Berbati's Pan and Thrasher present

El P with Dizzee Rascal

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:30 PM PDT (8:30 PM Doors)
at Berbati's Pan
in Portland, OR

In 1993, a teenage visionary named El-P (born the son of a jazz piano player and raised Jaime Meline in New York City) put out his first piece of vinyl under the name COMPANY FLOW. What followed was a sound, perspective and philosophy destined to change independent hip hop music forever... 2 years earlier, after constant clashing with authority figures, leading to 2 high school expulsions in the same 8 months, a then 16 year old El-P found himself at a crossroads. He could either renew his efforts to fit into the scholastic system that had ejected him, or choose the uncharted territory of a career in music (his true love since age 10). He chose the latter, and after getting his GED (General Equivalency Diploma), he enlisted in musical engineering school. There he would learn the fundamental studio skills he knew he needed, and set himself on a path that he would never turn back from. At his 18th Birthday party he first met DJ Mr Len, whom he hired to spin for the night. They struck a harmonious musical chord and Mr Len Joined up to make it a group. Shortly after they released the first Company Flow 12", "Juvenile Technics" on the short live Libra records. The relationship between Co Flow and Libra quickly diminished, but Libra employee and aspiring artist Bigg Jus became close with the group and soon after joined. For the next two years, El-P and Jus worked by day (Tower records mail order) and recorded by night, using the money from their jobs to fund the label they created: Official Recordings. Steeped in b-boy experience and similar loves for hip hop culture and wordplay, El, Jus and Len set out to create something new. Throwing themselves fully into their new endeavor, they came up with the groundbreaking EP Funcrusher (released in 1995), of which they sold over 30,000 units on their own. Self-produced, self-promoted and self-controlled, they began getting regular support from hip hop radio luminaries like Bobbito and Stretch Armstrong on the east coast.