Fake For Real - Tag - Company FlowThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearCOMPANY FLOW - Little Johnny From The Hospitulurn:md5:90141964db3d1c49121530738207004d2015-07-27T22:49:00+02:002023-02-07T17:31:38+01:00codotusylvAlbumsBigg JusCompany FlowEl-PMr Len <p>One thing is certain: after their mythical <em>Funcrusher Plus</em>, nothing could challenge the iconic status of Company Flow, in the hip-hop underground. Their next album, though, could have rattled it. Actually, just when the group was on its way to imposing its uncompromising kind of rap to a growing indie audience, it had chosen to come back with a more difficult album, even harsher and crazier than the previous one; and furthermore, it was purely instrumental. More loyal than ever to its motto, "independent as fuck", Co-Flow wasn't going the easy way.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1999/company-flow-little-johnny-from-the-hospitul.jpg" alt="COMPANY FLOW - Little Johnny from the Hospitul" title="COMPANY FLOW - Little Johnny from the Hospitul" /></p>
<p><strong>Rawkus :: 1999 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00001T3H3/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00001T3H3&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>By removing the raps, however, wasn't Company Flow making a virtue out of necessity? Wasn't the ex-trio finding a way to cope with the departure of its best rapper, Bigg Jus? By making their music exclusively instrumental, weren't El-P, the beatmaker, and Mr. Len, the DJ, hiding a lack of inspiration? And what about the odd concept around Little Johnny, some imaginary character supposed to represent the bad shape of the US society? Wasn't it too much conceptual?</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, El-P and Mr. Len would release a CD version of <em>Little Johnny</em> in Europe only, a place often considered as friendlier to avant-gardism, than the US. And some would be skeptical, a bit dampened by the tough sound of the album. Their concerns were unfounded, though. This record was just another evidence of Co-Flow's inclination for somber and scary ambiances. It even had a track, "Indelible Hybrid", reusing the great beat of "The Fire In Which You Burn. And the group – well, the duo now – still had some stories to tell, as with "Suzy Pulled a Pistol on Henry", a reinterpretation of De La Soul's "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa", reporting the bloody vengeance of a young victim against a pedophile.</p>
<p>The beats and the sound had evolved, though. <em>Little Johnny</em> was more abstruse than ever, despite the few bangers that "Friends Vs. Friends", "Bee Aware", "Worker Ant Uprise", "Happy Happy Joy Kill", and the brilliant Transformer-sounding "Gigapet Epiphany", were. Also, it delivered something new, unrelated to the various kinds of instrumental hip-hop that existed in 1999. It didn't look like DJ Shadow's soundscapes, the virtuoso craziness of turntablism, or the melancholic contemplation of trip-hop. No, it was something entirely different.</p>
<p>Sometimes, the duo's ideas could be reminiscent of the most experimental side of electronic, or the abrasive sounds of some guitars would remind rock music; but this was still, mainly, essentially, hip-hop music. Also, it forecasted the prog rap style that would characterize El-P, when he would start his solo career with Def Jux – actually, and though the record was released by Rawkus, the name of his new label was already written on the cover art. It was also the ultimate proof that, by 1999, Co-Flow was the open and uninhibited group that rap had been missing.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2015/COMPANY-FLOW-Little-Johnny-from-the-Hospitul#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2260COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plusurn:md5:b1becafe2e9b251e68434d5dcb39280d2011-03-07T22:42:00+01:002021-02-15T08:39:28+01:00codotusylvAlbums1997Bigg JusCompany FlowEl-PMr LenRawkus Records <p>By 1997, just when some feared that hip-hop was getting corrupted by success, "independent" and "alternative" had become buzz words. And no other claimed them louder than Company Flow. A product of New-York's underground, these self-produced and self-promoted rappers created their own label, Official Recordings, and they targeted the music industry as the enemy. And their slogan, a very definitive "independent as fuck", was everything but ambiguous.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1997/company-flow-funcrusher-plus.jpg" alt="COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plus" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plus" /></p>
<p>Founded by 1993, Company Flow had become the heralds of the nascent underground hip-hop movement in 1996, when they released the abrasive <em>Funcrusher</em>, an EP Bigg Jus, El-P and Mr. Len would enrich and improve one year and a few singles later, with the help of Rawkus Records. Per its title, <em>Funcrusher Plus</em> stripped out hip-hop. There wasn't any fun, funkyness or prettiness left to it. Only a handful of vindictive hymns were more or less catchy, like "Silence", or the sitar-infused "The Fire in Which you Burn", a collaborative track with the Juggaknots.</p>
<p>Everywhere else, <em>Funcrusher Plus</em> was hardcore hip-hop at its very rawest. The rhythm was slow, the samples were unsettling, and experimentalism was there, like with the ethereal and hallucinated "Bad Touch Example", "8 Steps to Perfection" and "Krazy Kings". They excelled even more with their revisited version of "Population Control", a slow and apocalyptic track strengthened by a bizarre water sample, or the atmospheric "Info Kill". <em>Funcrusher Plus</em> also looked like an humourless version of Dr. Octagon science-fiction rap, with the weird divagations of "Help Wanted", or Mr. Len's scratches on "Lencorcism" and "Funcrush Scratch".</p>
<p>Despite the soberness, though, Company Flow knew how to drop bombs. The super-minimalistic, "Collude/Intrude" and "Last Good Sleep" were good examples, with their huge pulse, and their complex raps. And though its formula was sometimes overly austere, like with "Blind", the trio had enough strength to sublimate arid tracks like "Legends", "89.9 Detrimental" and "Vital Nerve". The record was excessively rude, hostile and heavy, and though, it would create a new form of hip-hop. It would become the template for a new generation of rappers, and countless underground scenes, obsessed with integrity and uncompromising creativity.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067CLW/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000067CLW&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">Buy this record</a></strong></p>
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