Company Flow: Little Johnny From the Hospital
Hot off the Rawkus label, and striking a blow against the karaoke hip hop dominating the charts, Funcrusher Plus was "independent as fuck" and proud, and one of the weirdest hip hop albums I've ever heard. Two years on and a new double lp hits the shelves, the instrumental collection "Little Johnny From the Hospital"
This sees El Producto and Mr Len let rip with the wildest sample fusion mutant break hybrids known to man: imagine the original instrumental album by the Dust Bros, which became Paul's Boutique, then imagine its older cynical and twisted brother. Beats, bass, lo fi guitars, warped horn sections, gnarly techno synths, electro, strings, submarine echoes and scratching are genetically modified into abstract beats to make DJ Shadow soil his Y-fronts. This is hip hop taken to its illogical conclusion, where every possible vibration of air molecules is just hip hop raw material, waiting on vinyl to be melted down and remoulded into fresh forms.
As the likes of J5 and Ugly Duckling vy to be the hip hop Oasis, making very good, but rarely innovative music, Co Flo strive to take things round the corner, where things go very strange.
"My name is Johnny. I live here always. Sometimes they feed me. I watch TV. The hospital is angry at me. I know because it doesn't talk to me. I have this place today one way or another way."
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