Decided to spin one of my all-time favorite alternative hip hop records, El-P's 2007 album I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Can definitely trace this back to one of the first records that put underground hip hop on the map for me.
Featuring a random group of guests ranging from Glassjaw frontman Daryl Palumbo to Yo Lo Tengo's Chan Marshall to Trent Reznor, as well as Def Jux boys Cage, Mr. Lif, and Aesop Rock, the album explores El-P's unique blend of futuristic atmosphere. Mind-boggling rhymes and bleeping beats brood along, evident in the stomp of Tasmanian Pain Coaster (with an outro filled out by members of The Mars Volta) and the slow burn of the politically volatile "Dear Sirs".
Still, El-P retains his animated style, his science fiction themes bubbling through the acid-trip of "Drive" and Ridley Scott might as well adapt a screenplay for "Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)".
El-P knows what's at the heart of alternative hip hop and demonstrates that thoroughly with I'll Sleep When You're Dead. So don't sleep on it or you're dead...get it? Get it!
Buy: El-P- I'll Sleep When You're Dead
MySpace: El-P
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