3LP – Import

cLOUDDEAD’s debut album, compiling six 10″ EPs that appeared between 2000-2001, is aurally dense and obscured. A sprawling mass of miniature beat-suites and Dadaist lyrics, this strange and beautiful 3xLP would influence a myriad of sub-genres (cloud rap, hauntology, lo-fi hip-hop, etc.) in the two decades since its initial release.

Only the three members of cLOUDDEAD – Why?, Doseone, and Odd Nosdam – can speak to the group’s origins, but in the context of underground hip-hop towards the end of the 20th century, their arrival makes perfect sense. Cincinnati had a vital scene; home to Scribble Jam, an annual confluence of MCs, DJs, B-boys and graffiti artists. While the trio soon relocated to the Bay Area where they co-founded the Anticon collective, their Midwestern roots would remain the atomic heart of their early recordings.

Taken all together, “cLOUDDEAD” is an original interpretation of hip-hop in the surreal Y2K glow – a bizarre meeting point between William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops” and MF DOOM’s “Operation: Doomsday”. This edition has been faithfully restored by Nosdam. Comes with poster.