In 2003, during my disastrous 1st semester of undergrad at Loyola University New Orleans, I purchased Aesop Rock's new album Bazooka Tooth from the Mushroom record store/headshop near campus, a place I've mentioned before. Bundled with the album was a promo CD called The Juk(i)ebox, & I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. On the disc were the words "Enhanced CD," & it had icons labeled Songs, News, Weblinks & Video. I'd seen this kind of thing before. It was a gimmick back when "multimedia" was a buzzword: after listening to the CD, you'd put it into your computer & get a bunch of other content. Except the CD-ROM portion did not work. I put it into my disc drive & got nothing but the Audio CD. (I just tried it again, still nothing.)
Well, 19 years later the Aesop Rock CD is long gone (I never had the patience for it--I think I might have sold it) but somehow I hung onto The Juk(i)ebox. It's quite possible that this listen I just carried out was my 1st time all the way through. When I brought it back to the dorm room, I think I probably popped it in, listened to the megamix, heard songs I recognized, & stopped it, wanting something new. The CD consists of a big 30-minute megamix titled "The Best of Def Jux," featuring mostly songs by El-P & Mr. Lif, followed by a bunch of 1-2 minute snippets of upcoming songs on the label. This compilation-cum-remix-cum-sampler Frankenstein is an odd marketing tactic, but I guess everybody was trying new things back then.
I've always enjoyed megamixes & for a long time I've wanted to do one on an album, but I've never gotten around to it. DJ Still Will does some dope turntablism on this mix, & manages to sequence it with a natural flow that never becomes boring despite plenty of self-indulgent DJ stuff (7 minutes elapse before the first vocals are heard). While I'm not as familiar with El-P's first solo album as I am with Company Flow, I recognized a lot of the verses, & of course I always have a lot of time for Mr. Lif. I feel a bit weird about Def Jux today because it's a relatively early example of the white boy hiphop purist attitude that I can't stand these days. Lots of caucasian dudes in fitted Yankee caps complaining about how "real hiphop" has been lost in a sea of pop garbage. The Def Jux roster was always a little artsier than that, but the early years of the label feel like the moment that underground rap got colonized. You can tell by the purportedly woke stances of the rappers here while we simultaneously hear accusations of femininity directed at men in a way intended to be insulting.
The 2nd half of the CD with the snippets is less interesting. I don't have much interest in hearing truncated versions of early Murs material & Aesop Rock at the peak of his pretension. On the other hand, I am grateful for the 2 tracks by Party Fun Action Committee, one of which ("Beer") makes merciless fun of frat boys while the other ("Be My Lady") takes aim at pop rappers like Ja Rule & Nelly & the record executives who inflate them. I'd heard of PFAC before, but I never listened to them, & I like this stuff despite not really enjoying any of the "comedy rap" I've ever heard.
The Juk(i)ebox is one of those oddities you accumulate over a lifetime of CD buying. They kick around for a while collecting dust, forgotten in notebooks or drawers or towers, every once in a while you take one out & look at it, maybe play it, then get rid of it or forget about it again. Somehow this one managed to stick around. I wouldn't say revisiting it (or maybe just visiting it) changed my world or anything, but I don't regret digging in that particular neglected corner. Now I'm probably gonna seek out that Party Fun Action Committee album.
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