Funcrusher Plus

Funcrusher Plus is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Company Flow.^[3] It was released by Rawkus Records in 1997.^[4] In 2009, it was re-released on Definitive Jux.^[5] The album has been recognized as "a landmark independent hip-hop release".^[6]

Funcrusher Plus
Studio album by Company Flow
Released	July 22, 1997 (1997-07-22)
Recorded	1994–97
Studio	Ozone No Mystery (New York)
Genre	East Coast hip hop[1] underground hip hop progressive rap[2]
Length	73:52
Label	Rawkus
Producer	Company Flow
Company Flow chronology
Funcrusher (1995) Funcrusher Plus (1997) Little Johnny from the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals Vol.1 (1999)
Singles from Funcrusher Plus
"8 Steps to Perfection" Released: 1996 "Blind" Released: 1997

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[8]
Los Angeles Times	[9]
Muzik	10/10[10]
NME	7/10[11]
Pitchfork	9.0/10[12]
PopMatters	9/10[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[13]
Spectrum Culture	[14]
Spin	8/10[15]

Jon Dolan of City Pages noted "[Company Flow's] evincing a confrontational critique of 'those signed, big-budget muthafuckas' like none hip hop has attempted since EPMD's Strictly Business."^[16] Andrew Hultkrans of Spin gave the album 8 stars out of 10, commenting that "[the album] deconstructed hip-hop conventions and rebuilt them into a spare, murky, sputtering soundscape."^[15] Jeff Weiss of the Los Angeles Times felt that "El-P conjured an apocalyptic minimalism -- the sublimated sound of clanging and cluttered train cars, city grime buried beneath cuticles, and the ghostly smoke of burning blunts."^[9] Brian Coleman of CMJ New Music Monthly called it "the most important release of 1997 thus far."^[17] The New York Times wrote that Company Flow "rap fast, rude, free-associative boasts and dystopian visions over tracks that mesh raunchy old funk snippets with electronic noise, making hip-hop that's simultaneously propulsive and disorienting."^[18]

Nate Patrin of Pitchfork said: "With the exception of the nocturnal crystalline funk of the Bigg Jus-produced 'Lune TNS' and the frequent scratch contributions from secret weapon DJ Mr. Len, Funcrusher Plus' beats bear the mark of El-P's dusty-but-digital aesthetic, which even back then had the same sort of beautiful-dystopia Blade Runner feel that informed Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein and his own Fantastic Damage a few years later."^[12] AllMusic gave the album a perfect 5 star rating, and writer Steve Huey stated: "[Funcrusher Plus] demands intense concentration, but also rewards it, and its advancement of hip-hop as an art form is still being felt. It's difficult, challenging music, to be sure, and it's equally far ahead of its time."^[7]

Joseph Schafer of Stereogum said, "Funcrusher Plus made for a hell of an opening salvo, and most emcee/producers would envy having such a record in their discography, but El mostly improved upon his work here later."^[19]

On October 4, 2011, "Lune TNS" was chosen by NJ.com as the Song of the Day.^[6]

In 2003, Funcrusher Plus ranked at number 84 on Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list.^[20] In 2014, Complex listed the album at number 86 on the 90 Best Rap Albums of the 90s.^[4] In 2015, it was chosen by Fact as number 4 on the 100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records of All Time.^[21]

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Bad Touch Example"	Justin Ingleton Jaime Meline	El-P	3:26
2.	"8 Steps to Perfection"	Ingleton Meline	El-P	4:43
3.	"Collude/Intrude" (featuring J-Treds)	Meline J-Treds	El-P	5:25
4.	"Blind"	Ingleton Meline	El-P	3:42
5.	"Silence"	Ingleton	El-P	3:33
6.	"Legends"	Meline	El-P	4:02
7.	"Help Wanted"		El-P	2:13
8.	"Population Control"	Ingleton Meline R.A. Thorburn	El-P	4:26
9.	"Lune TNS"	Ingleton	Bigg Jus	3:39
10.	"Definitive"	Meline	El-P	5:47
11.	"Lencorcism"		Mr. Len	0:36
12.	"89.9 Detrimental"	Meline	El-P	1:03
13.	"Vital Nerve" (featuring BMS)	Meline BMS	El-P	5:01
14.	"Tragedy of War (in III Parts)"	Ingleton Meline	El-P	3:49
15.	"The Fire in Which You Burn" (featuring The Brewin from the Juggaknots & J-Treds)	Ingleton Meline Breezly Brewin J-Treds	El-P	5:02
16.	"Krazy Kings"	Ingleton	El-P	4:52
17.	"Last Good Sleep"	Meline	Mr. Len, El-P	5:59
18.	"Info Kill II"	Ingleton Meline	El-P	3:48
19.	"Funcrush Scratch"		Mr. Len	2:48
Total length:				73:52

Notes

• "Population Control" features uncredited vocals from R.A. the Rugged Man
• The vinyl version contains a track originally featured on the Funcrusher EP, titled "Corners '94".

Personnel

• El-P – producer, lead vocals, mixing
• Bigg Jus – producer, lead vocals
• Mr. Len – producer, scratching
• R.A. the Rugged Man – vocals
• J-Treds – vocals
• BMS – vocals
• Breezly Brewin – vocals
• Vassos – recording, engineering, mixing
• Jeff Cordero – recording, engineering, mixing
• Walker Bernard – recording, engineering
• Chris Athens – mastering

Singles chart positions

Year	Song	Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales[22]
1997	"Blind"	44