records, it introduced three men who would soon be forces in underground hip hop, and it opened the door for a new wave of alternative rap. Rapper Big Juss, MC/producer El-P, and DJ Mr. Len are an artistic group that made forward-thinking hip hop. "Funcrusher Plus" is an interesting album, a collection of music recorded over a four-year period. Both rappers are impressive, delivering a mix of abstract battle rhymes and futuristic stories and imagery. Some of the songs profile an apocalyptic future of robots and corruption. Big Juss and El-P are talented rappers, and they have funny punchlines, clever pop culture references, and very creative lyrical concepts.
My problem with "Funcrusher Plus" is that, in their effort to be "independent as f---," Co-Flow sacrifices a certain level of appeal, coming across to this reviewer as too artistic for its own good. El-P is a good producer, but most of his beats here are sparse, rigid, and mechanical. The songs are unstructured and most don't have hooks, and for the most part, the album tries to be so experimental that it borders on inaccessible. In fact, the best songs, "Vital Nerve" and "Krazy Kings," have a more conventional song structure without sacrificing the futuristic sound and conceptual lyrics. These songs are especially impressive from an artistic level, and they are also fun rap songs to listen to. Other highlights include "8 Steps to Perfection" and the interludes "Lune TNS" and "89.9 Detrimental."
I love underground hip hop, and I appreciate "Funcrusher Plus" as a triumph in hip hop as an art. They did something unlike anything else and pushed the boundaries of the genre where they hadn't been pushed before. But, however great a piece of art "Funcrusher Plus" is, that doesn't necessarily make it fun to listen to all the time. It's far too long for a comprehensive listen, and is at times tedious.
"Funcrusher Plus" is impressive artistically, but in my opinion, that doesn't make it totally enjoyable. While there are some really great songs and El-P and Big Juss turn in some great performances, the disc lacks the musical and structural appeal of a great rap LP. Other hip hop concept albums with a similar futuristic concept, such as The Future Is Now, Deltron 3030, and Dr. Octagonecologyst, are abstractly creative and experimental, but are also really fun to listen to. "Funcrusher Plus" is definitely a good album from that aspect, but if looking for an album of that nature, I'd recommend the previously mentioned before this one.
Free Music Review: A little too artistic for its own good
Hit: 3 Stars
Company Flow's 1997 debut "Funcrusher Plus" is a landmark album in a number of ways. It was the first release from the influential Rawkus Records, it introduced three men who would soon be forces in underground hip hop, and it opened the door for a new wave of alternative rap. Rapper Big Juss, MC/producer El-P, and DJ Mr. Len are an artistic group that made forward-thinking hip hop. "Funcrusher Plus" is an interesting album, a collection of music recorded over a four-year period. Both rappers are impressive, delivering a mix of abstract battle rhymes and futuristic stories and imagery. Some of the songs profile an apocalyptic future of robots and corruption. Big Juss and El-P are talented rappers, and they have funny punchlines, clever pop culture references, and very creative lyrical concepts.
My problem with "Funcrusher Plus" is that, in their effort to be "independent as f---," Co-Flow sacrifices a certain level of appeal, coming across to this reviewer as too artistic for its own good. El-P is a good producer, but most of his beats here are sparse, rigid, and mechanical. The songs are unstructured and most don't have hooks, and for the most part, the album tries to be so experimental that it borders on inaccessible. In fact, the best songs, "Vital Nerve" and "Krazy Kings," have a more conventional song structure without sacrificing the futuristic sound and conceptual lyrics. These songs are especially impressive from an artistic level, and they are also fun rap songs to listen to. Other highlights include "8 Steps to Perfection" and the interludes "Lune TNS" and "89.9 Detrimental."
I love underground hip hop, and I appreciate "Funcrusher Plus" as a triumph in hip hop as an art. They did something unlike anything else and pushed the boundaries of the genre where they hadn't been pushed before. But, however great a piece of art "Funcrusher Plus" is, that doesn't necessarily make it fun to listen to all the time. It's far too long for a comprehensive listen, and is at times tedious.
"Funcrusher Plus" is impressive artistically, but in my opinion, that doesn't make it totally enjoyable. While there are some really great songs and El-P and Big Juss turn in some great performances, the disc lacks the musical and structural appeal of a great rap LP. Other hip hop concept albums with a similar futuristic concept, such as The Future Is Now, Deltron 3030, and Dr. Octagonecologyst, are abstractly creative and experimental, but are also really fun to listen to. "Funcrusher Plus" is definitely a good album from that aspect, but if looking for an album of that nature, I'd recommend the previously mentioned before this one.
Free Music Review: DNT SLEEP
Hit: 5 Stars
WELL IF YOU READ THIS AND DNT HAVE THIS CD THEN YOU SLEPT ON IT , CD HARD TO FIND INDI CLASSICK NUFF SAID !Free Music Review: I HATE THAT THEY BROKE UP!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
everytime that i hear this album, which is CLASSIC MATERIAL, i ask the question, WHY THE HELL DID THEY BREAK UP!!!! this album is in its own category. i have not heard anything like it since. i just close my eyes and just chill out to this. i forget where i am, ya know. this is what i call an ANTIALBUM. they were disgusted about the "self celebratory" stuff that was coming out at the time. so FUNCRUSHER PLUS was like their lil ANTITHING. that in itself makes me love it even more because it got to the point where i did not like it either!!!!Free Music Review: Funcrusher Plus
Hit: 5 Stars
If hardcore punk were rap, it would be called "Funcrusher Plus" by Company Flow, and it would be the most assaultive, confrontational hip-hop record since N.W.A. first lambasted the Los Angeles Police Department. Armed with fist-pumping liberal intensity, a healthy distrust of manipulative authorities, an expansive vocabulary and rhymes so quick and dizzying you'll need a lifetime and three wise men to pick up everything that's spit in your direction, El-P and Big Juss created the blueprint for nearly every experimental rap record that followed. Topics included corporate greed, political corruption, sci-fi dystopia, warfare and domestic violence, backed by bargain-basement beats and sparse, off-kilter melodies that made no attempt to sound pretty. Indeed, Company Flow saw ugliness in all its forms and turned it into music that was difficult--even traumatic--to swallow. And yet, in 1997, "Funcrusher Plus" was eerily prescient of the perpetual state of emergency that Americans would find themselves in not half a decade later. In that sense, there is nothing at all excessive about Company Flow's mission statement or their method of laying it down on wax.