Aesop Rock [extended]

• Labor Days [Def Jux, 2001] A-
• Daylight EP [Def Jux EP, 2001] A-
• Bazooka Tooth [Definitive Jux, 2003] *
• Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives [Definitive Jux, 2005]
• None Shall Pass [Definitive Jux, 2007]
• Lice [Stones Throw EP, 2015] A-
• The Impossible Kid [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2016] A-
• Lice Two: Still Buggin' [Rhymesayers/Stones Throw download EP, 2016] ***
• Triple Fat Lice [Stones Throw EP, 2017] A-
• Spirit World Field Guide [Rhymesayers, 2020] ***
• ITS: Integrated Tech Solutions [Rhymesayers, 2023] B+

See Also:

• Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Labor Days [Def Jux, 2001]
Like most alt-rappers, he's got the logorrhea bad, and although he's figured out a lot for a 25-year-old, only a 21-year-old is gonna get that much smarter parsing every last detail of whatever the fuck he's talking about. But sometimes his meanings are there for the taking, as on the thematic "9-5ers Anthem," and the self-fulfilling "No Regrets," about an 87-year-old outsider artist on her obscure and happy deathbed. The beats have a subtle logic of their own, like the medina saxophone on one cut that sets up the heavenly houris on the next. And anybody (well, this being alt-rap, any heterosexual male) can use this Inspirational Verse: "Life's not a bitch/Life is a beautiful woman/You only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy." A-

Daylight EP [Def Jux EP, 2001]
Less experimental beatwise than his boys, less literate bookwise than his rep, but, like his namesake, fabulously wise: "When I was 16 I was taping Bobbito and trying to find out who was newest and was trying to be the dopest, now I don't care if I'm the dopest." I don't know much about dope, I just know what I like: his beats, which average out to deep organ funk; his rhymes, which half-parse no matter how twisted; and his class consciousness--unlike "Bulletproof Wallets," his "Nickel Plated Pockets" are stuffed (they wish) with spare change. Title track gave us the great verse on Labor Days: "Life's not a bitch, life is a beautiful woman/You only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy/Maybe she just didn't feel y'all shared similar interests/Maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet-talk a princess." Second track makes her a biyutch and concludes: "Maybe you're just an asshole, and maybe I'm just an asshole." He isn't. He's dope. A-

Bazooka Tooth [Definitive Jux, 2003]
Fathomless beats an adventure, impenetrable lyrics a drag ("Babies With Guns," "Limelighters"). *

Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives [Definitive Jux, 2005]
"Holy Smoke"

None Shall Pass [Definitive Jux, 2007]

Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman: Lice [Stones Throw EP, 2015]
This five-track freebie reveals itself back-to-front. While the lead "Vertigo" never quite straightens up and flies right, you'll be grabbed by the closing "Get a Dog"'s hypnotic Charles Hamilton electrovamp even before Homeboy's irresistible "Yo, if you're scared get a dog, yo. Get a strong--like a, like a Rottweiler or a, a boxer dog, not a, a Pomeranian dog." And while both the anti-wack jokes of the peppy "Katz" and the freak sociology of the echoing "Environmental Studies" run deep, the prize is the penultimate "So Strange Here," as soulful a reflection on the disorientations of B-list tour-or-get-a-day-job as you can think of offhand. Each rapper has his own memories and gripes. But each goes out the same: "I know it sounds strange but strange beats normal." A-

The Impossible Kid [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2016]
Indubitably brilliant, indubitably self-referential, Aes has exorcised his depressive demons with admirable tenacity since 2001. But for me the charm of his vast vocabulary, Google-ready references, and indecipherable significations wore off before he was 30, so it was mainly his ace collaborations with Kimya Dawson and Homeboy Sandman that inspired me to cue this up. Just two plays in I was loving a bunch of tracks: about his brothers, his shrink, his kitten, the passed-forward tattoos and dreadlocks of young servers at Baskin-Robbins and the local juice place, and his tour of duty with the neighborhood varmint patrol. Since all these songs were uncommonly literal for Aes, I wasn't surprised when the rest proved harder to parse. But this being an artist for whom catchy is about meanings rather than hooks, I was happy enough to try. A-

Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman: Lice Two: Still Buggin' [Rhymesayers/Stones Throw download EP, 2016]
"I hated myself before it was cool," claims Aesop; "I'm looking for a mystery bigger than me to remedy," sez Homeboy, which is why I prefer him ("Oatmeal Cookies," "Mud") ***

Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman: Triple Fat Lice [Stones Throw EP, 2017]
On their third free EP in three years, Ace and Sand's permanent floating alliance for gravity defiance finds itself somewhere between "I hate you all" and "hungry for affection." While leading efforts to get the giant panda off the red list, they make sure you "find your keys before you cannot find your keys" and hustle up that kidney transplant you're waiting on. Yet they're always in the mood to play--to say anything they feel like as long as it feels good. How about rhyming "MMA," "lemonade," "emanate," and "Hemingway"? Can you get with "Don Mattingly mustache" and "naked lady mudflaps"? Would you go as far as "candelabra" and "blah-blah-blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah"? A-

Spirit World Field Guide [Rhymesayers, 2020]
Exceptionally brainy in a world where most rappers are brainier than they get credit for, his problem has always been not beats per se but hooks and flow, which is why he doesn't quite nail rhymes that are brainy even for him ("The Gates," "Boot Soup") ***

ITS: Integrated Tech Solutions [Rhymesayers, 2023]
Now in his late forties, the Suffolk County rapper a/k/a Ian Bavitz has been generating hip-hop albums of notable intelligence, range, and curiosity since he was 21, although they were often dulled slightly by hooks more declarative and ideological than catchy and entertaining. Strangely, this album barely references the kind of postmodern supertech the title conceit would seem to portend. Instead it's like Aes thought it was time for a lookback that honored cruder but also less esoteric tech and pre-tech he can ponder fondly: from rocks/fire/wheel to 12,000 species of moss and the rivers he loves, from Mr. T to Vincent Van Gogh, from onion dip mix to robot limbs to fentanyl, from salt-and-pepper squid to his grandma's pierogi to the tub of margarine she always kept on hand. B+

See Also

• Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson Showcase Their Strengths [2013-05-20]