Best Music of 2007: El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead

The end of the year is near, and so are the year-end lists. I already wrote mine up for the print music lifer XLR8R, selections of which have been popping up on their revamped website. Anyone who knows me or Morphizm could probably tell that El-P's brilliant, disturbed I'll Sleep When You're Dead was going to top my list. But for those who don't, here's my spiel from XLR8R, followed by the in-depth interview I conducted with Producto earlier this year for both XLR8R and Morphizm. Don't sleep. Seriously.

Best Artists of 2007

Truth is a powerful thing, which is why so many artists and politicians avoid it. But El-P packed so much of it into I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, with the help of so many all-stars, that only those who still want to wave their hands in they air like the just don’t care missed it...
MORE @ XLR8R

A Scanner Darkly: An Interview with El-P

"Where are the angry records?" Meline asks me over the phone, sounding like he's trying to kill off the last vestiges of a cold. "I'm fucking angry and upset right now, and I'm also scared and trying to come to grips with balancing this incredible fatalism and the fact that I am still alive, that I am still here. We're not dead yet, but even the violent records aren't angry these days. And that shit fucking annoys me..."
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I Refuse to Ignore Myself : An Interview with El-P

I think one of the reasons why I didn't want to make I'll Sleep When You're Dead so directly political is that I am trying to make music that lasts. I think the album is really about struggle. Struggle remains, no matter what. In ten years, there will still be struggle. And I think what people will come away with is that idea of trying to keep your head above water during that struggle, trying to make sense of the shit. If you listen to some of the more obscure Curtis Mayfield stuff where he's calling out the actual mayor or comptroller, you'll understand why I didn't make it a direct political statement. Then it's a case of, "Wow, this music is incredible, but who is that guy he just mentioned?" (Laughs) He's been dead for fucking 40 years! And unfortunately, I feel like I'm incredibly in tune with all the fucking stress. It's my fucking curse, and why my music sounds the way it does...
MORE @ MORPHIZM

VIDEO: El-P, "Smithereens"