The Def and the Dead
Producer/MC EL-P wakes up.
hip-hop
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EL-P (aka El-Producto, aka Jaime Meline) may have said goodbye to the hot, wired lyricism of Company Flow in 2001, but he's still got the underground hip-hop group's taste for brooding moodiness. It's not just his solo albums, like 2002's Fantastic Damage, with its clusterfuck phraseology and charged politics. Every record he's produced on his Def Jux label — home to the cine-symphonic sounds and crusty rhymes of Cannibal Ox, RJD2 and Cage — has a touch of that scarred psyche. Beyond the bleakness, EL-P's tightly wound rhythms and panicky arrangements of samples and live instrumentation are his stamp. Whether you're talking overground or underground, his brand of hip-hop is instantly recognizable for its screeching ambience. Few producers in the field — save RZA, Dre and Timbaland — have such recognition. The new I'll Sleep When You're Dead, his first solo effort in five years, employs some brand-name helpers: Cat Power, Aesop Rock, Trent Reznor, Mars Volta and Philly's Mr. Lif. I talked to EL-P about fitting all of those pieces together.
City Paper: Hip-hop's dead. Blah blah blah. Is it tough to add something to hip-hop, avant-garde or otherwise?
EL-P: Not really. Look, these days just being yourself is a fucking revolution in the rap world. I've got that whole thing down pat. That's what makes me dangerous.
CP: How much money have people tried to throw at you to just sell out?E: I have no idea what you are talking about. But they can send their offers to info@definitivejux.net. Operators are standing by.
CP: What did you look for in collaborators for Sleep?E: Friendships first and foremost. I have a wide range of tastes, so I guess the only musical criterion is for me to not think the person is a douche bag either musically or personally. And I had to have a musical respect. If those things are there and the collaboration fits into the bigger picture of what I'm trying to do with a record, I will do it. What I won't do is some heavy-handed obvious attempt at fitting someone in where they otherwise shouldn't be. I think everybody here embodied pieces of things I admire as well as traits that I see in myself, be it good or bad.
CP: I know people think of your role as producer as closely linked to what Trent Reznor does — is that what brought you guys together for your record, that sonic palette? Or did he just want to come in and scream all over your nice clean stuff?E: [Laughs] No, I'm a fan of his. Whenever people have compared my production style to his over the years — to me it's a compliment. He reached out to me to do a remix for NIN and we've been cool ever since. Trent was completely open to any and all of my ideas on that. And it's always cool to meet someone who's that big and yet isn't an egotistical bastard.
CP: Cat Power. She leaves me cold. But you warm her up.E: The story is, I wrote the lyrics to the song ("Poison-ville Kids No Wins") listening to one of her songs. Her music just inspired me. She's got a really chilling, pretty style to her that I was drawn to so it only made sense to include her on the track 'cause it just so happened I needed a female voice for it. We had been talking about doing something for years. Everything just converged for this song.
CP: Collaborators or no, is this the realest shit you've ever done?E: Yeah. It's definitely the truest thing I've ever written. Probably 'cause I don't feel like I have the time to fuck around anymore. Stakes is high.
EL-P plays Tue., June 12, 8 p.m., $15, with Slow Suicide Stimulus, Hangar 18 and Yak Ballz, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, www.r5productions.com.
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