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''I'll Sleep When You're Dead'' is the second solo studio album by American hip hop artist
El-P Jaime Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Starting his career as a member of Company Flow, he has been a ...
. It was released through Definitive Jux on March 20, 2007. It peaked at number 78 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling about 11,000 copies in its first week. Music videos were created for "Flyentology" and "Smithereens".


Production

Despite his usual dislike of "records that have a bunch of (featuring so and so) after every song title", El-P has explained the more organic nature of the collaborations on ''I'll Sleep When You're Dead'': El-P has compared the overall sound of the album's music to "a psychedelic
Boogie Down Productions Boogie Down Productions (BDP) was an American hip hop group originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, five months after the release of BDP's debut album, '' Criminal Minde ...
record", and like " Scott LaRock and Ced Gee take acid". The bird on the album's cover is based on a drawing that
Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...
made on a wooden toy airplane for El-P as a child.


Critical reception

At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''I'll Sleep When You're Dead'' received an average score of 80 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". John Bush of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "one of the most powerful hip-hop albums of 2007." Dave Heaton of ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, f ...
'' gave the album 8 stars out of 10, saying: "The genius of ''I'll Sleep When You're Dead'' -- and the reason it deserves to be considered as a progressive step in El-P's journey as an artist -- is that the tracks are just as dense and complex as on his other albums, but in a new, fresh way." Andy Battaglia of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cr ...
'' gave the album a grade of B, saying, "nobody makes hip-hop as textured and atmospheric as El-P, and he manages to temper his disorienting noise with soulful suggestions this time out." ''
Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outl ...
'' placed it at number 42 on the "Top 50 Albums of 2007" list.


Track listing


Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *
El-P Jaime Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Starting his career as a member of Company Flow, he has been a ...
– vocals, production, executive production *
Omar Rodríguez-López Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has formed or played in several bands, including the Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Antemasque, and Bosnian Rainbows. He was the bassist for th ...
– vocals (1) *
Cedric Bixler-Zavala Cedric Bixler-Zavala (born November 4, 1974) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta and the only constant member of the post-hardcore group At the Drive-In, for whic ...
– vocals (1) *
Matt Sweeney Matt Sweeney (born July 2, 1969) is an American musician and record producer best known as a guitarist of Skunk, Chavez, and supergroup Zwan. Early life and education Sweeney was born in New Jersey. His father was John D. Sweeney, a professo ...
– guitar (1) * Wilder Zoby – synthesizer (1, 7) * Mr. Dibbs – turntables (1, 2, 7, 8) * Hangar 18 – vocals (2) * Mr. Lif – vocals (3) * Big Wiz – turntables (4) *
Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emer ...
– vocals (7) * Cage – vocals (8) * Daniel Kaufman – lute (8) * Mr. Len – vocals (8) * Victoria Allen – vocals (8) *
Daryl Palumbo Daryl Palumbo (born February 10, 1979) is an American musician, originally from Bellmore, New York. He is the frontman of the bands Glassjaw, Head Automatica and Color Film. As a youth he was a member of the Long Island straight edge band ''Xbus ...
– vocals (9), keyboards (9) * Camu Tao – vocals (9) *
Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, whi ...
– vocals (10), additional production (10) *
Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, record producer, composer, and audio engineer. Along with Trent Reznor, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for ''The Social Network'' in 2010. In 2013, th ...
– programming (10) *
Rob Sonic Robert Smith, better known by his stage name Rob Sonic, is an American rapper and record producer from the Bronx, New York. He has been a member of the groups Sonic Sum and Hail Mary Mallon. He is a founder of the record label Skypimps Music. B ...
– vocals (10) *
Tame One Rahem Ross Brown (March 20, 1970 – November 6, 2022), better known by his stage name Tame One, was an American hip hop recording artist and graffiti artist from New Jersey. He was a member of Artifacts, Leak Bros, and the hip-hop supergroup ...
– vocals (11) * Joey Raia – vocals (12), recording, mixing * Slug – vocals (12) * Murs – vocals (12) * Chan "Cat Power" Marshall – vocals (13) * Kareem Bunton – guitar (13) *
Ikey Owens iKey, LTD, also known as iKey Industrial Peripherals, is an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of rugged computer keyboards, mice and other peripherals. The company was founded in 1989 and currently works with several Fortune 500 companies. The comp ...
– keyboards (13) * Michael Sarsfield – mastering * Brad Smith – layout, design * Timothy Saccenti – photography * Amaechi Uzoigwe – executive production * Jesse Ferguson – project management


Charts


References


External links

* *
El-P's blog chronicling the album's recording process
{{Authority control 2007 albums Definitive Jux albums El-P albums Albums produced by El-P