Buzzsaw Haircut

On The Grind With El-P and Def Jux

By Paul Labich

Company Flow was formed in 1993, and became the group that pretty much invented the New York underground hip-hop scene. Made up of producer/MC El-P, fellow MC Big Juss and DJ Mr. Len, Company Flow was a sonic blast from the gutter that lost none of its grime on the way to the studio. Their debut EP Funcrusher was an underground phenomenon, and Company Flow was soon signed to Rawkus Records, who at the time boasted a roster including Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, Big L, Kool G Rap, Shabaam Saadiq and Pharaoh Monch Rawkus released the full-length debut Funcrusher Plus in 1998, a groundbreaking record that is still being imitated today.

"My days were numbered with Rawkus. I'm a little too stubborn and a little too directed to just play like a team player on a team that doesn't really know what the hell they're doing," says El-P.

After several years at Rawkus that produced a few minor singles and the instrumental album Little Johnny From The Hospital, released only in Europe, members of Company Flow disbanded and went their separate ways. But from the ashes of Company Flow, front man El-P turned around and founded his own independent hip-hop imprint, Definitive Jux.

"I felt like the independent scene was wide the fuck open, and if someone would step in and take it and create it and define it, there was room for that," says El-P.

El-P took two years to collect music and formed a handpicked roster of then unknown MCs and producers that now reads like an all-star team of underground heroes and future hip-hop saviors. Those he found include Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, RJD2, Cannibal Ox and a slew of up-and-comers including West Coast phenom Murs, who recently released his Def Jux debut The End of the Beginning.

After meeting at a Company Flow show in Boston, dreadlocked intellectual Mr. Lif and El-P clicked together like Voltron and started laying tracks immediately, resulting in 2000's Enter The Colossus EP.

"I was personally pretty blown away by just his presence on the mic from the jump. I mean he's such a cool person, such a thoughtful cat and such a raw MC, and we shared a lot of the same influences in terms of music. It was just kinda easy."

Mr. Lif soon made a name for himself with nasal, razor sharp, politically fueled rhymes that perfectly matched the futuristic distortion of El-P's instrumental tracks. In 2002, Def Jux dropped Lif's Emergency Rations EP and his magnum opus of alienation and struggle in post-9/11 America, I Phantom.

With El-P producing the majority of the tracks and rhymes-like "The purpose of our life is just to serve the economy/ They misinform our minds to paint a picture of harmony/But if you're listening you know that shits out of tune/ 'cause the function of our life is just to work and consume"-Mr. Lif emerged as a hungry MC waiting to blow the hip hop world right open. Lif is currently working on two albums: The Weathermen with fellow Def Jukie Murs and a posse record with Akrobatik called The Perceptionists.

While recording his Def Jux debut Labor Days, Aesop Rock was working 40 hours a week in the shipping department of an art gallery and recording till the wee hours of the night. The result was another Def Jux underground classic, and Aesop Rock's expert delivery shined on tracks like "Daylight" and the electro funk of "Coma". Before hooking up with El-P, Aesop Rock and his production partner Blockhead had already self-produced and distributed three full-length albums.

"Those are the type of people I like to work with, you know. Cats who would be doing their shit regardless of whether or not they knew me," says El-P. Aesop Rock is currently working on his latest Def Jux album, with appearances by Mr. Lif and Camp Lo of "Luchini" fame.

Cannibal Ox's 2001 album The Cold Vein was so highly anticipated that a bootleg advance copy sold enough to show up on the CMJ charts. Produced entirely by El-P, The Cold Vein showcased the gravelly voices of MCs Vordul Megilah and Vast Aire through tales of drugs, crime, struggles and even relationships in the standout track "The F Word."

RJD2 proved to be the wild card up El-P's sleeve. RJD2's Deadringer LP took DJ Shadow's haunting sampling technique and injected head nodding grooves and soul samples into the soundscape. The album was also a stark contrast to the rugged rhymes and beats of the other releases, and flipped the script on those who pegged Def Jux as a one-note label.

A track from Deadringer called "Ghostwriter" also landed on a Saturn commercial during the Super Bowl, a major step for a label known for its street level sensibility.

"We debated about it for a long time. Cause you know, you ride that fine line between selling out and making a good move. We figured we are in a position where we gotta experiment with every way to take the alternative marketing routes. Because we don't have budget like that, so if a major corporation is willing to run RJ's song during the Super Bowl for 30 seconds, fuck it."

But the crowning of achievement of Def Jux and El-P was the completion of his 2002 album Fantastic Damage, an apocalyptic head rush of an album that frightens as much as it exhilarates. Closing himself away for over a year in the Def Jux recording studio, El-P emerged with a masterpiece of new millennium dread and b-boy escapism. A tour of Europe and a romp through the states called Revenge of the Robots ensued, with Lif, RJD2 and Cage & Copywrite along for the ride.

"We're constantly touring, that's a big part of it. That's the easiest, cheapest, most effective way to get your music out to people and show them what you're about. It's probably the only other fun thing that you can do in the music business other than making your album," says El-P.

With a critically acclaimed album, followed by the instrumental/remix album FanDamPlus, and a successful tour under his belt, El-P has been focusing his attention towards other projects. He is currently working on the score for an independent feature film about graffiti writers in New York called Bomb The System, as well as tracks for a jazz album featuring legends Matthew Ship, William Parker and Daniel Carter.

"My job is basically to fuck up their brilliance," El-P says.

El-P was also slated to produce tracks for the upcoming Zack De La Rocha hip-hop album along with Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow, but has not spoken to Zack in over a year.
"Yeah I mean, the way it's looking I'd be fucking really surprised if anything I did was on that album," says El-P. Zack fans, stop holding your breath.

Also coming down the pipeline for Def Jux is a Revenge of the Robots tour DVD, to coincide with the online game and Mr. Lif's brainchild, Devolution, found at definitivejux.net...as well as the first Def Jux comedy album?

"We've got the Party Fun Action Committee, which is basically the first comedy album we're doing. Think like Weird Al, but like contemporary, very urban," says El-P.

Along with producing tracks for all the Def Jux artists and several top secret remix projects, El-P has been keeping himself very well occupied.

"Basically I'm trying to spread myself out so thin, that not only does everybody get sick of me and my sound, but I in fact get sick of it and can't even make music anymore," says El-P.

When he's not producing tracks, El-P is still an avid music fan who listens to more mainstream records than underground, citing the recent Queens of the Stone Age album, Nas' God's Son and the new 50 Cent as few that deserve mention. El-P, a self-described "old school paranoid mind," would rather take the stance of blissful ignorance when it comes to talk of the inevitable upcoming war.

"I'm attempting to shelter myself as much as possible right now. So that I can get as much work done as possible, so I can make as much money and become an expatriate. Because the best thing I can possibly do is make music, that's the only effect I can ever have on anything. And run a smooth operation, so that the people that I love can get a little bit of money and hide if they have to," says El-P.

For El-P and the team of hip-hop warriors he has assembled under the Def Jux imprint, world domination seems to be only a few tracks away.

To get the latest information and tour dates on Def Jux artists go to definitivejux.net. For the full text interview with El-P go to www.ithaca.edu/buzzsaw.