Things start out strongly on Aesop Rock’s self-produced “All in All” but it’s when Carnage decides to “Make News” on a NASA produced beat that things really explode. It’s truly an amazing arsenal on this release, one which would make any mixtape covering artists from different labels a must buy, but this one is all in-house. Their willingness to eschew the expected and forge ahead in new territory has attracted some of the scene’s best and brightest to their fold, and “Definitive Jux Presents III” showcases this talent. Intended or not, the label has indeed become “Definitive” among the increasingly strong indie rap scene. While they may have done it under protest, in hindsight it seems like a brilliant move artistically and strategically. Instead El-P and camp took it the other direction and stretched “Def” out to “Definitive.” The industry’s middle finger back forced them to change names, but unlike Rick Rubin dropping the “Def” to become American just wouldn’t have the same ring to it. Fronted by El-P, the man who once proclaimed his group Company Flow “independent as fuck,” Def Jux was proud to offer a middle finger to mainstream rap and let experimental beats and rhymes reign supreme. In truth it would be hard to argue this was a coincidence, since on the 30 minute “Def Jux Presents” the label went out of their way to paint their artists as the musical and lyrical alternative to the commercially friendly releases of the once indie label that had been swallowed up by corporate buyouts and mergers. Then big money and lawyers got involved, and it was decided that Def Jux was just a little too close in name to Def Jam for their own good. Once upon a time, these pioneers of “next generation” hip-hop music were known simply as Def Jux.
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