MR. LEN
Pity The Fool (Experiments In Therapy Behind The Mask of Music While Handing Out Dummy Smacks)(Matador)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

---

Picking up those threads where Company Flow left off, you would think perhaps that DJ Mr. Len might have asked Bigg Jus or El-P to step into the light for some brief cameo shots. Not necessarily, and when you think about it, the idea of Len on his own in total makes more sense. At least for now. Maybe they'll bless us with a reunion album.

Wait! A good reunion album! Hip hop crews the world over have been holding their demos up against Co Flow's Funcrusher Plus debut (1997). If the original heads do the same there's no telling what they could come up with.

Now that's a premature guesstimate (more like a hope), and even though my stupid ass paid $41 for Funcrusher Plus a year ago on eBay, Quality Control and the pursuit thereof is not just the title of an excellent Jurassic 5 album. It's a creative philosophy that Len, Bigg Jus, and El-P regularly practice whenever they get anywhere near a recording studio. You could hear some splinters of the concepts that were utilized in Pity The Fool coalescing in utero on 1999's Little Johnny From The Hospitul.

As such, if you ever wondered where the stimulus for some of the more fucked-up lo-fi isms inherent in Co Flow's music derived from, then look no further. Here are a few cavernous, cadenced, harmonious intermissions via Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) in his b-boy alter ego.

Timbaland, P. Diddy, and The Neptunes might have the overground locked down, but if you still need to hear music that's as "Independent As Fuck," and sounds like my Fostex 4-Track recorder might have been used in the final mix-down, this is still the place to look.

Emcees like The Juggaknots, Massinfluence, Q-Unique and D-Stroy (of the Arsonists), Lord Sear, Kice Of Course, Agents of Man, Chubb Rock, Amplifire, and Steady Roc keep the album on Reiterated Spins in any stereo I come close to. The fabulous Jean McRae and Mr. Live contribute the best songs pound for pound ("Taco Day" and "What The Fuck?") on this piece though.

These twelve tracks are so dark sounding, so grimy, and cobweb-ridden you have to dust off your jacket after listening to just one measure of a single song. Complete listenings require a shower.

Grade: A.

© 2001 - Jason Thornberry