It's arguably where backpack started, with El-P, Bigg Jus and DJ Mr. Len defying trends and signing to a deal with then-fledgling Rawkus Records that offered them unprecedented creative freedom and profit-sharing. This, the resulting 1997 full-length expansion of CoFlow's vinyl-only Funcrusher EP, whiplashed the necks of open-minded fans looking for hip-hop's next new thing, and set the precedent for every smart, abstract, scattershot stream-of-active-consciousness verse laid over a weird beat to follow. Now remastered, Funcrusher Plus remains as jaw-dropping as ever. While a few of the beats are noticeably more sparse than some of the fathoms-deep layers of Bomb Squad-influenced production that came later (and come off in hindsight as perhaps more inspired by the simple, jazzy soundscapes of DJ Premier and the Native Tongues cabal than originally supposed, albeit in a darker, much grittier way), nothing seems dated in the least, and the rhymes … oh, man, the rhymes. El-P's aggressive and expressive style in particular still sounds like it's from the future, but everyone involved pushed the envelope so hard that today's underground MCs are still seeing traces of CoFlow's trail no matter how far ahead they're looking. This one belongs up there with The Low End Theory, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Paul's Boutique, etc. - Scott Harrell