El-P

After producing Cannibal Ox’s indie hip-hop classic The Cold Vein, Definitive Jux head El-P outdid himself with his own 2002 solo debut, Fantastic Damage. With its densely layered, atmospheric production and lyrics to match, El-Producto revealed himself as a mad genius perhaps too well-read on Philip K. Dick—anger, paranoia, and impending doom emanated throughout the album.

After the experimental departure of High Water (a project with Matthew Shipp), El-P returns on his third full-length, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, with soundscapes that are every bit as intricate, heavy, and ominous as expected. "Tasmanian Pain Coaster," featuring the Mars Volta, melds layered drums, bass, piano, guitar, and spooky samples to create a densely packed apocalyptic groove and clatter that's little like much else in hip-hop. "Habeas Corpus (Draconian Love)," is a twisted, dystopian tale of love and heartbreak between an executioner and a female prisoner, and "The Overly Dramatic Truth" sees El-P laying himself bare as he describes a doomed relationship he just can't quit. On both tracks, El-P is at his least wordy, but also his most lucid and poignant.

The album features the obligatory Def Jux cameos from the likes of Aesop Rock, Cage, and others; plus a rather inscrutable (and unsuccessful) appearance from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor on "Flyentology." Better executed is the collaboration with Cat Power’s Chan Marshall, who offers up the lovely vocals that dot the epic closer "Poisenville Kids No Wins / Reprise (This Must Be Our Time), which sees El-P wrestling with the painful idea that we're all in this together: "How the f*ck do you explain your own self-destruction and still remain trusting?" Fierce and focused, El-P has dropped one of the first truly significant hip-hop albums of 2007.

- Justin Charles
03.09.07

With even commercial rap's fortunes on the decline during 2007 and Rjd2 going indie rock, the rap underground must have seemed like a lonely place to El-P. Perfect time for a community album featuring contributions from most of the Definitive Jux community as well as some expertly fitted outsiders (the Mars Volta, Nine Inch Nails, even Cat Power). As a producer, El-P's only gotten better since Fantastic Damage. If a Bomb Squad production made it sound like the Apocalypse was nigh, El-P's tracks come post-apocalypse -- no less heavy but dark, dusty, and brittle, marching numbly like an army of the popping and locking dead. I'll Sleep When You're Dead is definitely the best-produced and most powerful Definitive Jux record since Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein -- which makes it the best in underground rap during that time. Meanwhile, El-P's improved as a rapper as well. Although what he's trying to say or mean exactly is often in doubt, he's better than any of his past CoFlow compatriots at matching the air of doom inherent in the sound ("I might have been born yesterday, sir/But I stayed up all night"). By the time Chan Marshall of Cat Power wraps up the record -- playing a sampled soul siren -- I'll Sleep When You're Dead is revealed as one of the most powerful hip-hop albums of 2007. While Public Enemy exposed the hypocrisy and greed of the '80s, El-P reflects his era just as well; the sense of stress is palpable, an "after the end of the world" feeling that's waiting anxiously for something else to be born. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide