Let’s be real, the burden of blame lies squarely on W. Mos def the ecstatic free zip download free#How Def Jux’s flagship artists worked at a painstaking pace and the label never developed a real farm system to replace the free agent defections or support the plodding frontline. How the rap game shifted from a climate where DIY indies could produce hits approaching six figure sales to the current fast food free-fall. Besides, I suspect you know the narrative. The formal obit/tribute is at Pop & Hiss, so I’ll spare the redundancy. They were the soundtrack for a thousand scorching and stoned California days. Those first round of solo records were angry, defiant, and independent as fuck. The Cold Vein and Fantastic Damage offered up a fresh alternative to the stale champagne pop that was so far removed from the G-Funk and New York boom-bap that had made me love rap in the first place. The sort of undergraduate Importance that cynics smirk about years later over cheap wine and dead dreams, but leaves you irrevocably altered and aimlessly ambling down some wayward path. It hit with the power of a life-changing totem, like Catcher in the Rye when I was 15 or On the Road a few years later. I don’t feel the same way about Labor Days that I did when I was 21 because I can’t. My college years neatly paralleled Def Jux’s 2000-2003 zenith - the stuff that Sach compiled on this mix - the canon that once made even inveterate doubters believe that the future of the underground canted at those oblique angles. Like everything else in life, it’s all about timing. It’s also fast paced: if you want to hear the full-length version of these tracks, hit up your local record store, the label always put extreme care into their packaging and the music deserves to be heard the way the artists chose to present it. It’s heavy on the OG lineup and light on later material, but this is how I’d like to remember the label. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy this tribute mix. Mos def the ecstatic free zip download how to#At a time where left-field Hip-Hop producers are ditching rappers for instrumental music left and right, Def Jux is the perfect example of how to make rap music without giving a fuck about radio (or uninformed indie-rock fans who have no business influencing the sound). I can only hope that a few bedroom producers and emcees take this as an opportunity to revisit The Cold Vein, Labor Days, Fantastic Damage, I Phantom, Dead Ringer, Bazooka Tooth and Smashy Trashy. It took J-Dilla’s death and the outpouring of support that followed to inspire listeners and artists to dig deep into his catalogue and to push his influence to the forefront of their music. If there’s an upside to all of this, it’s that maybe the label’s “hiatus” (come on, son) will call attention to all of the incredible music they put out. Couple that with the sales crunch that all labels are facing these days and I’m surprised they even lasted this long. Lif fell off and Camu Tao’s tragic passing took the wind out of the label’s sails just as it seemed to be gearing for a comeback. First Can Ox broke up then El-P and Aesop took their sweet time with their second and third albums. Subsequent releases felt increasingly derivative and the original crew slowly unraveled. Unfortunately, there were signs of trouble as early as 2003: Murs’ End of the Beginning couldn’t have been more appropriately titled, ditching the label’s signature sound for a hodge-podge of undie-rap influences. Maybe if their core releases were staggered over a longer period of time they’d have seemed relevant for longer. Mos def the ecstatic free zip download torrent#That it all came in a 2-½ year torrent of material made it even more impressive. That last example is particularly poignant: the clear heirs to Rza’s dusty NY underground sound, Def Jux’s original run may not have matched the Wu’s but it damn sure tried. After a stunning early run of back to back classics, the label’s mid-decade expansion, loss of direction and irrelevance felt like the same old story: Motown, Factory, Rocafella, Wu-Tang… this was not the first label/crew to fall off. That’s probably not the nicest way to start off a tribute post but it’s the truth. ZIP: DJ Sach – Farewell Def Jux Mix (Left-Click)Īt first, the demise of indie rap powerhouse Definitive Jux left me… indifferent.
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