El-P (aka MC No-Doz: He Don’t Sleep)

So “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead” drops next week, but since I pre-ordered it from Def Jux, they were kind enough to ship it Tuesday so it would get to me by release date, and thanks to DHL, it arrived yesterday-almost a week early.  This ain’t no bootleg, illeagal download, or publicity copy, it’s the real thing with (literally) El’s stamp of approval on the front. (The pre-orders were autographed)

So first impressions, obviously my opinion is biased, but it is a must buy.  Now, compared to FanDam, I really don’t think any listeners should compare it for a couple reasons.  One being that it’s been what, 4 or 5 years since FanDam came out?  That’s too much time to expect an artist to sound like what you’d expect.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s definite El-P sci-fi/futuristic/totalitarian beats and lyrics.  The other fact is that it’s been less than 24 hours since I got the album.  FanDam took a couple weeks to sink in.  It grew on me more & more everytime I listened to it.  It wasn’t what I was expecting at first.  But it was also a lot more “dense” and layered than most hip hop is.  That’s why even years later I was hearing parts of the song or a beat that I hadn’t heard before.

ISWYD is just the same–dense and layered.  There’s so much more than just a simple verse-chorus-verse/2-bar/4-bar loop.  What I love about the music on this album is that the songs almost evolve.  That sounds stupid, but really, the best example is the first track.  After the 30-45 second prelude, the track runs about 6-61/2 minutes.  The “full” beat doesn’t even start until 3 minutes into the track.  And it keeps adding sounds as it goes on, a hi-hat will come in, or the melody will change, or the beat switches up, all while keeping the same sound throughout the track.

Anyway, I could ramble on about how the melodies are light while the drums are as hard as a million talented monkeys pounding on a million MPC’s with a million hammers for a million years, but I don’t wanna sound like every other Fan(Dam)boy.  Plus, you’ll be reading plenty of reviews of this album in the next few months from people who get paid to write reviews.  I’ll let them do their job, they actually get paid for it.  But the point is–buy this album.  It may not be a 10 out of 10, but it’s up there.  Actually, I think this album could be rated a 10 out of 11, just because.

ps-the above image is taken from DefinitiveJux.net, so if they want it taken down I will do so upon request.

pps-bonus points to anybody who sees the irony of this post title.  “MC N0-Doz: He Don’t Sleep” was a phrase from the Soundbombing 2 album that, although Company Flow had the track Patriotism on, was a Rawkus release.  I’m sorry I don’t remember who said it, it may have been Prince Paul.