Before Run The Jewels were the power duo they are today, El-P was heading his own label Definitive Jux and simultaneously pumping out his own material. For the first time ever, his 2002 solo debut Fantastic Damage is available on all digital streaming platforms.
“This album is raw and noisy and fucked up and exactly how I felt when I made it,” El Producto said in a press release. “It’s the first time I ever tried to tackle a whole record on my own all those years ago. It was produced and recorded and mixed in my bedroom/studio in the apartment in Brooklyn I lived in at the time, right around the year 2000.
“It’s not where I am now, but it is a moment that really meant something to me and it’s a huge part of my DNA as an artist so I’m glad to finally be able to get it back out there. Not only for those who knew it and missed its presence but for anyone who may have not known about it before now. I hope you enjoy this and thanks for all the amazing support over the years. I love doing what I do and I live to keep pushing forward. Fantastic Damage is, in a lot of ways, the start of all of it.”
In terms of solo output, El-P released Cancer 4 Cure in 2012 which was preceded by 2007’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. In 2012, El linked up with Killer Mike to produce the Atlanta MC’s R.A.P. Music and the rest is history. Out of that collaboration, Run The Jewels was born.
Since exploding onto the scene with their inaugural self-titled album in 2013, El and Mike followed with two more studio albums, the aptly titled Run The Jewels 2 and Run The Jewels 3. The highly anticipated fourth installment, Run The Jewels 4, is expected to arrive on June 5.
Run The Jewels Finally Unveil 'RTJ4' Album Release Date, Cover Art & Tracklist
The 11-track album will feature guest appearances from 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Zack de la Rocha and more. RTJ4 contains the previously released singles “Yankee and the Brave (Ep. 4)” and “Ooh LA LA.”
Stream Fantastic Damage below.
Finally! It’s not the first time, I was able to stream it on Rhapsody a few years ago, but it’s been out of the catalog for a while now. A few months back they added ‘I’ll sleep when you’re dead”, and now this. Just gotta get that Company Flow album up now.
Great Producer
That what im looking for that company flow album that shit was nice
Finally!. I like El-P’s old material way more. Cryptic, abstract, complex lyricism and layered, chaotic production. It’s not easy listening, not for everybody.
It looks like he deleted te whole Definitive Jux catalogue and is releasing those records again under the name of Fat Possum Records (with the exception of Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox and RJD2 [they got they own masters] all Def Jux stuff is gone from Spotify) I don’t know the resason for that actions but at least we got that. He should have uploaded the fan-dam mentals too. Bring that Funcrusher Plus and Little Johhny back ffs. Fantastic Damage classic should have went triple
Def Jux went bankrupt and all those guys got their own masters. RJD2 and Aesop Rock have released their own. Cannibal Ox re-released the Cold Vein through iHipHop. I don’t know if the other releases are owned by another label or the artists got the masters and just don’t have the distribution or the demand from another label or want/ability to self release.
Fat Possum is a real record label that specialized in blues albums and releasing stuff from old forgotten blues guys, but they also released some of the Black Keys albums. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. El-P is going through that label because they signed him. In interviews he talks about how he was dead broke (and he was tweeting about it at the time, but he deletes his tweets) after jux folded and he was doing the Co Flow reunion and such and DJ appearances. Fat Possum signed him and gave him advance for Cancer 4 Cure that helped him out a lot at the time. Now it appears they came back and signed him to a deal for the catalog and gave him a nice advance again. So Fat Possum is not an El-P label but I think most of the RTJ stuff is released under “Producto Mart” now after the first 2 were Fool’s Gold and Mass Appeal.
Thank you for that info I didn’t know all about that Fat Possum label. I only knew El-P shut down Def Jux long ago. It’s just weird that some of those records (like Cage Hell’s Winter or Little Johny from the Hospitul) were available like a few weeks ago and they gone now. I also wish someone had the rights to and upload The Perceptionists, C-Rayz Walz, Mr. Lif Def Jux stuff or even the labels compilations. But it is what it is. I should have kept the cd’s and vinyls i had lol, same goes for Rawkus Records
Stone cold classic.