final lolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N6oyBM_Mjs

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xy6a_scary-masked-sheep-cglk_creation

Actually that's kind of cruel.

Maybe another hallmark of Mondeo Pop is that it doesn't break in America?

-- acrobat, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:49 (2 months ago) Link

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Del Amitri were big on the college circuit in the States, weren't they? Or at least circa "Roll To Me" they were.

-- Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:50 (2 months ago) Link

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if only we could find some american rock critic types who remember the mid '90s huh?

-- acrobat, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 13:52 (2 months ago) Link

I'm pretty sure in ILX's dark past the Young Knives would have received "phwoarrr, dirty dronerock boys sure get my clit-on" posts.

-- Dom Passantino, Friday, 9 November 2007 13:30 (22 minutes ago) Link

But then Blount stopped posting aaaaaaahhhh

-- Dom Passantino, Friday, 9 November 2007 13:31 (21 minutes ago) Link

dance style related to jumpstyle tttecktonik?
might be more of interest, for some, posted here, like youtube tecktonik ; what makes me lol most is the occasional :D pose

‘ll go on record and say that ANTICON as a crew has produced some of the most important people in that era of Hip-Hop, and they are also one of the most slept on crews in terms of the mass market.”—Jay Seagraves, publisher, Backpacker Magazine, as quoted by HipHopInfinity.com.

It is difficult to write an unwritten history. This is simply the reality of writing about 1998 rap music in 2006; the information is out there, but much of it exists as hearsay and unsubstantiated rumor. There is no Hipster’s Manual for the Anti-confirmative crew. What I know about ANTICON is … not much. I’m not from San Francisco, never been to Maine. What I do know is that somebody put a torrent up and I downloaded it by accident last night. So this piece won’t revolve around obscure Orphanage tour discs. But I do hope to provide both a brief primer for folks who are not familiar, and some context and perspective on one of the most significant—and underrated—groups in internet-Hip Hop history. If the history of the group is what you are interested in, Backpacker has already covered that ground in an extensive multi-part exploration of the crew and its origins.

In the late 1990s Internet hip-hop was at a creative peak. Sure, Hiphopsite.com had arrived from the west, laying the groundwork for the uncreative blueprint that would set the direction for trap music’s future, and Sandbox-automatic had established themselves as a notable underground retailer. But Hiphopinfinity was still the rap music Mecca, with talent popping out of every Swedish remix 12’’, rappers spitting from so many different directions, producers still mastering the electric guitar. A major cornerstone of Hiphopinfinity’s creative rap movement was the Anti-confirmative crew, known simply as ANTICON.

Today, having fun aside, the last thing a hardcore rap crew will cop to is “not conforming.” However, this was the internet in the late 1990s, and no group captured that time and place better than ANTICON; Atmosphere was one-of-a-kind, Galapagos4 were too dark and grittily underground, too focused in scope. Until the Def Jux era, the members of ANTICON were exemplars of quality rap music in message boarding’s late 90s to early 00’s creative explosion. The beats weren’t danceable, and the rappers sounded like Battlestar Galactica fans on LSD.

The crew was a loose conglomeration. There were many albums released by individual members with assists from the rest, yet only one released officially by the group as a whole, and it dropped well after most members’ creative prime. Although at one time all underground internet rappers, each artist would end up in very different places; for Dose One and Why?: sub-par indie rock for kids who think normal indie rock isn’t nerdy enough; for Alias: obscurity in the wider world but a renowned producer’s status in goth-hop. For Sage Francis: superstardom. And for Sole and Pedestrian, tragic commercial death.

Production
Sole, Alias, Odd Nodsam, Jel

These four were the key to the crew’s name; their “beats” defined the period.

Sole was a rapper and producer, and had been a frequent caller on public radio since he went to a Nixon memorial high school. In some ways he seems to exists as the central constellation around which the crew revolved. Sole had known Alias and Jel from his teenage years; they all began as hair metal guitarists in the late-1980s. By 1997, Sole had released his first LP, Music for the Advancement of Hiphop, along with his “posse” and close friends The Restiform Bodies. Production credits on the record went to the core of the Anticon sound: Alias and Jel both contributed, alongside Buck 65, who was still in the formative stages of establishing his own style. The Sebutones’ rep wouldn’t be solidified until 50/50 Where It Counts release the following year. (Although not a member of the crew, Buck 65 would produce tracks for Anticon members throughout his career.)

By this time the Anticon crew began to come together. Odd Nodsam didn’t meet the crew until after Music for the Advancement of Hiphop’s release; both were internet rappers—Sole was supplementing the meager paychecks he received from Jay Seagraves by waiting tables at Denny’s on the side—and at that point, the foundation for Anticon’s sound was established. Alias would go on to produce some of the best tracks in goth-hop history, from Odd Nosdam’s “the futurist robotic conception” to Why?’s “metaphysical forest and the attack of Republican elves.”

Internet-Rappers
Dose One, Why?, Pedestrian, Telephone Jim Jesus, Sage Francis

1998 was a major year for Sole in another way; it was the year he met a rapper named Dose One, who would arguably become the group’s definitive rapper. Dose One was an Ohio kid badgering Sole for his money back on a scratched Restiform Bodies cd he bought at concessions during Scribble Jam. Why? had battled Alias in that event’s semi finals, making him cry, and was an obvious choice for the crew. Sage Francis and Telephone Jim Jesus were later additions; comparative heavyweights (weighing in at 120 pounds each) who the wider world would know as solo artists. Pedestrian and Why?, associates of the duo Themselves, rounded out the group, although various internet rappers would make appearances on Anticon recordings from associates like Josh Martinez to established vets like Atmosphere’s Slug.

Rest in Peace?

For a late 90s group named for the rather “gangsta” habit of not fitting into society, Anticon were first and foremost nerds. And these were the early days of the internet, so an internet sensibility followed: off beat rapping and lyrical excursions about one’s feelings over tracks with no discernable sense of rhythm. In many ways, Anticon’s rappers defined internet rap in the late 90s better than anyone; while the group itself is almost a footnote, its members’ influence in the world of rap is broad.

On the whole, internet lyrically lyrical hip-hop has never sounded as simultaneously insular yet confounding, viral yet appropriative in its existence. Certainly, other groups have captured the web’s swiftly changing spirit, but no crew so thoroughly defined the ideals of this era like Anticon. They were on top of the world, but they retained the committed connection to their origins – the goal of maiming and distorting rap records. We discuss the fall of hardcore Hiphop, and reassess the significance of a history that ignores the Freestyle Fellowship, but it is vital that we appropriately reassess the internet’s own history as well. Yes, Company Flow were significant, one of the most important groups to ever record. And while hipster music criticism seems to have latched onto Def Jux, then Kanye West, finally on to Young Jeezy, the story seems distorted with Anticon’s minimal inclusion. In my mind, Anticon was the definitive internet rap crew, and they deserve a central role in its history.

Their most significant role, however, is in your speakers. Driving to my local Anime convention some years ago, nothing sounded more like the sights, smells and sounds of suburban hip-hop than Sole’s “Bottle of Humans,” blasting from my headphones. Soulless, white, confusing—Anticon were the Hiphop act I wasn’t ashamed to play in front of my girlfriend.

No…no really, I had a girlfriend!

Sources
Seagrave, Jay “Scribble Jam 1999 rap-up”, “Sole Interview”. Backpacker Magazine, 2000.

Note: This piece was part of an April Fool’s satire.

zing'd

"I spit fire with every word and could smack my wife's head off with my fist--but, hey, I take a bath every day. What's her problem?"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/images/2007/09/07/1957_0904_jane_palmer_2.jpg

http://www.backpacker.com/images/BP_header_05.jpg

holy crap @ "i could smack her head off with my fist"

oh man seagraves was the biggest anticon fanboy from the get go

that is an ohword parody piece clowning my halfassed stylus piece on ditc

i always heard the "eat a sandwich" bit as "penis terror"

-- ciderpress, Friday, 2 November 2007 20:41 (1 week ago) Link

i dont' think i ever caught their names, but maybe 6-7years ago when i first moved to SF and didn't know really what undie-backpacker rap was, i was in a bookstore and saw 2 dudes reading a music making magazing and started up a conversation with them. they told me they were part of Anticon. i'd only heard of what it was, but never listened to the music and said "oh, i heard that's backpacker stuff" and said some other stuff w/o knowing that i was dissing them. just thought it was a term. they got kinda pissy at me. :-/

Good!

Artist: El-P of Company Flow
Album: *
Song: Linda Trip
Typed by: flipma✧✧✧@a✧✧.c✧✧, iann✧✧✧@im✧✧✧.a✧✧.e✧✧

* this song appeared on HipHopJoints.com as a response
to Anticon rapper Sole but hasn't OFFICIALLY been released

El-P: "Straight up if it wasn't for cats like me
For real and I am not bullshittin
If it wasn't for cats like me you wouldn't be in the rec
in the door and I know that's true now knowwhatmsayin?
Because now you're really in some of it"

Sole: "Where's Len? I told Len that fuckin; I sai {slight pause}
Quote, that I said, I love Company Flow
I don't wanna be against you guys I-I-I quote
quote, unquote I said, I wanna be down - you know;
like I said I don't want beef with you guys
YouknowIamlikedude; like fuckin
this whole shit is bananas, y'know"

El-P: "Like you're gonna make it by dissing me
You know the record that got CoFlow scared, knowwhatmsayin??
It's like DO I SOUND SCARED??"

Sole: "No I don't think you sound very scared"

Some cats know us but this one don't
I oughta pierce this fuckin phallus through your rookie ass throat
Yo Duke, don't step to me until you're ripened fruit
I'm loopy from the invitations from funeral glue
Stone poems dissolve combatants via shards through 56k high speed
Still blitzed like relaxed I'll call geisha felatio deeds
like fertilizer bombs packed in air tower compartment docks
Sticky fuck revolution shot - send all complaints to Rupert Murdoch
I'll black out in the mug of suburbanites with little stinger's crew
You volunteer for the draft stupid--thats on you!!
On some upper middle class romantic notion
So the mortar scraps'll fly cry gates section 8 escape like Klinger do
The demented happy face bruised back for pussycrew packin
Rockin clam diggers with cut knees in Hepatitis puddles - no vaccine
Plus 99% are down but you still give respect for
Silently questionin your direction - like Amistad passenger section
Gilbert Grape against Magneto odds;
Ultimate Break 5 versus your needle pops;
Davey Jones versus Goliath;
I'm Ed Sullivan Beatles crowd response
I slowed it down - try to download this gig to formatted floppy disk
while heads bop like epileptics sucking my dick to some off-beat shit

Sole: "I l-l-l-l-l-l-love Company Flow"
::scratch:: "y-y-you faggot"

This spoiled brat little young saga got a mommy bought my sampler tapes
(Sole: "I wanna be down")
Make sure every one sheet snippet tape flyer sticker and t-shirt
got a representation of my name and face
I rock beats that Tina Yothers morning sickness without makeup ugly dusty
Fucked up four track dirty ass crack pirate radio readiness
Okay fella; I own my masters, lyrics, merchandise
mic, turntables, style psychosis pain and penis
Deranged cadence kills syllable UV needles
Makin gangsters in the crowd throw bottles at my people
We dip on life cycles few data crisp since
custom Jeep Dapper Dan era in 3 fat goose
swingin discs of Tron to disembowel your village elder
Fuckin sick isn't it? Bucket my piss while you're at it kiss the dog dick
Try to act monstrous but just a Beanie Baby after my profit
That don't do much for hip hop - that isn't respect it's cockfondlin
In eighty-nine we called it tip-doggin; but you ain't know that rookie
Don't ever try to front like you know me or my people
By the way Vordul did I bite?

Vordul: "yea right!!--thats fantasy lie snake trife"

Sole: "like fuckin - this whole shit is bananas"

You little lying muthafucka you know you kiss my ass
and then you try to ::scratch:: "change up the past"
Who fell into their own hari kari kit when they lied to themselves
Self abuse by selling lies self destructive
I am Captain Kirk, Spock and Lieutenant Uhura on the away team
You're Henson Lebowitz - the sacrificial lamb for the episode
You beamed to the wrong planet this time
wth a hot pink phaser and one line
before getting morphed to faggot dust for not knowing our status
Automatic and absolutely the poisonous shit-licking one cyber reject
New England rich boy soon to catch a Bay Area eject
Marionette pussy non-veteran
I got more friends than you where you live
(Menopause/ Men all pause) when I stop that flow of estrogen
You wanna be on the cutting edge--sliced up
Emotions knifed--life sucks
feeling dejected when frustration is misdirected in official election
Conjections on top of blaming misinformation textures
So inane--I cause colon blow pain
You have an obsession respect it
From now on you're immortalized playin yourself on my record
Congratu-fuckin-lations; isn't that what you wanted-- IDIOT!!
There's more than a little difference between yours and mines existence
This is my ride; and your not commadering it
The only thing advanced about your music
is that you need a computer to hear it
This year your independent,
last year you was on some keep it real shit, right?
The last year before that you discovered hip-hop
and you immediately became an internet genius
Fecetious pseudo-intellectualism can't contest wisdom
I feel like Selena; the president of my fan club trying to kill me
And you'se a bad ass?
Let's take a Linda Trip file since you wanted to play the game filthy
Bad enough that you lied about me; front like this isn't your voice
I'll be force to release the microcassette in it's entirety

Sole: "I mean, fuckin Len knows, I mean.. y'know I like your shit
You know it's not really like that y'know"

El-P: "I don't know that you like my shit
I haven't even heard your record
I have no idea what you think about me"

Sole: "I-I-I-I-I love Company Flow--I love Company Flow
I don't wanna be against you guys--I don't wanna be against you guys
I wanna be down--I-I-I-I-I wanna be down--I-I-I-I-I wanna be down

:: "I love Company Flow" -- Sole's voice stretched and echoed
so it sounds like he's sputtering and stuttering:::

This is one of those precious moments of ferocious paybacks
Closest to the perfect scenario you made a move but it backfired
Magnified by the fact that you tried to project a persona
of confrontation by subverting a crew who in fact you idolized
Next time your delusions of groupie lust and battle fame
Isolated website hip-hop coast Tiger Beat subscription addiction
Malignancy career impotency lies high school gossip power move
will simply get you beat the fuck up, LIAR!!
Spell my God Damn name right next time pussy
Feel the beauty of futulity served with arsenic cookies
and old lace, you tried to save facial; yo fuck that I fold space
You musta thought you was Canibus trying to eat my ass
How does the hole taste Timmy?
You don't even deserve this moment--do you?
You haven't paid enough dues to get a battle--PUPIL!!
Run along and do your little interviews with your fantasy life distortion
Next time you reveal your true self make sure that no one records it
YOU STUPID!!

Sole: "To be totally honest with you--I think your being cool, y'know
Like; I mean, taking in consideration everything--y'know"

El-P: "Yaknahmsayin my plan was especially to ignore you, but like,
now it's gettin very difficult to do that because you're makin too..
you're makin too big a deal, out of what you perceive as a diss to you;
when in reality like, I don't think your completely
positive that your totally correct on this one"

Sole: "Uh, I don't feel very correct right now; at this point
That's why I don't really have anything to say because it's like
well fuck, you know I made I made my El-P diss record already y'know?"

::scratching::::
damn thats a sucka---faggot----
Get played, out of position
---true feelings---
m-m-murder a rookie----
suck the dick kid and eat the dick cookie----
e-e-e-at the dick cookie

i oughta pierce this fuckin phallus through your rookie-ass throat

why is lol thread turning into 48 hour anticon diss thread?

-- and what

There should really be a thread or 1,000 on ILM where Ethan can talk about the fact that some people like different hip-hop than him.

isn't there

well Patrin used to be around to contain that to just his threads.

patrin was too humorless to be ethan's foil. i prefer ellis

no way, herbs who think they're "in on the joke" are way worse

u talking about yrself there?

http://sillyape.org/trash/get_ready_for_blastoff.jpg

get_ready_for_blastoff.jpg

i was setting up ethan for the easy zing there but i guess he's not around so you can have it.

consider it an early christmas gift.

ethan's new arch enemy is jordan s.

WTF that picture

wau @ restraint potty

BLASTOFF!

Yer getting the chair, kid.

it's not even a potty, his shorts are on. it's like a convert your toilet into a restraining device for evil children!

how do you get in it

someone needs to add hot rod tires and a trail of fire to that image

and draw horns on that evil fucker

I posted this on the ILE parenting thread and demanded an explanation.

i think i'd laugh more if i didn't think that kid had MS or something

http://tortuga.usebynet.com/PacalVotansTombLid.jpg

i think i would laugh more if he didnt look just like one of the kids killed in that west memphis triple homicide

i have decided that it is a potty because of the urine-redirecting peepee codpiece. DEDUCTION.

if that chair had a dorito dispenser, it would be perfect

yeah thats all it needs

???????

It does! You just don't want to eat them.

i would gladly sit there all day, no straps needed

you're honestly worse than max at this.

max is amazing at this btw - the problem is u dont even know what this is

ive prob said too much tho

http://www.users.on.net/~mackerill/Avatars/stop-posting.gif

max's art is zinging. he's about to paint his masterpiece.

― omar little

whoa hay yr drowning me in punches ;)

more like

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/clinch.jpg

this is boring. I'm bored now.

note the glove tape^

whiney you will never win at disproving or otherwise criticizing zings aimed at you--all it does is make you a more attractive target

i'm just shocked that you would call the tired fridge magnet poetry that ice cr?m is doing "zings" but OK.

butthurtedness = zing magnet

Whiney take your zings--the good the bad and the ugly--like a fucking man

think of it as the l**s j*gger effect

and i jerked off a sandwich.

Whiney G. Weingarten Esq.

slocki is drowning you in truth bombs here whiney g. weingarten

http://www.nicegraphics.com/chow/Mannys/RoastBeef.jpg

oy vey with the nsfw sandwiches guys; you just freaked out our director of sales.

http://files.kavefish.com/pictures/dog_sandwich.jpg

"you just freaked out our director of sales" = new meme?

lol

you really did freak her out!