Vast Aire, one-half of underground super-duo Cannibal Ox, had to
pull a Donald Trump last year. "I fired the team that was managing
Can Ox,” the Harlemite explains from Brooklyn's Junior's restaurant.
"They messed up a tour we were gonna do with Jean Grae and
I was just like, 'You know what? You're fired.'"
The failed tour, paired with his partner Vordul's distaste of the
industry (he was once assaulted by a crazed fan), fostered unsubstantiated
rumors of Ox's demise. With the group merely on hiatus-an EP titled
‘Cypher Unknown’ is forthcoming-26-year-old Vast is
focused on his own LP, ‘Look Mom... No Hands.’ With
support from his Atoms Family crew, appearances from MF Doom and
Sadat X, as well as production from Ayatollah, Madlib and Da Beatminerz,
his solo debut is a body of great work.
Built like an NFL lineman and referred to at times as the "Underground
Biggie,” Vast stands out among the patrons at Junior's.
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Similarly, his music is
conspicuous in a subterranean scene plagued with as many glorified
demos as there are pseudo-MCs in the mainstream.
"Everyone's
rhyming right now 'cause they can and I don't think that's cool,”
states Vast, who held gigs ranging from busing tables to counseling
children before becoming a full-time artist. "I think you need
more people in the world that just want to drive a bus. [Rapping]
is not for everybody. It's lucrative but there's mad shit that's
lucrative. Toilet paper's lucrative.”
A bugged sense of humor and knockout lines, such as, "If I'm
the son of a gun, I came from a cannon/When all my children aim,
knots start landing,” reveal Vast's thought process is on
an alternate wavelength. His music evokes '90s hip-hop nostalgia
but simultaneously sounds fresh. As Vast tells it, it's simply a
progression. “We're the first generation to be old with video
games," Vast informs. "Back in the days it was only for
children. But now you can make a video game for a 35-year-old. So
that's the world we're in and that's the same with hip-hop."
By: Aqua Boogie |
