LISTINGS |  EDITOR'S PICKS | NEWS | MUSIC | MOVIES | DINING | LIFE | ARTS | REC ROOM | CLASSIFIEDS | VIDEO

Aesop Rock

None Shall Pass | Definitive Jux
Rating: 3.0 stars
August 28, 2007 5:55:53 PM
inside_aesop-rock---none-sh
“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.
COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to start a conversation.

Login to add comments to this article
Email

Password




Register Now  |   Lost password

MOST POPULAR

 VIEWED   EMAILED 

ADVERTISEMENT

BY THIS AUTHOR

MORE REVIEWS
PHOENIX MEDIA GROUP
CLASSIFIEDS







TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
   
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group