El-P cluster bombs blogs with his first single, “Full Retard,” setting the odds high of him sustaining his one hot album every five year average. The beauty of this shit is that it makes you think twice about how must contemporary music safely extracts inspiration from the past. No matter how dusted and dystopian El Producto gets, he’s able to find jalopy parts from ’88 while scrapping for serrated metal in the robot junkyard. The intro screams “pump this shit like they do in the future,” but it has its feet firmly grounded in the rap well or die past. For bonus bizarro points, this may be the first rap song I’ve ever heard to invoke “oy vay.”
Between this, the new Killer Mike, Shabazz Palaces, and BLK HRTS,it’s a good time for smart hard-core rap music. Balance is important. Not everything has to be Simple Jack.
Download:
MP3: El-P – “The Full Retard”
