EL-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

This entry was posted by jon on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 12:59 am.

2007, Definitive Jux

I was just about to give up on hip-hop.

Even those artists who had once bucked against the mainstream seemed to be slipping into either oblivion or the warm, comfortable bath of decadence, materialism, dumb misogyny, and dumber violence.

Then, I heard I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, where EL-P hearkens back to the sonic adventurousness of hip-hop’s golden age, but inversely, perversely. The closest comparison is De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, only instead of De La and Prince Paul’s cartoon explosion of psychedelia and in-jokes, we have something more ominous and serious.

This is the soundtrack to a paranoid time for a nation at war with itself and others. Filled with sirens, shrieks, claustrophobic beats, and a cohesive dystopian vision, this album terrifies and thrills.

Then, there are the impeccable lyrics: this album is a masterpiece of conscious hip-hop- something sorely needed today. Repeated listens are required to disentangle the rapidly spoken pearls of psychosis laid down by El-P and various guest MCs.

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