Look Mom...No Hands

Album Review

Cannibal Ox, authors of underground hip-hop's most brutal assemblage of beats and rhymes (The Cold Vein), took the blueprint of Company Flow and, assisted by CoFlo's own master producer El-P, delivered the flipside of hip-hop's usually warm, earthy breakbeats. Unfortunately, they broke up before delivering another record, leaving Vast Aire, half of the duo, to launch a solo career with this full-length on Chocolate Industries. Vast's chillingly detached raps and delivery were a large part of Cannibal Ox's success, and there's much more in the same vein here. His lyrics aren't at the same level as on The Cold Vein (he tries to say more, but doesn't always succeed). Still, for him, communication means less than simply transmitting a dark, ominous mood. (And he occasionally spits an astonishing rap, like this one: "I heard justice was blind when Uncle Sam f*cked her/I heard she came when he whispered she loved her"). The roster of producers includes some of the best in Vast's section of the underground, including Blueprint (Soul Position, Aesop Rock), CamuTao (of S.A. Smash), and Jake One (Rasco, Planet Asia).