https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJFq6VjHJIThe greatest hip-hop artist of the new millennium has had a lot to say since his New York hoods suffered through 9/11, which turns seven on Thursday. Too bad too few were listening.
Little wonder, given that El-P's uncompromising poetry and stuttered beats are built only for those looking for the next level. Take the epic "Deep Space 9mm" from his mind-blowing 2002 debut Fantastic Damage: Its fractured syncopation is challenging enough, but working your way through his post-9/11 lyrical labyrinth isn't for the faint of heart and mind.
Good thing the video is a good time, mashing the attacks and their paranoid aftermath into a single symbol: Big red guns, being pulled by, well, everyone. The dystopian satire culminates in a gang of Boy Scouts jacking El-P on a tram over Roosevelt Island. You may never hear the words "For the love of God, run" the same way again.
Fantastic Damage was truth to power, while El-P's 2007 follow-up I'll Sleep When You're Dead was just as brutally honest. And it is is honesty, as well as his intelligence, that marks him as hip-hop's top dog. Being an indie mogul in charge of the respected Definitive Jux label, which recently teamed up with animation upstarts Adult Swim, only helps his case. So does his mad gift for sound and syllable.
Think someone else deserves the crown? Stir it up!
