Episode 176 - The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox

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If you’ve any interest in underground hip hop then this album is probably familiar to you. Widely hailed as one of the most important hip hop albums of all time, The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox a real lightening in a bottle moment for Vast Aire and Vordul Mega. And now, having just celebrated its 20th anniversary, it seems a good a time as any to explore why.

Having formed simply by dint of knowing each other through the New York battle rap scene and hanging out at El-P’s flat/studio, Cannibal Ox came together somewhat at the behest of El-P. What transpired was two years of hard graft on their first (of only two) album together, created as they sat around thinking about rhymes and creating music with producer El-P.

The skills of Vast and Vordul really shouldn’t be underestimated. Having clearly honed their craft through years of spitting rhymes in ciphers on the streets, their lyrical dexterity and outrageous vocal partnership is clearly a highlight of this album.

That’s alongside El-P’s production. This was the first thing he’d ever worked on outside of the work he’d done with his old group Company Flow, and it’s a tour de force. Together with Can Ox, they paint a paranoid, dystopian, Philip K Dick inspired vision of Harlem, Brooklyn and New York City as a whole.

Despite being hailed a classic, to date it has only sold just over 100,000 copies. Which is clearly fucking insane. That alone means it fulfils our criteria as an unsung classic, but like so many other artists we’ve covered on this podcast, Can Ox are real artist’s artists. So we ask you, is it worth of a place in our discography? You decide, as ever.