EL-P / Company Flow (alt title: Dont You Just Love A Bargain
1997 Company Flow album 'Funcrusher Plus' found @ X-mas tree shops today for $4 USD. Wow. El-P fascinates me. Crazy references to Maggie Simpson, cross color clothing circa 1991, and my favorite, the robotMaxmillianin the 1979 Disney Robert Forster vehicle 'The Black Hole' all in the first 4 minutes or so of the album!
(listen to the 2nd Beta Band Album which samples music from John Barry's original Black Hole score (track 2 or 3 on the beta band disc I think).
Anyhoo, it's not hard to see why my favorite music rag, UK's wire [url]http://www.thewire.co.uk/[/url] calls this guy the steve albini of hip-hop. The jangly unsettling samples, the terse and humorous flow of the lyrics, and a fiercely independent vision set this above the fray.
Anyone unitiated looking for a jumping off point could do a lot worse then the DefJux album 'Fantastic Damage' (circa 2002-2003 I think...)
a while back, me and F tang went back and forth a bit on the free jazz/ avant hip hop outing El-p did w/ Matthew Shipp/William Parker and many others called 'High Water (Mark)' on the thirsty ear label in Feb of this year....