El-P: Cancer for Cure – review

Formerly the patron saint of backpacker hip-hop (aka rap music made by white people, and largely consumed by them), El-P now finds himself as influential a beatmaker as any. A decade after his group Company Flow and label Definitive Jux were releasing records comprised of distorted melody lines and walloping sub-bass, there's a whole generation of rappers doing the same. Some of them, including Detroit's magnificent Danny Brown, feature here on a collection that sees El-P update his sound and his flow to combustible effect. Stand out tracks Tougher Colder Killer and single The Full Retard have an edge, a groove, changes of pace and a sprinkling of humour ("I'm a Rocky, run a hundred miles before my coffee"). It's a sound that pays homage not only to El-P's early-noughties roots, but the 808-inspired sounds of the 1980s, too. Only on tracks such as The Jig Is Up and Sign Here, with minimal beats and a tiresome lyrical motif about interrogation, does the creative energy drop and the old formulae peak through. El-P has staked his claim to remain the world's No 1 ginger rapper.