The C-quel and 2000 BC (by Canibus)

I like the Canibuses rapping on top of each other at the beginning of “The C-quel”. He sounds like he’s in a blind rage, with angry thoughts piling on top of one another. The first few times you hear it, you pick out different lines on each listen, because you can only concentrate on one voice at a time. “Travel like a javelin stab you in the abdomen…ricochet off the inner walls of my lungs…what’s the matter with y’all, I splatter y’all…” It’s good to listen to it on just one headphone, so you can pick out the individual lines more easily. Then switch over and do the other ear.

The sheer amount of people he insults or threatens violently over the course of the two songs is what impresses me. His career is faltering, and he’s blaming everyone but himself. “Anybody get out of line get they face slapped…you mad at my last album?…muthafucking Wyclef spoiled it…” It’s so aggressively defensive. I like how the tracks are petulant and irrational, but still witty at the same time. His claims get sillier and more broadly offensive “Took a lion on tour with me / made it respect authority / smacked it in the face for tryna roar at me”…. ”I was born with the mic / lord of the mic / before all plant and animal life”. I *love* how much his p’s pop, especially when he says “Picked uP Pens…”

The part in the C-quel where he says that getting in his way is like “jumping in front of a car breaking the sound barrier” – (“that means the car is in front of the horn / by the time you hear it coming it’s too late to respond / by the time you feel it hit you I’m gone”) confirms his genius.

What’s this chap up to these days? What say you about these songs? After these two STELLAR tracks, the album can’t quite keep up the momentum, but it’s still Good. So there.