El-P — “drones over BKLYN (censored mix)”
Hard to believe, but it’s been 4 years since El-P dropped the brooding, dystopian masterwork of I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, leaving a smoldering crater in the world of underground hip-hop and changing my views on the genre forever. While he’s faced no shortage of tragedies and changes in that time (the indefinite hiatus of Def Jux, the death of longtime friend/collaborator Camu Tao), the Adult Swim-premiered “drones over BKLYN” sees him making a triumphant, face-melting return, still bristling with the same old brilliance and insanity. On this first taste of Cancer for Cure (hitting Fat Possum at an undisclosed date), El spits furiously over frantic piano stabs and alien chatter, eventually reaching an all-too-perfect guitar breakdown at the track’s climax. Please, do call it a comeback.
