Spray Cans Vol. #012: MHz - "World Premier" b/w "Camu"

MHz - "World Premier" b/w "Camu" (Fondle 'Em Records, 1998)

 

 

Just over a week ago, May 25 commemorated the fifth anniversary of the death of Camu Tao. He was thirty, and he had been battling lung cancer for three years. His debut solo album King of Hearts was left unfinished, and the record label that his friend El-P had signed him to, Definitive Jux, was struggling financially and on its way to folding. The King of Hearts demos got an official release two years later, but compared to the rest of his catalog, they sound spare and unfinished. Unfortunately, the rest of Camu’s catalog consists entirely of work with other groups, a few featured verses on other artists’ projects, and three 12” solo singles. For a rapper as distinct and exciting as Camu to have so little recorded music is a shame.

Fortunately, the recorded career that Camu had was pretty consistently great, dating back to his first appearance on MHz’s “World Premier” single in 1998. MHz, composed of Camu Tao, Copywrite, Tage Future, Jakki tha Motamouth, and RJD2, is probably the best rap group that ever came out of Columbus, Ohio, and Camu was the immediate breakout member. After a landmark appearance on WKCR’s Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show on February 19, 1998,[1] Bobbito signed the group to his Fondle ‘Em label[2] and prepped the “World Premier” single for later that year. Since the MHz were more of a collective of like-minded artists rather than a full-fledged group,  Tage and Jakki don’t appear on this first single at all, and rather than handling the beats himself, RJD2 only gets coproduction credit on one of the two songs.[3] Instead the focus is on Copywrite, who handles the first verse on the a-side, and on Camu, who finishes out the a-side and has the whole b-side to himself.

Cannibal Ox Has Lost the Stroll of Galactus

I listened to The Cold Vein again this morning. Even after listening to it for years, it hasn’t lost any of its power. It’s an astonishingly great record, one of the best of the last decade. So when Cannibal Ox announced late last year that they were finally recording a follow-up after an eleven year hiatus, it was impossible not to get excited. That is, until El-P made it clear that he wouldn’t be involved in any way. Vast Aire and Vordul Mega are incredible MCs, but The Cold Vein would not have been the album it was without El-P’s spooky post-apocalyptic sci-fi beats. In lieu of El-P, Can Ox hooked up with some guy named Bill Cosmiq, who produced all three songs on their new Gotham maxi-single.

On “Gotham (Ox City),” Vordul seems tired, although Vast Aire doesn’t sound vocally different than he did a decade ago. Vast kicks off his verse on “Gases in Hell (Inhale),” a solo song billed as a Cannibal Ox song, with lyrics from “Iron Galaxy,” helpfully reminding everyone that he’s not the rapper he once was. The weak hook isn’t helping matters either. Weird references to 30 Rock have replaced Vast’s old comic book fixation. Saying that he’s bigger than Grizz and Dotcom is nowhere near as cool as saying that he’s got the stroll of Galactus, now he’s planet swallowing. Vordul is still great lyrically, but his energy level is painfully low on “Psalm 82.” Bill Cosmiq beats are pretty good, but El-P’s were so much better that these new songs can’t help but seem weak by comparison. The cinematic vibe and the palpable paranoia are gone, replaced with boilerplate (but again, still pretty good) underground rap beats. If this is what we can expect from the rest of the album, then it’ll be an unfortunate footnote on their otherwise great career as group.[1]

For comparison, here are some of the highlights from The Cold Vein.

---

[1] I can’t emphasize enough that I’m talking about Cannibal Ox as a group rather than their solo careers. While both put out very good solo debuts, they paled in comparison to The Cold Vein and their subsequent output has been forgettable.