Albums

In the year 2000, the Micranots made an impression with Obelisk Movements, a record full of hallucinated and apocalyptic undie rap they had released under Bigg Jus' sponsorship, on his Sub Verse label. This had not been their first album, tough. As early as in the mid-90's, I Self Devine (MC) and Kool Akiem (DJ) had already recorded the Return of the Travellahs cassette, which easily bears the comparison with their later record.

We could find anything on Peanut Butter Wolf's first LP, in fact more a compilation than a regular album. All the styles of the times had found a place, there. "Straight in your face" or more mature kinds of raps, creative beats, experiments, old school accents ("Keep On Rockin It" with the late Charizma), and allusions to the ancients, starting with the title, derived from Public Enemy's "My Uzi Weighs a Ton". And lots of turntablism: "Casio", with Babu, "Phonies", with DJ Design, and most of all the colossal "Tale of Five Cities", created by no less than 11 DJs (Beat Junkies, X-Ecutioners, Cut Chemist, Kid Koala).

This record of Dose One and Boom Bip is so typical of its time… Even if it wasn't released on this label, it symbolizes so well the rap deconstructionism logic launched in the late 90's by Anticon. It is bordering so much the absurd, that we are not sure we want to listen to it again, almost convinced that it failed the test of time; that today, it would sound horribly outdated; that like 99% of the people in its time, we would find it completely unlistenable.

One day, people will discover Oddjobs again. Because, through the 5 years of their existence, they delivered quite regularly good quality albums. Because they ran alongside some indie heavyweights, like Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere and Eyedea, and that, consequently, crate-diggers of the future will have no difficulty tracking them. For these reasons, they won't be dropped into the dustbin of history. They deserve better than that.