Cancer4cure

Constantly progressing and unapologetically ambitious, Brooklyn indie-rap icon El-P has returned with Cancer for Cure, his first solo hip-hop album in five years. Since then, the underground rap world that anointed El-P has dissipated, replaced by an anything-goes broadband landscape of endless independent mixtapes and material. But El-P's sound is hardly irrelevant; his menacing production and complex, katana-sharp flow slice deeper than ever on C4C.

Standout track "Oh Hail No" features fiery, ear-blasting guest verses from emcees Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire and Danny Brown, while lead single "The Full Retard" is a brutalizing banger that obliterates everything in its path. C4C also features guest spots from Interpol's Paul Banks and Islands frontman Nick Diamonds, with the latter recently appearing onstage with El-P on the Late Show with David Letterman.