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***1/2 Cannibal Ox

THE COLD VEIN

(Def Jux)

Cannibal Ox have the cure to underground hip-hop’s current malaise. Not just a low-rent imitation of chart-topping thugs or a kneejerk reaction to jiggy hip-hop’s conspicuous consumption, this Harlem duo (Vordul Megilah and Vast Aire) balance streetwise ýyrics, aggro b-boy attitude, and progressive thought on their full-length debut. Discovered by El-P, the MC/producer from recently disbanded indie-rap heroes Company Flow, Cannibal Ox create music rmly in the tradition of their mentor — aggressively uücommercial hip-hop that is all jagged edges, distorted beats, and dense, wordy ow. Half the fun is listening to Vordul and Vast cook up new ways to say “you suck”: “The sample’s the esh/The beat is the skeleton/You got beef, but there’s worms in youú Wellington/ I’ll put a hole in your skull and extract the gelatin,” Vast threatens on “Raspberry Fields.” But hidden within this brutal, cold world are nuggets of bittersweet wisdom: “Boy meets world/Of course his pops is gone/What you gure?/That chalky outline on the ground is a father gure,” they lament on “Iron Galaxy.” El-P cooks up beats that sound like Giorgio Moroder’s soundtrack to Scarface put through a meat grinder, so even Cannibal Ox’s love songs (“The F-Word”) sound more like horror stories.

— Michael Endelman