CD Reviews

Aesop Rock

None Shall Pass | Definitive Jux

By RICHARD BECK | August 28, 2007

3.0 Stars

“It’s rain of the razor laser/Day of the cloudy howdy/Flight of the shelter melter/You can bow without me.” Sometimes I don’t have one goddamn clue what misanthropic underground hip-hop king Aesop Rock is talking about. But most of the time I want to rewind and figure it out: “There is a hole in front of the shovel/A shovel in front of the brawn/Six million guerrillas for whom the graves yawn.” It’s a sardonic, cynical brand of conscience rap, where all that’s left is to realize that capitalism is everywhere and you’re screwed. Aesop’s preference for boring “live” beats tends to hit somewhere between the Roots (“Getaway Car”) and Linkin Park (“None Shall Pass”), but that hardly matters: it’s his delivery that commands the attention here. The man bends his intonation like an ax slayer in a blues band, and he sounds as if he were eating his rhymes even as he spits them out. Bloggers have been signaling approval for Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle’s phoned-in cameo on “Coffee.” Makes perfect sense.

Most Def
In a move that’s sure to be copied by other indie labels, the underground hip-hop imprint Definitive Jux recently created what it’s calling “The Pharmacy” or “DJRx,” an on-line store that mimics the amazon.com/iTunes model.
The other white beat
In the home of Slaine, Esoteric, Sullee, Bomshot, Lyrical, and about 10,000 other pale MCs who can hang with brothers of all shades and styles, the notion of prolific whiteboys is hardly novel.
Peanut Butter Wolf Presents 2K8: B-Ball Zombie War
Stones Throw’s latest label comp, 2K8 , celebrates the indie hip-hop imprint’s deal with 2K8 Sports, who put out all those 2K video games for Xbox and PlayStation.
The Hip Hop Project
Like basketball, hip-hop offers a way out of the inner-city cycle of violence and poverty.
Daniel Laurent
On his sophomore effort, local rapper Daniel Laurent bares his soul and offers good advice to young kids without sacrificing his street cred.
When it pours it rains
I’ve been listening a lot this week to Proof’s second album, Searching for Jerry Garcia (Iron Fist Records). It reminds me, ominously, of Makaveli and Life After Death .
Peeping Tom
Sure, there’s a low-grade shock factor in Norah Jones’s crooning the word “motherfucker.” Peeping Tom, “Mojo”
The accidental gangsta
Elemental Zazen wears Sauconies on stage and has “World Peace” tattoo’d on his forearm.
Cheap trills
As you’re hopefully aware, the Virginia coke-rap duo Clipse are coming to the Station on Saturday.
Grown man rap
Del the Funky Homosapien and Tame One. Canibus and Keith Murray. AG and OC. Buckshot and KRS. Masta Ace and Edo G. These aren’t comments on a Facebook thread asking for hip-hop dream duos. They’re real pairs of united legends who are giving disenchanted heads unprecedented reasons to put aside the throwbacks and enjoy music recorded this millennium.
Music Seen: Brother Ali
Even if you've seen Brother Ali before, you have not seen the show that he played last week.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music, More

Comments

Add a Comment

view all

[ 11/25 ] "Stainless: Industrial Dance Night" @ Zuzu

[ 11/25 ] Ellen O’Brien @ M Bar & Lounge

[ 11/25 ] Tod Duarte Band @ Steve’s Backstage Pass

[ 11/25 ] "Toe Jamm" @ Dodge Street Bar & Grill

[ 11/25 ] Hugh McGowan @ Toad

ARTICLES BY RICHARD BECK

SONG OF HERSELF | August 05, 2009
"Listen, I will go on record saying I love Feist, I love Neko Case. I love that music. But that shit's easy listening for the twentysomethings. It fucking is. It's not hard to listen to any of that stuff."

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT | BLAQKOUT | June 15, 2009
LA hip-hop has two threads, and DJ Quik pulls both of them. The first is g-funk, a production style that relies on deep, open grooves and an endless parade of funk samples.

FLIPPER | LOVE | May 26, 2009
Flipper formed in San Francisco in 1979, and they're remembered three decades later because of a song called "Sex Bomb" that's one of the funniest pieces of music I've ever heard.

ST. VINCENT'S ACTOR GETS A RUN-THROUGH | May 26, 2009
There were not one but two clarinets on stage at the Somerville Theatre on Tuesday night, and that gives you some idea of how intricate Annie Clark's chamber-pop compositions can be.

LOCAL COLOR | May 28, 2009
It's become a commonplace to say that "indie" is too vague to mean anything useful, but that's not actually true.

See all articles by: RICHARD BECK

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

WE'RE KILLING THE OCEANS
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.

REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
Chris Weitz comes on board to direct Twilight ’s hotly awaited sequel, New Moon , but the second bite doesn’t sate quite like the first. Bella (Kristen Stewart) celebrates her 18th birthday with vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson); when she gets a paper cut at the party.

MISSING PERSONS SINGER DALE BOZZIO JAILED
Missing Persons singer Dale Bozzio is sitting in an Ossipee, New Hampshire, jail after dropping her appeal of a March animal-cruelty conviction.

REVIEW: THE ROAD
John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.

REVIEW: THE BLIND SIDE
It’s tough for any self-respecting critic to refrain from joyously tackling a Sandra Bullock movie — so it’s a good thing The Blind Side isn’t one.

WE'RE KILLING THE OCEANS
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.

GLENN BECK'S UNHINGED SWEATER SAGA
Hello, America. A special Glenn Beck Program tonight: I'm speaking to you from somewhere in the North Pole, and let me tell you [adopts cartoonish yokel voice with rubbery exaggerated shiver] it is coooooooold up here.

COAKLEY TAKES A STAND
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley this week separated herself from the gang of essentially like-minded candidates seeking to fill Senator Ted Kennedy's Washington seat by rejecting the US House of Representatives compromise that traded approval of a health-care-reform bill for greater restrictions to abortion access. Good for Coakley.

GROUP EFFORT
If you're inclined to play punk rock, chances are you've got a self-esteem problem. It's not an æsthetic that attracts the well-adjusted. Exhibit A: Mark Lind. As bassist and frontman of the Ducky Boys, he's opened for Rancid, U.S. Bombs, and Flogging Molly.

KENNEDY, CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND POLITICS OF COMPROMISE
US Representative Patrick Kennedy's confrontation with Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin over abortion and health-care reform has soaked up quite a bit of ink.

HOT TOPICS

Benjamin Zander , Danger Mouse , Wu-Tang Clan , Elvis Presley , Trent Reznor , Boston Symphony Orchestra , Foo Fighters , James Levine , The Beatles , Major League Baseball

CD Reviews

Aesop Rock

Swollen Members | Armed to the Teeth

Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures

Annie | Don't Stop

AC-DC | Backtracks

Pink Martini | Splendor in the Grass