Monday, December 29, 2008

Collecting Funkadelics: More Odes and Beatsmiths

In continuation and conjunction with our monthly/end of the year ode to the beatsmiths, it deemed essential to provide a glimpse into the funkadelic works of the 2-headed b-boy bomb squad from the legendary pioneers "Company Flow", (Mr. Len and EL-P). [Especially since I just returned from melting my fucking face away in Holland rummaging through raunchy red lights and exquisite flower markets, and their timeless junts proved to be a rather excellent score.]

Company Flow, or CoFlow, emerged out the NYC indie/underground b-boy era in the early 90's. Comprised of Mr. Len (DJ/Producer), Bigg Jus (mc), and EL-P (rapper/producer) the group levitated towards acclaimed underground fame and gathered a solid following synonymous to cult followings. Their debut album "Funkcrusher Plus" is a prize jewel in any musicians collection. Although they disbanded prematurely, Mr. Len and EL-P managed to release an instrumental opus titled "Little Johnny from the Hospitul", and this my fellow vinyl junkies, displayed a level of beat craftsmanship unparalleled to any that have attempted to venture into this genre of composition.

Little Johnny is the type of record you bang out to once your plane touches down and you light a spliff, or you chew a couple caps in some concrete cluttered city surrounded by urbanites and dust smoke, or if you need to bug up right quick before slappin the shit out some lame, any of the aforementioned will do, all at once would label you a maniac of sorts. Anyway, this record morphs various genres of obscure musical samples distorted and cut up to gutter perfection, layered over a foundation of hard ass bomb-squad esq percussion. I mean, they completely ignore any consideration for traditional "hip-hop" sounding beats, while most other producers during that time were playing copycat or tickle the Triton, nah mean. Take a gander...

Company Flow: "Little Johnny from the Hospitul":


Worker Ant Uprise - Company Flow


Bee Aware - Company Flow


Friend vs. Friend - Company Flow


World Of Garbage - Company Flow



Indelible Hybrid - Company Flow


Shadows Drown - Company Flow


No Lock - Company Flow


Gigapet Epiphany - Company Flow


# Nine - Company Flow


Workers Needed - Company Flow


Comp - Company Flow

Since "Little Johnny" dropped, both Mr. Len and EL-P went on to other group and solo endevours, EL-Pro of course becoming founder and president of the mega succesful independent staple Definitive Jux Records. Both, have contributed a plethora of banger instrumentals and productions for other artists, so you know I had to...

Make a B-B-Bonus Rain in this Bitch!!!

The Hurt feat Jean Grae and Murs prod. by Mr. Len:

The Hurt - Jean Grae And Murs

Cannibal Ox's Pigeon prod. by El-P:

Pigeon - Cannibal Ox

Posted By Los "back from the DAM" Diablo for Pimpin' Pens

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great, thanks for that