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 EL-P has a reputation as dense, complex and tense as the city he effuses. JANEWORLD crosses her fingers and takes her chances with the rapper behind the producer behind the renown.
When Prefuse 73 released 2005’s Surrounded By Silence, the stand-out track was the Ghostface Killer collaboration … not for the Wu-Tang’s awesome appeal, but because of the other voice lending dark heart into the ‘hell’s orchestra’ strings. Three years later, the track plays in the background at a party and someone’s head lifts from conversation to demand, "What is this?" It’s El-P, and stirring reactions years after the event is what he seems to do best.
El-P has two voices and a whole lot of opinions. He considers himself a rapper, but since his time on the mic with Company Flow and his debut solo album, Fantastic Damage (2002), he’s started one of the strongest independent hip hop labels in the US (Definitive Jux) and spent far more time producing than spitting verses, resulting in a five year hiatus before dropping 2007’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. Fans are familiar with the silent voice that suffuses the entire Def Jux stable, as well as collaborations with artists from Beck to Nine Inch Nails: dystonic loops, slow-wave electric guitar, and the persistent feeling that the music will fade to reveal sirens … El-P is a breathing, spitting, smoking avatar of a New York City that mugs Sarah Jessica Parker and buys kicks and a car to Brooklyn with the money. I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is his response to the city and its life inside him; it’s also a return to his first voice and the one he misses: "Primarily I was always a rapper, I just took a long break – I was doing collaborations all the time, but the production thing just kind of took off. Making records is what I’m about, it’s the purest expression of me; my words, my beats, my production. And I have no intention of taking that long a break again. I’ve got the fever again…"
El also has a reputation for being an asshole, a fact he readily refers to. He’s a skeptic who prefers chain-of-thought introspection to intellectual agonising, sardonic even under stress. He was in a plane crash once, described in the track Flyentology (a collaboration with Trent Reznor): "That track was poking fun at myself for all my supposed disdain about ideas of God and people who overthink things. Because the second I’m going down in a plane, I realised I was praying, and I have no idea how to pray. And while all these people were screaming and crying and hugging each other I still had time to step outside myself and think, ‘You are such a fucking asshole. You’re so cocky and arrogant, and here you are making that emergency phone call." Near-death escape and achievements considered, I offer that he’s like Wolverine: "I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice". He laughs. "That’s a good quote. Well thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment."
EL-P plays The Zoo on Saturday Feb 28, travelling with Mr. Dibbs and The Mighty Quinn from the US. Check out www.myspace.com/elproducto and www.definitivejux.com for more information.
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