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ZIP: DJ Sach – Farewell Def Jux Mix (Left-Click)

At first, the demise of indie rap powerhouse Definitive Jux left me… indifferent. That’s probably not the nicest way to start off a tribute post but it’s the truth. 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 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. That it all came in a 2-½ year torrent of material made it even more impressive. Maybe if their core releases were staggered over a longer period of time they’d have seemed relevant for longer.

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. Subsequent releases felt increasingly derivative and the original crew slowly unraveled. First Can Ox broke up then El-P and Aesop took their sweet time with their second and third albums. RJD2 turned soft and left. Cage turned soft the minute he signed. Mr. 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. Couple that with the sales crunch that all labels are facing these days and I’m surprised they even lasted this long.

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. 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. 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. 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).

Regardless, I hope you all enjoy this tribute mix. It’s heavy on the OG lineup and light on later material, but this is how I’d like to remember the label. 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.

Pouring out a little liquor --Sach O

Like everything else in life, it’s all about timing. 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.  I don’t feel the same way about Labor Days that I did when I was 21 because I can’t. 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. 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. 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. Those first round of solo records were angry, defiant, and independent as fuck. They were the soundtrack for a thousand scorching and stoned California days.

The formal obit/tribute is at Pop & Hiss, so I’ll spare the redundancy. Besides, I suspect you know the narrative. 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. 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. Let’s be real, the burden of blame lies squarely on W. 24th St. Of course, it’s impossible to fault an artist for wanting to focus on art over empire, and I believe El-P when he says he just wants to make music. I also believe him when he said that “in 2000 starting a traditional record label made a lot of sense. But now, in 2010, less so.”

I’m not sure if rap is going through a crisis right now. There is a lot of good music being made, but no one seems to be getting paid. It’s become a favor-based economy where there is no pot of gold in the end and rather, just money selling pot (many of my interviews end with offers. I’m saving names for the book deal).  Are artists supposed to dream about signing to a major label, so they can take 360 degrees of their income and sit them on the sidelines until they do a collabo with Justin Bieber?  And I’m not sure what the alternative is other than to play themselves out with free mixtape after free mixtape.

From Sugar Hill to the dorm room-era Def Jam, to Rap-A-L0t and Cash Money, hip-hop was forged by independent entrepreneurs. Even now, with Rhymesayers pretty much the only large-scale rap indie* left, the importance of A&R’ing and quality control has never been more important, as evidenced by The Stimulus Package, the best rap record released this year, one released with collectible packaging and obvious care and consideration. The sort of thing that indie rock labels do all the time: offering something collector-friendly, untampered by contrived commercialism, and appealing to a dedicated niche audience.

The fans can do better too. In the span between when Sach named and compiled this mix and this post going live, another collection of songs came out with the same name: “Farewell Def Jux.” It contained 64 songs from the Jux catalogue, un-cut and un-mixed, accompanied by a few kind words and little else. It was all over the internet — at least, among the few people somehow not hypnotized by the early contender for rap cover of the decade.  Forgive the sanctimony, but it was the sort of self-centered gesture that illustrated the callousness of the current culture. Yeah, the songs could’ve been obtained by a torrent site or Limewire, but when Touch & Go went out of business, Stereogum didn’t link to a ZIP file full of Jesus Lizard and Butthole Surfers. If the common narrative being propagated in the media is that the “indie rock David’s” are beating the “major label Goliath’s,” the same logic would dictate that the reason for rap’s decreased stature stems from its inability to sustain a viable independent climate (if you disagree, name three major label rap records that have been released this year; fuck it, name one.)

The point isn’t to alienate, but just to point out that something needs to change. So that at the end of the next decade, a new generation of kids can derive real meaning from a handful of releases from a collection of artist’s with a clear aesthetic. Maybe that’s antiquated thinking. After all, rappers have released great mixtape-street albums outside the auspices of labels, independent or otherwise.  And even if the system completely collapses on itself, the Internet allows for an established infrastructure that ensures that music will find a way to get heard. But right now, Def Jux leaves  an indelible legacy behind, and a large void that won’t be filled anytime soon. Bombs voyage. — Jeff Weiss

* Stones Throw and Anticon definitely release hip-hop, but I wouldn’t exactly call them “rap labels.” Koch is spaghetti thrown against a wall.

Tracklist:

1 Company Flow ft Ill Bill – Simian Drugs
2. Cannibal Ox – Iron Galaxy
3. Aesop Rock ft C-Rayz Walz – Bent Life
4. Mr Lif ft Aesop Rock – Success
5. El-P – Squeegee man shooting (Remix)
6. Cannibal Ox – The F Word (RJD2 Remix)
7. Camu Tao – Hold the Floor
8. Aesop Rock – NY Electric
9. Cannibal Ox ft El-P – Ridiculoid
10. El-P ft Camu Tao – Accidents don’t happen
11. Aesop Rock – Catacomb Kids
12. Cage ft El-P – Oxycontins Pt 2
13. RJD2 – Rain
14. RJD2 – The Horror
15. Mr Lif ft El-P – I Phantom
16. Aesop Rock – Daylight
17. Aesop Rock – Nightlight
18. El-P – Deep Space 9MM
19. Mr Lif – Return of the B-Boy Pt 2
20. El-P – Poisenville Kids No Win
21. RJD2 – Here’s what’s left