The title in Billboard (11/1/97) read, "Canibus is a rapper for the future!," and added: "The 22-year old MC known as Canibus has been cultivating quite a solid reputation as a lyrical giant. His dynamic performances are featured on Lost Boyz' "Love, Peace & Nappiness" album (alongside Redman and A+), Common's "Making A Name For Ourselves," and several mix-tape jams. Signed to Universal, with a set due next year, he's armed with a trunkload of high-tech metaphors and is fully equipped to take rap into the future. Canibus drops lasso lines like "Flow's potent as possible, creatin' obstacles three feet high and rising like the chronicles of Posdnuos" ... Over the last few months, tastemakers all over the Big Apple underground, including DJ Clue?? and Funkmaster Flex, have been nominating the artist as the Next Big Thing, but the dedicated poet, who lives in Jersey City, NJ doesn't really get the chance to hear the feedback firsthand or take it to heart. "I come out the crib only to go to the studio or get something to eat," he says." Listen to the classic Clue freestyle, cont'd below...
"Born in Jamaica, the son of famed cricketer Basil Williams, Canibus also lived in Washington, DC and London before settling down in New Jersey. He feels that living all over helped him and his lyrics. "Input equals output," he says, "and what I talk about is what I've been exposed to." ... Inspired by uniquely gifted MCs like Rakim, Redman, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, and Jay-Z, Canibus has been rapping for about a decade. He's been in a coupla crews and considers his tenure in them to be "all a growing process." Always, he says, he was driven by "a love for the art." "I consider myself a connoisseur of information," he offers. "What I give you probably isn't something you haven't heard before, but I take it and get intricate with it. I play with circumstances. I play with concepts."
