Evening, all.
I wrote a post about P.O.S. in the midst of my weeklong Doomtree Diatribe back in March. While I was advocating for people to give some of his earliest work a listen, now that he's built up a catalog and some national press, there is a secret, even earlier album that predates anything he did with Doomtree. I only found out about it because someone else tipped me off to it, but it's kind of a cool thing to hear. Not unlike my love letter to a one-shot band the other day, today's post is on the sole release from long-gone rap group Cenospecies, of which P.O.S. was a core member.
The album, titled In Definition, was released in 2002. It was hailed by the Citypages as the best album from a band that broke up that year. While it's a bit uneven and raw, its still a fun hip hop record that showed hints of what lay in store for the future indie-rap dynamo. Composed of rappers P.O.S. and Syst, along with producer DJ Anomaly (real name Jason Heinrichs), the group created a sound that was loose and free-flowing, almost to a fault. The beats, at times, feel undefined or somehow vague, like the creative process was kind of slap-dash. Even so, the album has a unique sound that isn't in line with much P.O.S. has done since, which is understandable considering how early in his career it was. The whole thing feels more like a love letter to hip hop than a debut album from a rap crew. Establishing this sense of affection for the art form, the opening lines to the first track see P.O.S. rapping "All right, hip hop, its that music from downtown, that nitty-gritty sewer shit, making people move like epileptic fits to hip hop, rhythms that make the shows stop and mouths drop, make you throw a brick at a cop, I can't explain the way I feel about it, I can't explain the way the love and hate can't complicate the elements, can't deal without it."
There are constant references on the album to not just rapping but graffiti and turntables and mics, as though the whole point of the album was a meta-concept, rapping about rapping. At least it wasn't misogynistic or about crime sprees, but with P.O.S. at the mic that was never even a consideration. He's clearly the stronger of the pair on record, here, as Syst comes across as feeling unnatural or not at ease with his delivery. P.O.S.'s style is in its early stages, still, but feels like he's a natural even at this point in his career. Sure, his rapping on some tracks like 'Complex Decline' can feel rushed and unfocused, but then on a tune like 'Local Anesthetic' it feels like he locks right into the pocket. Like any rap album, there are guest spots here and there, and like this album's reputation for being a harbinger, so are the guests. There's nigh-unrecognizable acappella track courtesy of fellow Doomtree Crew member Mike Mictlan, sounding (of course) younger and less polished, but its clear he already was a force to be reckoned with. Another sporadic Doomtree collaborator, Crescent Moon of Kill The Vultures and Roma Di Luna, makes an appearance with an incredibly funny and clever verse on 'Aristotle Waddle'.
Like I wrote above, the only reason I even found out about this album was because someone else tipped me off to its existence. The people who turned me on to Doomtree, who in some cases were on friendly terms with them, never even mentioned this album. It's a footnote, really. Just a long-forgotten predecessor to what would become the best rap crew in modern hip hop, a forerunner that bore many of the stylistic markings and a few of the same voices. It really is only fun to hear if you're well familiar with the current state of Doomtree and where they've come from, otherwise this sole album by Cenospecies is a fairly unremarkable affair. It really only comes to life on about half the tracks, but when it does you can see the spark of talent just starting to glow.
I wrote a post about P.O.S. in the midst of my weeklong Doomtree Diatribe back in March. While I was advocating for people to give some of his earliest work a listen, now that he's built up a catalog and some national press, there is a secret, even earlier album that predates anything he did with Doomtree. I only found out about it because someone else tipped me off to it, but it's kind of a cool thing to hear. Not unlike my love letter to a one-shot band the other day, today's post is on the sole release from long-gone rap group Cenospecies, of which P.O.S. was a core member.
The album, titled In Definition, was released in 2002. It was hailed by the Citypages as the best album from a band that broke up that year. While it's a bit uneven and raw, its still a fun hip hop record that showed hints of what lay in store for the future indie-rap dynamo. Composed of rappers P.O.S. and Syst, along with producer DJ Anomaly (real name Jason Heinrichs), the group created a sound that was loose and free-flowing, almost to a fault. The beats, at times, feel undefined or somehow vague, like the creative process was kind of slap-dash. Even so, the album has a unique sound that isn't in line with much P.O.S. has done since, which is understandable considering how early in his career it was. The whole thing feels more like a love letter to hip hop than a debut album from a rap crew. Establishing this sense of affection for the art form, the opening lines to the first track see P.O.S. rapping "All right, hip hop, its that music from downtown, that nitty-gritty sewer shit, making people move like epileptic fits to hip hop, rhythms that make the shows stop and mouths drop, make you throw a brick at a cop, I can't explain the way I feel about it, I can't explain the way the love and hate can't complicate the elements, can't deal without it."
