The Cold Vein

Cannibal Ox, the Harlem duo of Vast Aire and Vordul Mega, made one of the defining albums of New York's underground with El-P producing every track. The cover is as cold as the title: a pale grey and blue illustration under the album's name and the group's metallic logo.

The illustration is by Tyson Jones, with art direction and design by Dan Ezra Lang. Its icy palette fits El-P's dense, science-fiction beats and the bleak city stories on songs like "Iron Galaxy" and "Vein."

The Cold Vein was released on 15 May 2001 on El-P's label Definitive Jux and helped define the sound of 2000s indie rap. Its artwork reached an unexpected audience years later, when a poster of it appeared in Greta Gerwig's 2017 film Lady Bird.