Funcrusher Plus [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Company Flow

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 4, 2002)
• Original Release Date: July 28, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Rawkus / Umgd
• ASIN: B000067CLW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #98,773 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Company Flow really want you to know how independent they are. This seems to be their primary mission, and Funcrusher Plus is wacked-out enough to satisfy that agenda. Building off some previously released material, most notably "8 Steps to Perfection," CF often take a galactic-horror groove here, dropping in some skewed drumbeats and dense lyrics, forcing your head into a lopsided bob as you groove along to tracks such as "Silence" and "Definitive." These cuts try to violate your brain so much that they seldom make it to your ass, but the lyrics are tight and the hooks are original (check out the sitar in "The Fire in Which You Burn"). If you need a break from that same-same radio-ready hip-hop, Company Flow definitely have something for you. --Todd Levin

Product Description
Definitive Jux has the extreme pleasure of announcing the reissue of COMPANY FLOW'S seminal 1997 full length debut, 'Funcrusher Plus'. Comprised of EL-P, BIGG JUS & DJ MR LEN - this outfit defined Indie Hip Hop. Out of print since 2006, this certified classic album has been remastered. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underground classic !, September 22, 2004

By	Gift - See all my reviews

First of all, if I hear one more ignorant fool refer to Co Flow as backpacker hip-hop I swear I'm going to freak out. This album is straight up underground hip hop at its finest. This isn't some suburbanite bs. This is New York underground at the peak of the late nineties wave...props to Bobbito and 89.9. And for all of you kids who got into underground hip hop sometime after 1996, let me just break this to you: this album is responsible for all of it. Not necessarily the music mind you, but the opening of the doors for all those who would come to follow. Co Flow were the first group on Rawkus. Despite whatever problems one may have with rawkus now, they released some of the finest underground hip hop of the era. Cop the first Soundbombing to get a picture. (I have all the original 12''s that make up this compilation and I have to say that evil dee's mixing and voice overs get a little annoying on the cd version-though I am a big Black Moon fan). Mos Def, Kweli, Co Flow, Menelik, come on people. The lyrics on Funcrusher are amazing. Co Flow were intelligent and abstract without being pretentious. They were often on some battle-rhyme tip, but delivered so well. (...) On Funcrusher, Juss and El-P deliver some of the best rhymes I've ever heard. And while El-P comes correct I still think Juss steals the show on this record. His flow is just flawless. If you don't understand hip hop culture alot of this stuff will just fly over your head. Take Lune TNS, for example. Basically, the song is one gigantic shout out to many of the classic graff writers who influenced Juss. As he states at the end of the track "for those of you who don't understand this wasn't made for you.." Or dropping "super duty tough work" on end to end burners(not on this album)- refer to the recently re-released Style Wars dvd for this one. The beats plus Len and EL-P's production are also top notch. This is really a must for any hip hop fan. Seriously, if you just started listening to hip hop because some friend of yours turned you on to Aesop Rock or Sage Francis a few years ago, do not sleep on this record. And after you've heard it, do us all a favor and pick up an old record by Gangstaar, Souls of Mischief, and De La Soul, just to get a little perspective. Atmosphere and all that stuff is good for what it is, but if you haven't heard Main Source or Organized Konfusion you're sleeping. In my mind Funcrusher is like the perfect middle ground or segway for Def Jux, Rhymesayers, etc. It was, first and foremost, completely ahead of its time. It was abstract minus the pitfalls of wierdo-rap, intelligent yet still straight up hip hop. All the while transcending alot of the perennial elements that can make straight up hip hop, well boring. Yes EL-P and Juss will let you know that they're the bomb perhaps one too many time, but no smack my b**ch up, gun slinging, juvenille nonsense. I first heard this record when a friend of mine got a crappy tape copy of it and we jammed this album 24-7. It took me a whole year to finally find a cd or a vinyl copy of it (I'm not from New york). For a while there I honestly thought I was never going to find it. Take advantage of how readily accesible this cd is now and cop it, you won't regret it. It stands as a testament to this group that they only released one album (not counting the instrumental album) and were able to make such an impact.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Headphone Hip-Hop at its best, January 2, 2004

By	Ben Clark (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you call yourself a fan of hip-hop and you don't own this album then shut up.
This is the sort of music that would make your average eminem, or Jay-z fan screw their face up in disgust. It'll take about 10 listens before you even start to understand this but after you do it is up there with the best albums of all time
For a ground breaking underground album by a nearly unknown group to win album of the year in HHC magazine speaks volumes.
The beats are EL-p's finest ever, just as an instrumental album this would be genius, but the lyrics provide something fresh every time you press play. BUY THIS ALBUM NOW

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm convinced Mc's are sending robots back in time to kill my mother before I was born., July 26, 2005

By	Patient Zero (Iowa City, The Moon) - See all my reviews

My path to this album was circuitous, first getting into the Mush/Dirty Loops crowd from Anticon, then from Mush into Aesop Rock, then from Aes to Def Jux, from Def Jux to El-P and finally to Co Flow, and listening to the album when I did, after hearing so much other indie and underground sound, I am convinced that Funcrusher is probably THE most influential album in modern hiphop. I was walking home from the local record store with my headphones on thinking "where have I heard this before?" This does not diminish the album in the slightest, it's the most copied, borrowed from, stolen from, used, abused and referred to album of the last ten years and it's still one of the best. Go get it, if you don't my trained army of elite ninja weasels will sneak into your bedroom while you sleep and chew upon parts of you that you would rather not have chewed upon. You have until the count of three...