El-P Drops Cancer for Cure at SXSW

♫ Fell asleep late, neon buzz

♫ PTS stress, we do drugs

♫ City air strange, sticky lungs

♫ Mayor Doomburg gives no funds

♫ And I'm crying

♫ I'm crying

♫ Call out with a fiendish ring

Hey, I'm El P

I'm out here...

I guess I'm out here trying to promote my ass.

I got a record dropping in May.

And I just came out here to do some shows

and hang out basically.

A good friend of mine, Nick Diamonds from Islands,

is on the record in a much more upfront way,

and Killer Mike, and Danny Brown, and eXquire, and Despot.

I mean they're all just friends of mine really.

A good friend of mine did co-production

on some of the songs,

my boy Little Shalimar, who has his own thing.

Yeah, that's sort of what I do with these records.

I kind of just disappear into a hole

and try and come out with...

These are my...

I do a lot of production for other people,

but with these records, they're so fully me.

They take a while to do.

I just try and say what I'm feeling

in the most concise way,

and I try and push myself to

do things musically that I had't quite done yet.

Hopefully it came out cool, you know.

I try not to...

Alot of the collaborations I do...

Unless they're...

A lot of them are sort of subtle.

I described it as being the South Park...

the gay dog in South Park theory,

where they got George Clooney to bark as the gay dog.

I collaborate with people who are around me and who I like,

but if it doesn't fit, I won't do it,

and sometimes it's just a subtle part of the song.

Def Jux, in my mind, just had run its course

in terms of my involvement.

I had done it for 10 years,

and it was always a labor of love,

but I just really felt that

it was difficult and I wasn't rich.

(laughs)

After a while I just really wanted to focus

on just doing music.

It just felt like it was time,

and I'm a big believer in listening

to that voice in your head.

I know that I'm not helping anybody

if my heart's not fully in it.

And it was always about being fully in it

and fully invested and loving it, and that's all.

It was really just about feeling like it was

the right time to do something new.

♫ I'll rip your squad in nothing

♫ but a cock ring a pair of puerto-rock dunks

♫ I built the bag that cats will drown in

♫ when the water's colored rust

♫ And the last thought that I had

♫ in the back of the little bus