I am shocked that I haven’t done a cut of the day for Portland MC Sleep before. So now is as good a time as any to highlight a cut from his criminally neglected 2005 LP, Christopher. (Coincidentally, what is it about hip-hop that makes every album sound twice as good when you give it a few years to breathe?) The album finds Sleep in big picture mode, stringing a loose concept album out of highly verbose and quick-witted tracks that focus on character and soul-searching.

“Love it to Death” is a song about fucking up, which the MC admits to doing a lot of. From smashing relationships to stealing cable and listening to overindulgent ’80s sax solos, sleep is, in the words of his good friend Josh Martinez (who I think backs him up on this track, but I don’t have the credits in front of me (I got that ish on vinyl at home!)), “just a dude.” But what separates this dude from the rest of us is that he lives a closely self-examined life. So “Love it to Death” is part autobiography, part bad-luck journal (”I never won a lottery ticket worth more than I bought it for/ Never had more than one pair of sneakers since I was four”). But even a grumpy fuck-up, Sleep argues, has to find something to love about life. Even if it’s just a cheesy saxaphone solo.

Download audio file (loveittodeath.mp3)

You guys are going to kill me but WHERE IS THAT SAX SOLO FROM??!?!? It’s driving me insane! It’s total Yacht-rock, though, isn’t it? Or is it Lionel or something? It sounds like the Silk Stockings theme song. Argh!!!

Sleep (along with Blind Pilot and a third artist or group TBA) will be one of my guests at Portland Lounge Series XIX, which I believe stands for 19. That’s free, on May 25 at the Towne Lounge.

Links:
SleepSpace

Photo from SleepSpace

2 am addition: How did I not figure this out? Ugh! Thanks, Erik Blad: