El-P / I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Def Jux)

Figurative wizard El-P is hip-hop’s Josh Baskin.  And ever since he woke up with a big dick, broke up Company Flow, moved out on his own, and founded Def Jux to unrelenting critical acclaim, I’ve been the guy in the MacMillan boardroom saying, ‘I don’t get it.’  Not because I completely misunderstood P’s robot bug rhymes, his purpose on Fantastic Damage, or even the compass he strapped to Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock’s careers, but because my neurons ceased firing like they did on my extended honeymoon with Co Flow’s genre-probing Funcrusher Plus.  That album was conceived in a stylistic vacuum, so when every eccentric Lower East Side whiteboy co-opted said vacuum, the dramatic novelty that accentuated El-P’s early crack expired.  On I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, El-P returns to Funcrusher form, but spits with an evolved global perspective that finally differentiates him from the science rhymers who haven’t studied rap music’s basic elements.  In addition to busting some of hip-hop’s most compelling post 9/11 dialogue to date, tracks such as “EMG” also mark a conscious return to the barebackdrops that define the era that preceded New York’s castration.  And considering his “Poisenville Kids No Wins” encore has saliva heavy metaphors sailing across what actually resembles a headnoddable melody, it looks like El-P might have finally found Zoltar after all. 

I'll Sleep When You're Dead is available at Amalgam Digital for $8.99.  Download it here