Aesop Rock Review


Aesop Rock is my favorite lesser-known rapper. 

Photo of rapper Aesop Rock removing his baseball cap to scratch his head.

I don’t think he is so unknown as to be called underground, but he isn’t a household name. 

Aesop Rock lyrics are unlike popular music and mainstream rap lyrics that you hear today. While other musicians write songs about having a lot of money and driving nice cars, maybe traveling the world in luxury accommodations, Aesop writes almost anything but that. 

Some of Aesop’s songs are like fictional stories, the telling of a character and their actions, some are almost like essays that describe how he feels about various topics, some are almost entirely abstract, stringing together lines that seem to have little to do with each other. 

One common theme throughout all of Aesop’s songs is very poetic lyrics and dense rhyming patterns. The language he uses is uncommon. It sounds beautiful strung together as it is, but it takes a moment to translate it in your head to what would be common speak and understand the meaning.

Aesop Rock has a huge back catalog of works, many albums and songs. They are all good, but I love his newest album, The Impossible Kid, the most. 

Album Cover for The Impossible Kid. Mostly purple and green illustration.

Not only are his lyrics excellent, but the instrument music behind them are unique and energetic. His productions are hypnotically repetitive, taking a small series of notes, some motif, and looping them. 

Aesop has done work in the past with prolific producer Blockhead. Blockhead’s beats are the tops, and if you have never heard anything by Blockhead, check out the songs “Music Scene” and “Funeral Balloons”.

Album art for Blockhead's "The Music Scene". Illustration of flooded city streets with two monkeys and a turtle.

Aesop Rock’s real name is Ian Matthias Bavitz and he is from Portland, Oregon. 

Bavitz is also involved in the musical projects “Hail Mary Mallon” and “Malibu Ken”.

"Malibu Ken" Album Art. Illustration of a close-up face of a disgusting man with boogers and zits and bandages and pus and bloodshot eyes.

My favorite songs by Aesop Rock are None Shall Pass, Rings, Rabies, Shrunk, Dorks, and Mystery Fish.

I think the rap artist most similar to Aesop Rock is MF Doom because they both share a similar lyrical style that involves poetry and thorough rhyming.

Photo of MF Doom wearing his metal face mask



Other Articles to Read


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is the Purpose of a Blog Post?

Image
When people are new to blogging and they are trying to research what makes a good blog post or how to improve their blog’s performance measures through their content, a certain type of advice comes up almost every time. “Write the BEST content on your article’s topic.” “Make your article better than every other article on the web.” “Make your post the definitive, most detailed resource available.” “If someone finds your article, they shouldn’t need to look for any other information anywhere else because your post will be so complete that they will have learned all they need to learn about the subject.” This is a wildly intimidating goal to set for your content, and unfortunately, while the intention of setting a lofty goal is that you will end up achieving better results for it, what most often happens is that you will develop a fear of failure and that will prevent you from even starting. Which is the worst possible outcome. Even a failure that gets finishe...
Read more

The Importance of Entrepreneurship to the Economy and Society

Image
An entrepreneur is a special kind of person.  The entrepreneur is a life/world/reality designer.  The entrepreneur takes what isn’t yet and makes it happen. Someone who is entrepreneurial or chooses the path of entrepreneurship will create the world that others live in.  Where most people must settle for the way things are and must pounce on the job opportunities they see in the world because those are the limit of possibilities for them, the entrepreneur will choose to create opportunities for themselves and others when they do not see the opportunities they wish for. Clearly, I think highly of entrepreneurs. Can Everyone Be An Entrepreneur? I think that there are some people who lack the skills and the mindset to ever be entrepreneurial. They will go through their entire life only taking what other people give to them or allow them the chance to work for. All of their life’s choices are simply what more spirited people have created ...
Read more

The Skilled Marketer Paradox: Do Good Marketers Need Jobs?

 Look around the world of work and at job board postings and you will see a ton of positions open for digital marketers. Companies have come to realize how effective and efficient digital media and content marketing can be in generating sales and brand recognition. Now that they see the need for marketing that works for them, they are trying their best to hire marketers to do that work for them . Often in the job postings there will be a requirement for previous experience. Few if any of the open positions will accept applicants with less than 2 years of previous experience doing marketing professionally. Lots of these positions even want 7-9 years experience. And they don't just want experience, they want proven results. They want marketers who can show them how they made an impact on the businesses they have worked for before. They want to see traffic and rankings growth. They want to see sales and conversions growth. But I see this as fundamentally unreasonable and impossible. I...
Read more