Jaime Meline (otherwise known as El-P and El-Producto) is not one to sit on his laurels for too long. As a founding member of famed underground Rap group Company Flow, alongside Mr. Len and Bigg Jus, he pushed forth an apocalyptic sound that helped bridge the sinister qualities of electronic music with the ruggedness of Rap music in the late ‘90s before the group was disbanded in 2000 due to label issues. As the head of Definitive Jux records, the Brooklyn-based El-P also has been busy making his boutique label a sonic sanctuary for experimental Hip Hop artists who are super talented but might not be popular enough to be played on mainstream radio due to the non-PC approach they have towards their chosen subject matter (e.g., Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox). Even in his solo career, Meline has been relentless in releasing solo albums that have kept him in good standing with the underground Hip Hop crowd who value his particularly “angry but honest” approach to the genre.
In 2010, El-P revisits his famed instrumental series, Weareallgoingtoburninhell, with the third installment (aka Megamixxx3) that finds him channeling the gang-infested streets of Los Angeles and the dirty South with music that bumps in the whip as it does in the headphones. For the most part, the album’s gangsta boogie meshes well with Meline’s penchant for using metallic drums, sinister synths and jarring samples (e.g.., police sirens, gun shots and laser cannons) to create an atmosphere of urban chaos and violence. “Whores: The Movie,” the first single off the album, is a masterpiece of menacing proportions, a pastiche of aggressive sounds that contain his passion-fueled anger to a tee. Another stellar cut, “Driving Down the Block (El-P Remix) Redux”, finds the versatile Brooklynite re-envision the Masta Ace vocal sample (from the lowrider classic, “Born To Roll”) as a cautionary tale of riding through the hood during the apocalypse, Akira-style. The last song on …Mixxx3, “Eat My Garbage 2,” contains both his trademark sound of war-like atmospherics with a desire to redefine O.G. rider music as a perfect soundtrack for the end of the Mayan calendar (and the end of life as we know it). Other noteworthy jams that fully capture Jaime’s fear-mongering visions and appetite for sonic destruction include “DMSC,” “Jump Fence, Run, Live” and “Honda Redux.”
Although …Mixxx3 fully captures the vengeful mood of El-P’s production, it does very little justice to the power of his lyrical presence and his natural ability to let loose anger on the mic that is every bit as intense as a roller coaster ride through hell. Whereas other music producers who have dared to step in the vocal both are obviously not as talented enough as he is to rhyme, it is to Meline’s credit that he can do both without losing sight of his ability to incite violent imagery in the mind of the listener, thereby doing comprehensive damage with both the music and lyrics. For example, “He Hit Her So She Left” would have been a great song for El-Producto to rap on and imbue the subject matter hinted at by the title with a higher level of honest aggression that can’t be fully realized with just a def beat. Although “Time Won’t Tell” has a scary atmosphere to it but the aforementioned cut would have also benefited heavily from the emcee’s verbal contributions, giving the song a much more powerful and entertaining impact to the ear drums. Last but not least, “How to Serve Man (Stripped)” is a southern-influenced song that might have showcased a different flow from the rapper and would have been even more sonically brilliant had he contributed his maddening rhymes to the mix.
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Brooklyn’s El-P is an intense man of many talents and knows no bounds when it comes to his obsession with making Hip Hop music that is far too dark and defiant for the mainstream. On Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, explores his instrumental side a bit more and never lets his listeners down by combining his tried-and-true brand of “four horsemen” funk with that of gangsta Rap. If there is one thing sorely missing from making this listening experience a truly fantastic one, it is quite possibly the heavy omission of El-P’s aggression-filled rhymes. Nevertheless, this particular instrumental collection will please Meline’s die-hard fans and hold them over until he releases another vocal album that will fully capture the Definitive Jux rapper’s cinematic vision of pain, anger and destruction.
