EL-P – ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ (Definitive Jux) Released 19/03/07

In a bid to emulate the critical acclaim achieved through his debut ‘Funcrusher Plus’ album, Brooklyn born hip-hop artist El-P, aka El-Producto, aka Jaime Meline releases his second full length solo studio album on his very own Definitive Jux label. Although by no means a household name, El-P first shot to fame in 1997 with one of the most influential alternative hip-hop albums of all time. A producer first and foremost (a skill closely followed by his unique and uncompromising rapping style) El-P is forged from a different mould to many current and better known hip-hop artists and relishes in an artistic freedom that many have been constrained by.

‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ bears testimony to this and draws in a wide range of varied styles and sounds whilst commenting on the global social state of twenty-first century living in the confines and metaphorical state of his home town Brooklyn.  But this is not your average hip-hop album and sounds more like Buck Rogers freestyling with Run DMC. Combining a fascination of science fiction with an aggressive and repetitive paranoia, El-P manages to create a self-fulfilling, almost but not quite, apocalyptic vision of a future linked by industrial futuristic sound, memory and fear. And it’s done to good effect without the normal ‘ho’s, bitches and cap in yo ass’ rude boy speak of traditional heavy duty rap.

Indeed, its very unclear and almost confusing what you’re about to hear when first playing ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ which begins in a dream like state of partial spatial awareness with ‘Tasmanian Pain Coaster’, a track initially akin to the Orbs ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’. But slowly and surely the hip-hop is given greater dominance than the sample and the listener is left in no doubt as to EL-P’s intentions; it’s all here, from the big and lyrically busy ‘Smithereens (Stop Cryin’)’ to the restrained verbal assault of ‘Up All Night’ and the full on god like imperialness of ‘Run The Numbers’. Samples and experimenting with sounds are hugely important throughout the album, as are with most hip-hop produced long players (and with thirteen tracks this certainly is an undeniable long player) the difference here being their sheer magnitude and importance.