Praying to that porcelain toilet

'Cannibal Ox' are a rhyming duo from New York, whose debut album 'The Cold Vein' was released on Definitive Jux records in may of 2001. It's sound brought promise for a bright, changing future in hip-hop, with El-p providing the space age industrial instrumentals for the two emcees Vast Aire (the big fella) and Vordul Mega (the nipper) to propel their outlandish wordplay over.

The album features many stand-out tracks, though only one made it to a visual medium (not that a music video is a gauge of a songs brilliance) "Painkillers" can be viewed as just another run of the mill drug ballad, but the poetic detail and observation both lyricists apply to the chosen topic make it stand apart from many of its predecessors. Vast Aire gives one of his better performances on the album and manages to combine hilarious metaphors with eerie descriptions of life.


"I might tell you something that'll change your death /Pain kills the life, Pleasure loves the breath"

The video is synchronized to the track perfectly and director Zach Johnson uses the standard 'rap to camera' style in a such a way that makes you forget that is was probably made on next to no budget. All in all the video is one of the better of its kind and is a good representation of the music of the Def Jux label.