Pity the Fool: Experiments in Therapy Behind the Mask of Music While Handing Out Dummy Smacks October 23, 2001

Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, Bambaata, Marley Marl, Prince Paul, Roc Raida, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Parliament Funkadelic, The O’Jays, Cameo, Kraftwerk, Prince, The Sugar Hill Gang, Run DMC, EPMD, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Dr. Dre, Notorious B.I.G., Indelible MC’s...

This is where Mr. Len, the Bronx-born DJ, producer, and co-mastermind behind the independent hip hop phenomenon known as Company Flow, is coming from.

Mr. Len spent the last six years recording, performing and touring the world with Company Flow, and helping give rise to the global indie/underground hip hop sensation through the group’s seminal release Funcrusher Plus (Official/Rawkus). Pity the Fool is his first solo offering, and it goes far beyond anything he’s done. The album is like sonic graffiti, full of hard, dark funk, subversive melodies, gritty street-beats, fractured dub bass and the inimitable DJ skills that established Mr. Len as an innovative master. His collaborators comprise the best of what’s happening in the underground today: Juggaknots, Mr. Live, Mass Influence, Dilated Peoples, Jean Grae, and Arsonists to name a few. He takes things where they’ve never gone before, pushing the possibilities of hip hop while dipping into electronic styles too often left alone by his peers.

Pity the Fool is an astounding effort which breaks codes all the while forming new ones. It’s what the state of hip hop will be two years from now.

What the F...? (featuring Mr. Live) April 18, 1999

This Morning (featuring Juggaknots) November 9, 1999

Mr. Len, best known as the DJ for the seminal New York City underground hip hop group Company Flow, is now producing a Matador album that will sum up his view of hip hop at the turn of the millennium. This is the first 12" of several from the upcoming Mr. Len album (to be released in Spring of 2000), featuring Breeze (featured on Prince Paul’s "A Prince Among Thieves) and Queen Heroine of Brooklyn’s Juggaknots, who have appeared on the award-winning "Lyricist Lounge Vol 1" compilation, and released an album on Bobbito Garcia’s Fondle ’Em Records. They have also collaborated with Company Flow as the supergroup Indelible MC’s. "This Morning" features intensely dark, ominous beats and the Juggaknots’ super-aware lyrics and flows. The 12" includes dirty, a capella, instrumental and clean versions.