Fake For Real - Tag - Bigg JusThe 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/2260BIGG JUS - Black Mamba Serums v2.0urn:md5:7dab2004963d6aeefc7d0ce8e30bc5dc2015-02-16T22:53:00+01:002023-02-07T17:31:21+01:00codotusylvAlbumsBigg Jus <p>After Company Flow split, El-P attracted all the attention deserved to indie rap's central band, at the expense of his two comrades. The malicious ones may pretend that it was because he was White, while the two others were Black men. Anyway, it is true that there was something unfair with the founder of Def Jux becoming a media darling, while Bigg Jus, a better rapper than him – and sometimes a producer and a label owner as well – would pursue a very similar solo career, as much haunted, politically committed, and committed to experimentalism.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2004/bigg-jus-black-mamba-serums-v2.0.jpg" alt="BIGG JUS - Black Mamba Serums v2.0" title="BIGG JUS - Black Mamba Serums v2.0" /></p>
<p><strong>Big Dada :: 2004 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001XQ80C/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0001XQ80C&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>The experimental nature of his work was obvious with the second <em>Black Mamba Serums</em> – a record widely available in Europe, thanks to Big Dada - including with the story of its design. As indicated by the "2.0", this was, actually, the second edition of an album he had delivered two years ago on a Japanese label, itself a reworked version of the <em>Plantation Rhymes</em> EP, the rapper had previously released, in 2001, on his own Sub Verse. Like a software designer, Bigg Jus had invented a perpetually evolving record, a constantly evolving and perfecting album.</p>
<p>The approach, in itself, was original and avant-gardist; and the final product was, as well. Like El-P, Lune TNS – one of Justin Ingleton's other aliases – liked to cook his beats in a complex and difficult way. Sometimes, his music was deep, sober and melancholic; or, on the complete opposite, it was noisy and unsettling, and full with surprising alliances, like the piano and steel drums on "The Fr8s". It moved unexpectedly from one movement to another, but without impacting the rapper, whose spirited and off-beat flow seemed rather imperturbable.</p>
<p>Like El-P, again, Bigg Jus liked to be political, in Public Enemy's tradition, targeting primarily president George W. Bush. Like his old friend, he talked about childhood traumatisms; in his case, he didn't care about his stepfather, but about his grandmother ("Dedication to Peo"). Last but not least, as a pure indie rapper, his anger was directed to wack MCs, more particularly when he spat a brutal and definitive: "it's plantation rhymes, 'cause most of you emcees rhyme like SLAVES!"</p>
<p>Listened entirely, even in its shortened version, this album was exhausting. It seemed also a bit shaky and awkward, as if Bigg Jus had been a victim of his ambitions. But to be honest – and so that we complete the comparison – it was not too different with El-P's own albums, inclusive of <em>Fantastic Damage</em> (2002) which, around the same time, had benefited from hysterical and disproportionate praises from the critics, as if they had wanted to apologize for ignoring Company Flow just a few years before. As a matter of fact, they could have been as much positive with <em>Black Mamba Serums</em>, quite an imperfect record, definitively looking like a draft, but rich, engaging and generous, in each of its various avatars.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2015/BIGG-JUS-Black-Mamba-Serums-v2.0#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2204BIGG JUS - Interviewurn:md5:7433c1e4a814997f96f3940e1b668e532013-06-04T23:34:00+02:002023-06-27T10:14:56+02:00codotusylvInterviewsBigg Jus <p>Talking about the late 90's rap underground is not an option, if no member of the scene's most iconic trio is involved. Bigg Jus, indeed, was a central part of the indie rap movement, first as a rapper in Company Flow, then as the boss of Subverse and, from these times through <em>Machines That Make Civilization Fun</em>, an album he released in 2012, as a radical artist. As part of our <em>indie rap series</em>, he shared his view about a scene he largely contributed to create.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2001/bigg-jus-plantation-rhymes.jpg" alt="BIGG JUS - Plantation Rhymes" title="BIGG JUS - Plantation Rhymes" /></p>
<p><em>The "indie rap series" is a cycle of interviews with key players of the late 90's / early 2000's independent rap scene in Northern America and beyond. Some of them are almost famous, some others are forgotten. These interviews will help building a book to be published in 2014, <a href="https://amzn.to/3r9dK1x" hreflang="en" title="Rap Indépendant">Rap Indépendant</a>.</em><br /></p>
<p><strong>What is your perception of the indie or underground rap scene that emerged in North America by the end of the 90's, with labels such as Fondle'em, Rawkus, Stones Throw, Rhymesayers, or later on El-P's Def Jux, your own Subverse, and so many others?</strong></p>
<p>The 90's indie underground scene played a significant part in spearheading the modern independent movement that exists today. It was this ingenuity and independence that allowed us to be early adopters of digital recording formats and early utilization of the Internet for promotion. All the early dot com music companies sought out indie hip-hop artists and labels to give them an air of legitimacy. Although there have always been regional indie rock scenes and labels, I feel underground hip-hop helped solidify an overall cohesiveness and mindset of the indie movement.</p>
<p><strong>According to you, what's the story behind this movement? What did start it and why did it emerge at this time?</strong></p>
<p>The underground movement flourished at the tail end of the "golden era" of hip-hop. This spawned a huge outgrowth of new artists and very few record labels to support the demand.</p>
<p>By this time previous era indie labels, Tommy Boy, Select, Next Plateau, Def Jam, Profile, had experienced both financial success and the negative repercussions of ripping off artists. i.e., employees getting beat up, shot or kidnapped for shoddy accounting. This made them jaded and very particular about the artists they worked with. Also by this time regional hip-hop scenes were maturing and this became the sales model majors started to exploit. These combining factors opened up a new frontier for the next generation of underground hip-hop artists. Many who were now students of the game and a bit wiser to the exploitative practices of the record industry.</p>
<p>The nucleus of the 1990's NYC underground movement centered around the Stretch n Bobbito radio show. Once your music was played on WKCR, a certain legitimacy was established as their playlist influenced many others internationally. Equally important was Fat Beats as it was the primary retail shop and major distributor for underground hip-hop worldwide.</p>
<p>Co-Flow/Offical recordings were one of the first group/labels that maintained this relationship and utilized the distribution network effectively. This wasn't the only roadmap as there were other college radio stations, record shops, and clubs depending on where you lived in the tri-state area.</p>
<p><strong>In fact, several scenes were part of this, one in New-York around Fondle'em and Company Flow, the West Coast Underground and the post-Project Blowed scene in California, the Midwest with Rhymesayers, and some others in Canada. According to you, were those all different or just one single movement?</strong></p>
<p>Different regions had their own contributing factors that were established at much earlier stages in the culture. Each developed at its own pace and under its own local social influences. Yet, we all definitely shared experiences together. I remember Dark Leaf, Abstract Rude, Acey, Mear, Existereo being at the first Company Flow show in Los Angeles; hanging out with Peanut Butter Wolf in the San Francisco years before Stones Throw, or Subverse throwing early Atmosphere shows in NYC. As the new millennium approached it morphed into one underground scene with labels from different regions; signing artists all over.</p>
<p><strong>Where would you put the limits of this movement, in time, place, or styles?</strong></p>
<p>Chaos is a constant state of change. The underground expands, unifies, explodes and contracts. Then it starts anew with a hybrid model of the previous experiences for better or worse.</p>
<p><strong>With "independent as fuck", Company Flow created some kind of slogan or motto for this movement. Was it deliberate? Did you have the intention to take the lead of some scene or movement?</strong></p>
<p>There was no intention to take the lead initially. CoFlow tried the traditional route.</p>
<p>The feedback was always the same. Y'all can rap your ass off but we don't know how to market a racially mixed group. For some odd reason this was seen as an obstacle.</p>
<p>In 93 I was working for Libra who put out the El-P's "Juvenile Techniques" single along with my childhood friend Anttex. By this time I was grizzled hip-hop vet who spent the previous five years interfacing infiltrating the industry at various levels. I witnessed all sorts of manipulation and selling of souls at the major levels and wanted no parts of it.</p>
<p>I was a fan of Discord records and DIY house music ethic. I had a firm grasp on how the record business worked and was not averse to putting out music independently, although it wasn't common place in underground hip-hop at the time. After a falling out with Libra over if I wanted to be an artist or a label exec, I had to choose sides.</p>
<p>I told El "fuck it; let's put the record out independently". Two years later by the time the album was released it was our credo. I can happily say no one sold out. I remember spending endless hours from 93-99 discussing how to press, distribute and promote records with a slew of artists.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1997/company-flow-funcrusher-plus.jpg" alt="COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plus" title="COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plus" /></p>
<p><strong>What is left of this movement today, according to you?</strong></p>
<p>We're talking 12+ years later. The originators and trailblazers who have deep love for the culture are still productive; otherwise it's shifted to the next generation.</p>
<p><strong>Would you consider yourself as part of this movement, or even central to it? Or is this something you don't like to be pigeonholed into?</strong></p>
<p>I grew up in the culture and participated in all aspects of the NYC movement since the 80's.</p>
<p>The culture is ingrained in my DNA. As a Graf artist hip-hop literally saved my life by keeping from perusing more serious crimes while I was on the streets. I earned my position in the movement based on my dedication and work ethic during its formative years. The pigeonhole I tried best to avoid was selling out artistic principles for financial gain. Running a label and trying to separate business and friendships truly sucks.</p>
<p><strong>What would be your indie rap albums top 5 or 10?</strong></p>
<p>In no particular order, just the albums I seem to have on the all my digital devices, vinyl and in the rides:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hieroglyphics - <em>3rd Eye Vision</em></li>
<li>Cannibal Ox – <em>The Cold Vein</em></li>
<li>Madvillain – <em>Madvillainy</em></li>
<li>Dilla - <em>Donuts</em></li>
<li>Black Star – <em>Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star</em></li>
<li>Boogie Down Productions – <em>Criminal Minded</em></li>
<li>Company Flow - <em>Funcrusher Plus</em></li>
<li>Quasimoto – <em>The Unseen/Instumentals</em></li>
<li>NMS - <em>Woe To Thee O Land Whose King Is A Child</em></li>
<li>MF Doom – <em>Operation Doomsday</em></li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2003/nms-woe-to-thee-o-land-whose-king-is-a-child.jpg" alt="NMS - Woe To Thee O Land Whose King Is A Child" title="NMS - Woe To Thee O Land Whose King Is A Child" /></p>
<p><strong>What would be your indie rap tracks top 5 or 10?</strong></p>
<p>That's a brain buster. I listen to more roots, soul and classics. I feel the emotional content in music the most. Not too much hip-hop moves me that way. If need to get screw face I play Sizzla. Otherwise my top 5 in terms of repeatability may be all Dilla instrumentals.</p>
<p><strong>What would be your indie rap artists top 5 or 10?</strong></p>
<p>I'll base this on live performance. In no particular order:</p>
<ul>
<li>Orko Elohiem</li>
<li>K-the-I???</li>
<li>Lunice</li>
<li>Aarab Musik</li>
<li>Gaslamp</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Overall, do you think that such a category, indie rap, was or is relevant?</strong></p>
<p>It's defiantly personal preference. Any attempt to list otherwise is mildly, somewhat, or highly politicized :)</p>
<p><strong>Apart from this underground rap subgenre, what would be your diagnosis on the state of hip-hop nowadays? What do you find appealing in today's rap music?</strong></p>
<p>I'm a huge fan of controllerism, I like some of rap battle leagues, and fusing of sub genres i.e., goon step, grime trap, dub'n'bass. Every generation has more imitators than originators, that's always annoying.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2012/bigg-jus-machines-that-make-civilization-fun.jpg" alt="BIGG JUS - Machines That Make Civilization Fun" title="BIGG JUS - Machines That Make Civilization Fun" /></p>
<p><strong>Coming back to you, it seems that you haven't lost anything of your anger, energy and experimentalism, listening to the recent - and strong – <em>Machines That Make Civilization Fun</em> you released last year. Are you planning other projects, other activities, aside from this recent record?</strong></p>
<p><em>Machines Part 2</em> singles coming this summer. As an artist I'm transitioning into more audiovisual design, but my writing and production skills are only getting stronger. I definitely don't feel I recorded my best material yet and have a few more tricks up the sleeve.
I plan going out on top.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2013/BIGG-JUS-Interview#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/1971COMPANY 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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