![]() ![]() Other punchlines are a bit more to-the-point but no less audacious: "I see through pussy like the invisible woman" (El-P on "Blind") "MCs couldn't hang if they was lynched by the Grand Dragon" (Bigg Jus on "8 Steps to Perfection") "Even when I say nothing it's a beautiful use of negative space" (El-P on "The Fire in Which You Burn"). They're never content to lay an obvious, straightforward metaphor on the table where average MCs might claim they "shine like a light bulb," Bigg Jus' showcase verse on "Silence" has him "encased in a glass dome, I pull mikes like filaments/ I'm tungsten, light within that causes somethin'." If that reads like a parody of backpacker wordiness, on record it sounds like verbal swordsmanship. ![]() ![]() There's a defiantly sick sense of humor all throughout Funcrusher Plus, starting with the anti-child-molester safety record intro on opening track "Bad Touch Example" and extending through El and Jus' punchlines, which mash up pop-culture references, conspiracy theories, threats of physical trauma and independent, anti-industry broadsides into a mutant strain of hyper-crowded lyricism that borders on information overload. But for the most part, they're on some wall-to-wall battle-rap punchline business, and it's crafty, bewildering, repeat-rewind material. There are a few signs of the personal details that'd inform El-P's later material- "Last Good Sleep", in particular, is a vivid, stomach-turning account of growing up being kept awake by domestic violence- and subtle hints at the more culturally focused material Bigg Jus would develop in his later career, most clearly in the recollections of his graf-artist days in "Lune TNS". If you're more familiar with their solo work, Funcrusher Plus might be a bit of a surprise lyrically. Now, after a few years in Rawkus-entangled out-of-print limbo, Funcrusher Plus has been reclaimed by Definitive Jux, brought back in a no-frills yet still-essential reissue that serves as a valuable reminder of how advanced MC/producers El-P and Bigg Jus and DJ Mr. But you can also hear the precedents, harbored in the grimy beats and cipher-based shit-talk that has a stylistic younger-brother kinship with the likes of Organized Konfusion, D.I.T.C., and first-wave Wu-Tang. ![]() Looking back at the tracks that first appeared on 1996's Funcrusher EP and the additional material that supplemented it on Funcrusher Plus a year later, you can hear where many of those space-rap acolytes of the late 90s got their motivation (even if they frequently picked up their verbosity without retaining their b-boy bonafides). ![]()
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