Labor Days
Title: Labor Days
Label: Def Jux
Genre: Intelligent Hip-Hop
Rating: 7 of 7
After generating a strong underground audience with his independent and Mush releases, Aesop Rock dropped this insanely dense and intelligent hip-hop record on Def Jux, the current Mecca of independent hip-hop (via 2001). The New York MC combined a potent blend of lyrical madness, including an anomaly of references that include everything from mythology to the usual pop culture name-checking, and mellow and simple beats that are as effective as the rhymes themselves. His lyrical themes jump from story-telling (#5) to blue-collar anthems (#13), which is most suitable, since at the time the disc was released, Aesop was still working 9-5 jobs. The production was handled by the subtle producer, Blockhead, whose beats, while still remaining simple, have a classical appeal of live instrumentation versus the usual, prepackaged-sounding sampling. This album seeps into your brain and forces multiple listens, mostly just to catch a portion of Aesop’s thought provoking lyrics. After the release, the fan base exploded, and Aesop Rock suffered a mental lapse due to his new-found stardom. Thanks to label-mates and friends, he managed to get by this and released the Daylight EP and later Bazooka Tooth. While Aesop Rock now enjoys national success, he remains in his small, barely furnished apartment in New York and enjoys smoking cigarettes and watching television.
Track Listing –
1. Labor 2. Daylight 3. Save Yourself 4. Flashflood 5. No Regrets 6. One Brick w/ Illogic 7. the Tugboat complex pt 3 8. Coma 9. Battery 10. Boombox 11. Bent Life w/ C-Rayz-Walz 12. the Yes and the Y’all 13. 9-5ers Anthem 14. Shovel
Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP
Title: Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP
Label: Def Jux
Genre: hip-hop
Rating: 6.8 of 7
God knows how Ian Bavitz aka Aesop Rock became an indie hip-hop superstar. The NYC shut-in owns little more than a couch, a TV and the ability to take the cynical world he sees through his unblinking eyes and transcript it into breathtaking rap songs. Following up Bazooka Tooth, which many fans saw as a step backwards, this EP should silence any of the lost followers as the literate baritone not only continues to drop the smartest lyrics in the game but also polish his production skills. He produces three of the tracks (3, 6 and 7) while Blockhead, the genius minimalist beat-maker behind Float and Labor Days, handles three (1, 2 and 4) and the up and coming Rob Sonic lays down track 5. As the title suggests, the EP is not as serious as the previous releases, but this is still Aesop so expect there to be wordy, incomprehensible rhymes and pages upon pages of lyrics. This is definitely still the MC that turned me and thousands of other introspective young adults on to the possibilities of hip-hop. I mean how could you hate on someone who names their EP Fast Cars though does not own a car, calls his mom, Momsop Rock and thanks the Mountain Goats in his liner notes?