It’s also quite minimalist, particularly on tracks like “Vital Nerve,” which is basically just a three-note synth line over a beat, and the classic Indelible MC’s single “The Fire in Which You Burn,” where Co-Flow trades rhymes with the Juggaknots over a skittering beat and sitar drone. The production is spacy and atmospheric, often employing weird ambient noises and futuristic synths that clash with the defiantly low-budget production values. Even if this is all highly off-kilter, it’s also a conscious return to hip-hop on its most basic, beats-and-rhymes level hooks or jazz and funk samples aren’t even considerations here. Bigg Jus and El-P’s lyrical technique is so good it’s sometimes nearly impenetrable, assaulting the listener with dense barrages of words that take a few listens to decipher.
Musically and lyrically, Funcrusher Plus is abrasive and confrontational, informed by left-wing politics and the punked-out battle cry “independent as f*ck.” It’s intentionally not funky and certainly not danceable the beats are tense and jagged, and often spaced far apart to leave room for the MCs’ complex rhymes. It was one of the artiest, most abstract hip-hop albums ever recorded, paving the way for a new brand of avant-garde experimentalism that blatantly defied commercial considerations. Featuring material recorded over 1994-1997, Company Flow’s official full-length debut, Funcrusher Plus, had a galvanizing effect on the underground hip-hop scene.
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