9/1/2023 0 Comments Tagr definitve jux shoesThe best beat comes early, on the album's first track, "Same as It Never Was," by the Weathermen (featuring El-P, Vast Aire, Cage and mHz, among others). The beats on DJP2 are dark, jagged, and intriguing, and not a single one of them could in any way be deemed "danceable." Subway beats, sewer beats- these ones reek of the underground. If Def Jux could be defined by any single musical element, it would be the beats. Their latest compilation, Definitive Jux Presents II, puts several new faces in the spotlight with above average results, stopping a few steps short of greatness. So it's on the heels of this success that Def Jux understandably desires to garner some exposure for the rest of their cast. To have two, and both on the same label, is something close to a minor miracle. It's rare that you get one joint as good as The Cold Vein or Labor Days in any given year. Our fidelity aside, though, Def Jux really is doing one hell of a job. Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox, both pillars of the label, could tell you that. While you may be our lemmings (and full disclosure, we were far from the first publication to go off about those records), we are undoubtedly Def Jux's bitch. And none of you had the balls to say an ill word. If you didn't buy them, you know you went out of your way to hear them. I offer as proof two examples, both released in 2001: Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein, and Aesop Rock's Labor Days. You see, we don't often write about hip-hop, but when we do, you respond by opening your wallets. Although your silence could be attributed to soul-free apathy, it appears from the empirical data that it's something else entirely: an unquestioning, irrational trust of Pitchfork hip-hop recommendations, and a validation of that great, classic saying (whatever that saying in fact is).
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