El-P - Fantastic Damage

Fantastic Damage was the record to really catch the young rebellious rapper El-P at the top of his game. It's a common perception that indie hip-hop is just a watered down version of the raw primal realities that are painted in hip-hop, not at all the case with El-P. He always hated authority, he was always full of angst and anger and vitriol. Fortunately he was smart enough to take up music production and allow all that hate to be put in to an audio format. From there he could broadcast every ounce of hatred and every dark thought in to a surprisingly receptive world of hip-hop junkies.

Whilst it's easy to chastise the man for making a hip-hop song about his fears of technology, a track as claustrophobic and creepy as "Stepfather Factory" hits the young man's strong fear of a technological onslaught dead on and has probably caused a fair few people to become scared of their toasters over the years since it's release. With the exception of the just mentioned track, the music on "Fantastic Damage" generally stays away from such thought out and paranoid topics and use the always vicious samples and drum loops as a backing track for ranting in the form of rapping. He was a very opinionated man and hip-hop seemed to be the perfect medium to let him express. All in all, a hip-hop classic from a frustrated yet very talented white kid.

El-P - Tuned Mass Damper
El-P - Delorean
El-P - Stepfather Factory

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