Ask an ’88 hip-hop head steeped in Public Enemy and EPMD what rap would sound like in 2001, and even their wildest futurist visions would have a hard time anticipating what Cannibal Ox would accomplish with The Cold Vein. Twenty years ago this week, the Harlem MC duo of Vast Aire and Vordul Mega — with a legendarily evocative assist from producer El-P — ambushed the summer of 2001 with a record as revolutionary in its singular vision as anything since Enter The Wu-Tang. That its legacy is more a stunning one-off for its headline artists than a career catalyst — an album few believe was ever possible for this braintrust to top — is just another layer of armor on The Cold Vein‘s bulletproof reputation. And it hit in a moment where the future of rap was anyone’s guess, the splintering dichotomy between underground and mainstream hip-hop only making Can Ox’s emergence more dramatic.