Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

This is my first blog entry so let me keep it simple and sweet but with a good start. What I would like this blog to do, if you decide to follow it and continue to check in, is to give you an album you may never have heard of (or maybe you have) and just rotate it in your system for the week. If it’s new to you it’ll be a nice new treat and maybe give you a new perspective on life, and if it’s one you’ve heard maybe you can fall in love all over again or give it the chance it never got to have but deserved.

So the album I would like all of you out there in the world to listen to is titled “The Cold Vein.” It is by a duo of emcees out harlem (Vast Aire & Vordul Megallah) and all of the beats are by an emcee/producer out of brooklyn (El-P). They, together, are known as CANNIBAL OX, and put out what I consider to be one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. Now I know that is a big statement to make, especially for a first blog, but trust me on this, this album has gotten more play in my headphones than almost any other album, and every time I listen to it there is still something new that I didnt catch before. The only problem I ever had with this album is that I did not like it the first time I heard it. In fact, I didn’t like it the first couple of times I had heard it. But that is the beauty of this album, if you don’t like it after the first listen, (I hope to all that is good that you do) there is still hope. Be dilligent. I know people who have LOVED it right off the first listen, and I’ve known those who had to go through it a couple times like me. So to not try to decode it’s force/value/genius/whatever else blogs usually do to break down an album I simply would like you to just give it a listen (or 5) and hear for yourself what I consider to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. It’s not just how it sounds(though El-P does some of the best production of his life) or how well the emcees flow on top of it (though Vordul comes harder than most of truest rappers out there and Vast Aire says the most prolific shit thats ever been said on record) it’s how it all comes together, perfectly fitted. So my friends, I give to you a suggestion, go out and listen to CANNIBAL OX – THE COLD VEIN.

-Paul B.