Def Jux Renaissance

Mr. Lif - Murs iz My Manager feat. Murs - Mo Mega (Def Jux 2006)


Aesop Rock - Zodiaccupuncture - Fast Cars, Danger, Fires, & Knives (Def Jux 2005)


El-P - The Day After Yesterday - Collecting the Kid (Def Jux 2004)


With the excellent new Mr. Lif album, ‘Mo Mega,’ hitting the shelves in a week or two along with new full-lengths from El-P and Aesop Rock on deck, we’re just short a Cannibal Ox reunion of a Def Jux label come full circle. And goddammit it’s about time. It’s been 6 years since ‘Def Jux Presents…” initially hit shelves and completely twisted the rap game 180 degrees unearthing underground hip-hop and introducing rap to a whole new generation (of mostly white kids). Within two years, El-P’s indie-label side project turned emotional emcee launching pad released completely solid albums from New York’s Cannibal Ox and Aesop Rock, Boston’s Mr. Lif and his own proper full-length, ‘Fantastic Damage.’ In 2001, Can Ox dropped the dark sci-fi infused The Cold Vein featuring the vivid images and ridiculous rhymes of Vast Aire and his more quick-mouthed partner Vordul Megilah. Teamed with El-P’s industrially thick and subtly jazzy beats, the duo’s only album surprised hip-hop heads everywhere focusing the attention back on New York’s flailing rap scene. In the same year, Aes-Rock followed up his critically acclaimed ‘Float’ on the much more experimental Mush label with ‘Labor Days,’ and album so original and potent that instant success sent Aesop into a reclusive hermit state which took him years to recover from. The following year saw the debut full-length from giant dreads of Mr. Lif, an educated Boston emcee who has a penchant for critical observations, political comments and a quick, throwback rhyme flow. 2002 closed out with ‘Fantastic Damage,’ El-P’s turn to take back the mic and finally living up to the potential that was so blatantly apparent on every Company Flow track. In two very short years, Def Jux went from birth to international success and being labeled as the savior of rap, a tag that until now was considered maybe a preconceived notion.

Between 2003 and 2006 Def Jux released a slew of albums and compilations featuring decent artists all in the Jux vein, but none with the same individual voice or vision of that initial outburst, save some decent instrumental hip-hop from RJD2 (before he became obsessed with teaming up with lackluster emcees) and a very underrated album from Rob Sonic. El-P seemed determined to break as many new rapper friends as he possibly could, when instead he should have been focusing all his efforts and undeniable skills on his already established core. A couple releases last year hinted at this upcoming renaissance including Fast Cars, Danger, Fire, & Knives, Aesop Rock’s EP featuring a completely reinvented and finally completely confident Aes-Rizzle and Collecting the Kid, a collection of El-P productions previewing his new space-funk style that is sure to encompass all of the upcoming releases. New light was finally peaking from behind the dark high-expectation cloud hanging over the Def Jux fam and 2006 may be the year when they return to their place on top of the underground hip-hop totem pole (though it’s gonna be hard to knock Stones Throw off).

Mr. Lif’s Mo Mega is without a doubt the starting point for this revelation, and the album is the quality output you’ve come to expect from the multi-faceted emcee. Letting the politics that were overly abundant on The Perceptionists’ album take a back seat (but of course not completely absent), Lif sounds like he is having fun for the first time. On ‘Washitup!’ he finally matches those ridiculous (and amazing) dreads with a rasta/dancehall vibe humorously scripting a conversation between himself and a very attractive but filthy lady fan. Personally I’m not a big Murs fan, but he absolutely kills it on ‘Murs iz My Manager’ coaching the ins and outs of celebrity-ism to Lif backed by an amazing beat and the best horn line I’ve ever heard in a rap song (damn Lif, I didn’t know you could produce on that level). You also get a good idea of El-P’s new production technique, which remains thick, but less paranoid and industrial, instead, he brings the funk with a vengeance. Honestly, Mr. Lif has been the most consistent of anyone on the Def Jux roster, and this is further proof of that fact… cop as soon as you get a chance.

I for one am ridiculous excited about what’s still to come this year from the Definitive Jux. It’s refreshing because I had just about given up on the label; I should of known never to under estimate El Producto.