Aesop Rock

Editor's Review:

A fraction of hip-hop heads actually listen to Aesop Rock and recognize his genius, while the majority ignore him completely and pass him off as another white backpack rapper. His voice has the nicotine induced grittiness, and his flow spastically bounces and crawls through drums, but it’s his lyrics that make Aesop Rock one of the most original and unique figures in music. For this reason alone Ase Rock has packed a book of his lyrics alongside his seventh release, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire, and Knives.
Titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow, the 87-page booklet features every lyric from Float on, with classic Medieval graphics and fonts. It’s hard to not hear his voice when reading his prose, but his sentence structure is far different from his delivery and reads more fluently than it might sound. Straight up, dude is a poet.
Reading his lyrics is one thing, but over a beat it’s obvious the poet is a well-schooled MC. His turn towards a more electric and chaotic sound has given his already progressive style a futuristic feel. The seven-song album spans 30 minutes, but doesn’t leave the listener feeling empty. With production from Blockhead and Ase himself and cameos by El-P and CamuTao, the album is focused but not repetitive. “Holy Smokes,” his autobiographical account of losing religion, contrasts naturally along paranoid songs like “Winner Takes All.” Like every other album bearing his name, this is another classic Bazooka Tooth project.
– Corey Bloom
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Bookmark:

Record Label Definitive Jux Released April 2005

Tracks Fast Cars Number Nine Zodiacccupuncture Holy Smokes Winners Take All Rickety Rackety (feat. CamuTao & El P) Food, Clothes, Medicine

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