P.O.S.' 8-step guide to 'We Don't Even Live Here'

P.O.S., one of the Twin Cities' most volatile and voracious rappers on stage, had agreed to take me and a photographer to the secret location where he filmed his new video: a former munitions plant frequented by graffiti artists.

As seen in the video for "Fuck Your Stuff," the property is an apocalyptic-looking wasteland of walls and towers. It's here that P.O.S. found inspiration for his firebomb of a fourth album, "We Don't Even Live Here."

"I was really into the idea of going to any place that was appropriated and is now abandoned," said the real-life Stefon Alexander, 31, who grew up a skateboarding punk-rocker in Hopkins. "You visit these places where the government or some super-rich guy bought up a huge swatch of land and used it for a profit, and now nobody can go there. I call bullshit on that."

The plan went up in flames, though, when bosses got wind of the site. Then, by unfortunate coincidence, Alexander had to put the kibosh on our second planned interview. He had to go to the hospital instead. When we did finally hook up a couple days later, he opened up about the kidney problems that have plagued him since his teens and caused the cancellation of his upcoming tour. He needs a transplant, and in the meantime he needs dialysis. Thus, the one and only show currently on the books for P.O.S.' "We Don't Even Live Here" is Friday's sold-out release party at First Avenue.

He first staked out the album's brave new territory at the club last December, debuting a couple songs during his Doomtree rap crew's Blowout VII concerts. "Get Down" was an instantaneous hit that stood out as much for its techno-blast electronic beats as for its to-hell-with-it refrain, "I don't want to think about it, I just wanna get down."

Alexander truly does want you to get down with his new album.

"A lot of people may not want to listen to what I'm saying, and that's fine," he said. "They can just ignore it if they want and listen to the electro beat this time."

It's heady stuff. Here is a step-by-step breakdown, with comments by Alexander, of the ingredients and philosophy he poured into the album.

As is retraced in the hard-thumping opening song, "Bumper," he attended mtvU's Woodie Awards in 2009, where he lost to Green Day.

Said P.O.S.: "There were all kinds of people [at the Woodies] thumping that they're better than other people there -- and not just rappers, but all the performers dressing to the nines. I just realized I didn't care about what they have in a very true way. That's sort of the whole idea behind 'We Don't Even Live Here.' We all live on the same planet, but clearly I and the people I'm trying to inspire live on a different planet. We left this place forever ago."

One of the moodier and slower-burning tracks, "Wanted/Wasted" -- with a guest rap by pal Astronautalis -- touches on his disenchantment with the Obama campaign and lingering race-relation issues.

"None of these candidates are talking about money, and the way that money influences the system," he said. "We all see that government isn't working. Our little pet fights with the candidates aren't getting us anywhere."

"I worked on this record for almost a full year. I usually stress myself out trying to make the best record ever. I go into a record thinking, 'How can I do my part to change black culture? How can I do my part to destroy capitalism?' You know, just little things like that [laughs]."

Between albums, P.O.S. got involved in the soft-rock all-star band Gayngs along with Justin "Bon Iver" Vernon, who sings an eerie vocal part on "How We Land." Gayngs mastermind Ryan Olson produced the grinding new dance track "All of It." He and P.O.S. also formed the improv-heavy electrocore band Marijuana Deathsquads.

"Working with the Deathsquads, I got better at using synths and got into electronic music more. I think there's a lot of dance music that's super-heavy, and is about using your synths in the most violent way possible. That's what I always do with guitars, too."

He completed about half the album in a makeshift studio at a friend's house in Los Angeles before coming home to record Doomtree's "No Kings" over a weeklong session in the summer of 2011.

"It took a really long time to get the sound right, to get the vibe right. I was almost over it, and then I came back to make 'No Kings' and totally got my recharge back. I was on such a high, a lot of the parts I wrote for that record are in the same spirit as this one."

"She said, 'You can't be anti-capitalist and then sell your music on iTunes.' I said, 'You don't have to like the system to live in it.' I do have bills to pay and family I'm responsible for, so I have to sell my music on iTunes whether I want to or not. You can't fight the system that way. But you can admit that the experiment of capitalism isn't working."

A fund has been set up for Alexander's kidney transplant, linked via his label site Rhymesayers.com. He had hoped his health wouldn't be an issue on his now-canceled tour, but a short performance last month at McNally Smith College of Music put him in the emergency room.

"I had just gotten out of surgery, and it was too early. That was before I started the dialysis, though. The surgery was to get a catheter in to do my home dialysis. If I can do the dialysis and bring the machine on tour, then I'll be fine to tour."

The home dialysis did not work properly, though.

"I had some kind of unidentified trauma when I was 13 or 14, something that triggered scarring in my kidneys. It could've been a bad fall, skateboarding or whatever. It could've been some bad product I consumed that's not on the market anymore. Who knows?"

"With Plain Ole Bill as my DJ, I started going out more to dance parties. I'd never really danced before. It was just fun, plain and simple.