Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

At its worst, the brainy hip-hop underground can be clinical, with rhymes as flat as the production; at its best, the subgenre's lyrical abstractions and rhythmic complexities form new pathways between the head and heart. Taking cues from the New York underground avatars Company Flow, Harlem duo Cannibal Ox - produced by CoFlow lead man El-P - mix their bookishness with equal amounts of soul. MCs Vast and Vordul flow heavenly, whether serenading a difficult muse on "The F-Word": "Tell me to talk to the hand again/And I'll read your palm"; or disseminating aggro B-boy boasts on "Ox Out the Cage": "Who wanna pop shit/And get popped in the top lip?" El-P's beat arrhythmia and shimmering synth backdrops lend the duo's words a heroic quality, but their rhymes are epic on their own. On "A B-Boys Alpha," Vast considers the frailty of life: "My mother said, 'You sucked my pussy when you came out/Don't ever talk back/I handed you life and I'll snatch it back." Please, Mom, don't hurt them.

JON CARAMANICA
(RS 877 - September 13, 2001)