Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic & DJ Zone
with: Homeboy Sandman
Aesop Rock has started skateboarding again. Nearly every day, he hits up the skate park, working to get his skills back up.
Skating and drawing (which he’s been doing more of, too) were his big passions before his hobby of making rap songs turned into a paying gig that turned into an accidental, 20-year long career, taking him from making beats in his bedroom to playing for crowds thousands deep. Going back to them just shy of 40-years old isn’t some kind of regressive midlife crisis move, though. It’s more like a way to help process everything that’s happened in his life over the past couple decades, and maybe to figure out the person he’s become. That’s also what he’s trying to do with his seventh solo album, The Impossible Kid.
https://www.thegiantpeach.com/collections/aesop-rock
https://www.facebook.com/AesopRockWins
https://twitter.com/aesoprockwins
https://www.instagram.com/aesoprockwins/
---------
Rap’s supposed to be a young man’s game, but Aesop’s only been improving as he’s gotten closer to middle age. He’s tackling different subject matter, going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationships with his family, and the turbulent handful of years that culminated in Aesop leaving his adopted home of San Francisco to live in a barn out in the woods, where he recorded the foundations of The Impossible Kid.
Those years have been productive, though. Since his last solo album, 2012’s Skelethon, Aesop has released collaborative albums with Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded’s Hokey Fright in 2013), with Rob Sonic (Hail Mary Mallon’s Bestiary in 2014, which was tracked in the same barn in the woods), and with Homeboy Sandman (LICE’s self-titled EP in 2015). He’s also been actively crafting beats. Recent projects include producing the 32+ minute instrumental mix, The Blob, working together with Nike to provide the music for a series of their skateboarding videos, and producing the soundtrack for the upcoming film Bushwick, starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow.
Now comes The Impossible Kid, which finds Aesop still finding new ways to improve on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. Part of the new creative process he brought to it includes a willingness to embrace the funny side that he kept quiet, when being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority. Combined with another newfound willingness to open up about his personal life, the bits of humor spiked throughout the album create a potent emotional cocktail. “Lotta Years” uses two short vignettes to meditate on outgrowing your corner of the culture while chuckling admiringly over the audacity of youth. “Blood Sandwich” recalls a couple of very weird scenes from his childhood starring his two brothers, told with the same combination of surreal comedy and genuine tenderness as a George Saunders story.
At the same time, this is the most purely Aesop Rock record of his career. Like Skelethon, Aesop exercised complete creative control over the whole thing, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Foundation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee.As you might have guessed, The Impossible Kid is a reference to Aesop himself, a person who’s spent his life doing things that seemed unthinkable before he just went and did them, blazing a visionary trail all his own. Two decades in, he’s still out there pushing it forward.
---------
New York-born, San Francisco-based Aesop Rock (aka Ian Bavitz) is a critically acclaimed hip hop artist/producer, recognized for his dense and abstract word play. Between 1997-2007, he released five solo albums, three EPs, and a 45-minute piece of music designed for runners, commissioned by Nike. His lyrics have been published in the New York Times Best Seller Hip Hop Speaks to Children, by author/activist Professor Nikki Giovanni (Oct. 2008), as well as Yale University's Anthology of Rap (Nov. 2010). Aesop is also co-founder of 900bats.com, a creative resource of arts, information, and oddities.Since the release of Aesop’s last solo album None Shall Pass (2007), Aesop toured the US extensively, as well as Australia, UK and Europe, returning to an eclectic mix of collaborations, landing him both behind the board and in front of the mic. He provided music for the short film Wallyball (Apr. 2008) for the McSweeney’s “Wholphin” short film series, scored the Ace Norton-directed short film Dewana's Bridal (Sep. 2009), produced the third installment of the Slug and Murs Felt series A Tribute to Rosie Perez (Nov. 2009), contributed both beats and vocals on Kimya Dawson's album Thunder Thighs (Oct. 2011), created music in collaboration with Jeremy Fish's “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast” art show in SF (2009), co-produced SF rock outfit Dirty Ghosts' debut album Metal Moon, (Feb. 2012), and started and recorded albums with two new groups – Hail Mary Mallon (with rapper Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz) and the Uncluded (with Kimya Dawson). Aesop also started his own imprint, Block Block Chop, which is now the home to his catalog.
Skelethon marks the first entirely self-produced album for Aesop Rock, with additional instrumentation and back-up vocals from the likes of Allyson Baker (Dirty Ghosts), Hanni El Khatib, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Rob Sonic, and the Grimace Federation, as well as scratch performances provided by long-time friend and collaborator DJ Big Wiz.Starting off by touching on the death of a close friend in 2008, subject matter wades through subsequent losses, jostled memories, relationships gone awry, and the occasionally amusing, if futile, attempts we make to cope with these things. There is light humor in the darkest corners, juxtaposed with pitch black in the jokes. With Kimya Dawson as its sole vocal collaborator, Skelethon is packed with Aesop's unique handle on interweaving imagery and urgency together in what will surely prove to be the centerpiece of his catalog thus far.
show less
with: Homeboy Sandman
Aesop Rock has started skateboarding again. Nearly every day, he hits up the skate park, working to get his skills back up.
Skating and drawing (which he’s been doing more of, too) were his big passions before his hobby of making rap songs turned into a paying gig that turned into an accidental, 20-year long career, taking him from making beats in his bedroom to playing for crowds thousands deep. Going back to them just shy of 40-years old isn’t some kind of regressive midlife crisis move, though. It’s more like a way to help process everything that’s happened in his life over the past couple decades, and maybe to figure out the person he’s become. That’s also what he’s trying to do with his seventh solo album, The Impossible Kid.
https://www.thegiantpeach.com/collections/aesop-rock
https://www.facebook.com/AesopRockWins
https://twitter.com/aesoprockwins
https://www.instagram.com/aesoprockwins/
---------
Rap’s supposed to be a young man’s game, but Aesop’s only been improving as he’s gotten closer to middle age. He’s tackling different subject matter, going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationships with his family, and the turbulent handful of years that culminated in Aesop leaving his adopted home of San Francisco to live in a barn out in the woods, where he recorded the foundations of The Impossible Kid.
Those years have been productive, though. Since his last solo album, 2012’s Skelethon, Aesop has released collaborative albums with Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded’s Hokey Fright in 2013), with Rob Sonic (Hail Mary Mallon’s Bestiary in 2014, which was tracked in the same barn in the woods), and with Homeboy Sandman (LICE’s self-titled EP in 2015). He’s also been actively crafting beats. Recent projects include producing the 32+ minute instrumental mix, The Blob, working together with Nike to provide the music for a series of their skateboarding videos, and producing the soundtrack for the upcoming film Bushwick, starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow.
Now comes The Impossible Kid, which finds Aesop still finding new ways to improve on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. Part of the new creative process he brought to it includes a willingness to embrace the funny side that he kept quiet, when being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority. Combined with another newfound willingness to open up about his personal life, the bits of humor spiked throughout the album create a potent emotional cocktail. “Lotta Years” uses two short vignettes to meditate on outgrowing your corner of the culture while chuckling admiringly over the audacity of youth. “Blood Sandwich” recalls a couple of very weird scenes from his childhood starring his two brothers, told with the same combination of surreal comedy and genuine tenderness as a George Saunders story.
At the same time, this is the most purely Aesop Rock record of his career. Like Skelethon, Aesop exercised complete creative control over the whole thing, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Foundation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee.As you might have guessed, The Impossible Kid is a reference to Aesop himself, a person who’s spent his life doing things that seemed unthinkable before he just went and did them, blazing a visionary trail all his own. Two decades in, he’s still out there pushing it forward.
---------
New York-born, San Francisco-based Aesop Rock (aka Ian Bavitz) is a critically acclaimed hip hop artist/producer, recognized for his dense and abstract word play. Between 1997-2007, he released five solo albums, three EPs, and a 45-minute piece of music designed for runners, commissioned by Nike. His lyrics have been published in the New York Times Best Seller Hip Hop Speaks to Children, by author/activist Professor Nikki Giovanni (Oct. 2008), as well as Yale University's Anthology of Rap (Nov. 2010). Aesop is also co-founder of 900bats.com, a creative resource of arts, information, and oddities.Since the release of Aesop’s last solo album None Shall Pass (2007), Aesop toured the US extensively, as well as Australia, UK and Europe, returning to an eclectic mix of collaborations, landing him both behind the board and in front of the mic. He provided music for the short film Wallyball (Apr. 2008) for the McSweeney’s “Wholphin” short film series, scored the Ace Norton-directed short film Dewana's Bridal (Sep. 2009), produced the third installment of the Slug and Murs Felt series A Tribute to Rosie Perez (Nov. 2009), contributed both beats and vocals on Kimya Dawson's album Thunder Thighs (Oct. 2011), created music in collaboration with Jeremy Fish's “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast” art show in SF (2009), co-produced SF rock outfit Dirty Ghosts' debut album Metal Moon, (Feb. 2012), and started and recorded albums with two new groups – Hail Mary Mallon (with rapper Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz) and the Uncluded (with Kimya Dawson). Aesop also started his own imprint, Block Block Chop, which is now the home to his catalog.
Skelethon marks the first entirely self-produced album for Aesop Rock, with additional instrumentation and back-up vocals from the likes of Allyson Baker (Dirty Ghosts), Hanni El Khatib, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Rob Sonic, and the Grimace Federation, as well as scratch performances provided by long-time friend and collaborator DJ Big Wiz.Starting off by touching on the death of a close friend in 2008, subject matter wades through subsequent losses, jostled memories, relationships gone awry, and the occasionally amusing, if futile, attempts we make to cope with these things. There is light humor in the darkest corners, juxtaposed with pitch black in the jokes. With Kimya Dawson as its sole vocal collaborator, Skelethon is packed with Aesop's unique handle on interweaving imagery and urgency together in what will surely prove to be the centerpiece of his catalog thus far.
Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic & DJ Zone
with: Homeboy Sandman
Aesop Rock has started skateboarding again. Nearly every day, he hits up the skate park, working to get his skills back up.
Skating and drawing (which he’s been doing more of, too) were his big passions before his hobby of making rap songs turned into a paying gig that turned into an accidental, 20-year long career, taking him from making beats in his bedroom to playing for crowds thousands deep. Going back to them just shy of 40-years old isn’t some kind of regressive midlife crisis move, though. It’s more like a way to help process everything that’s happened in his life over the past couple decades, and maybe to figure out the person he’s become. That’s also what he’s trying to do with his seventh solo album, The Impossible Kid.
https://www.thegiantpeach.com/collections/aesop-rock
https://www.facebook.com/AesopRockWins
https://twitter.com/aesoprockwins
https://www.instagram.com/aesoprockwins/
---------
Rap’s supposed to be a young man’s game, but Aesop’s only been improving as he’s gotten closer to middle age. He’s tackling different subject matter, going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationships with his family, and the turbulent handful of years that culminated in Aesop leaving his adopted home of San Francisco to live in a barn out in the woods, where he recorded the foundations of The Impossible Kid.
Those years have been productive, though. Since his last solo album, 2012’s Skelethon, Aesop has released collaborative albums with Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded’s Hokey Fright in 2013), with Rob Sonic (Hail Mary Mallon’s Bestiary in 2014, which was tracked in the same barn in the woods), and with Homeboy Sandman (LICE’s self-titled EP in 2015). He’s also been actively crafting beats. Recent projects include producing the 32+ minute instrumental mix, The Blob, working together with Nike to provide the music for a series of their skateboarding videos, and producing the soundtrack for the upcoming film Bushwick, starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow.
Now comes The Impossible Kid, which finds Aesop still finding new ways to improve on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. Part of the new creative process he brought to it includes a willingness to embrace the funny side that he kept quiet, when being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority. Combined with another newfound willingness to open up about his personal life, the bits of humor spiked throughout the album create a potent emotional cocktail. “Lotta Years” uses two short vignettes to meditate on outgrowing your corner of the culture while chuckling admiringly over the audacity of youth. “Blood Sandwich” recalls a couple of very weird scenes from his childhood starring his two brothers, told with the same combination of surreal comedy and genuine tenderness as a George Saunders story.
At the same time, this is the most purely Aesop Rock record of his career. Like Skelethon, Aesop exercised complete creative control over the whole thing, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Foundation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee.As you might have guessed, The Impossible Kid is a reference to Aesop himself, a person who’s spent his life doing things that seemed unthinkable before he just went and did them, blazing a visionary trail all his own. Two decades in, he’s still out there pushing it forward.
---------
New York-born, San Francisco-based Aesop Rock (aka Ian Bavitz) is a critically acclaimed hip hop artist/producer, recognized for his dense and abstract word play. Between 1997-2007, he released five solo albums, three EPs, and a 45-minute piece of music designed for runners, commissioned by Nike. His lyrics have been published in the New York Times Best Seller Hip Hop Speaks to Children, by author/activist Professor Nikki Giovanni (Oct. 2008), as well as Yale University's Anthology of Rap (Nov. 2010). Aesop is also co-founder of 900bats.com, a creative resource of arts, information, and oddities.Since the release of Aesop’s last solo album None Shall Pass (2007), Aesop toured the US extensively, as well as Australia, UK and Europe, returning to an eclectic mix of collaborations, landing him both behind the board and in front of the mic. He provided music for the short film Wallyball (Apr. 2008) for the McSweeney’s “Wholphin” short film series, scored the Ace Norton-directed short film Dewana's Bridal (Sep. 2009), produced the third installment of the Slug and Murs Felt series A Tribute to Rosie Perez (Nov. 2009), contributed both beats and vocals on Kimya Dawson's album Thunder Thighs (Oct. 2011), created music in collaboration with Jeremy Fish's “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast” art show in SF (2009), co-produced SF rock outfit Dirty Ghosts' debut album Metal Moon, (Feb. 2012), and started and recorded albums with two new groups – Hail Mary Mallon (with rapper Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz) and the Uncluded (with Kimya Dawson). Aesop also started his own imprint, Block Block Chop, which is now the home to his catalog.
Skelethon marks the first entirely self-produced album for Aesop Rock, with additional instrumentation and back-up vocals from the likes of Allyson Baker (Dirty Ghosts), Hanni El Khatib, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Rob Sonic, and the Grimace Federation, as well as scratch performances provided by long-time friend and collaborator DJ Big Wiz.Starting off by touching on the death of a close friend in 2008, subject matter wades through subsequent losses, jostled memories, relationships gone awry, and the occasionally amusing, if futile, attempts we make to cope with these things. There is light humor in the darkest corners, juxtaposed with pitch black in the jokes. With Kimya Dawson as its sole vocal collaborator, Skelethon is packed with Aesop's unique handle on interweaving imagery and urgency together in what will surely prove to be the centerpiece of his catalog thus far.
read more
with: Homeboy Sandman
Aesop Rock has started skateboarding again. Nearly every day, he hits up the skate park, working to get his skills back up.
Skating and drawing (which he’s been doing more of, too) were his big passions before his hobby of making rap songs turned into a paying gig that turned into an accidental, 20-year long career, taking him from making beats in his bedroom to playing for crowds thousands deep. Going back to them just shy of 40-years old isn’t some kind of regressive midlife crisis move, though. It’s more like a way to help process everything that’s happened in his life over the past couple decades, and maybe to figure out the person he’s become. That’s also what he’s trying to do with his seventh solo album, The Impossible Kid.
https://www.thegiantpeach.com/collections/aesop-rock
https://www.facebook.com/AesopRockWins
https://twitter.com/aesoprockwins
https://www.instagram.com/aesoprockwins/
---------
Rap’s supposed to be a young man’s game, but Aesop’s only been improving as he’s gotten closer to middle age. He’s tackling different subject matter, going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationships with his family, and the turbulent handful of years that culminated in Aesop leaving his adopted home of San Francisco to live in a barn out in the woods, where he recorded the foundations of The Impossible Kid.
Those years have been productive, though. Since his last solo album, 2012’s Skelethon, Aesop has released collaborative albums with Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded’s Hokey Fright in 2013), with Rob Sonic (Hail Mary Mallon’s Bestiary in 2014, which was tracked in the same barn in the woods), and with Homeboy Sandman (LICE’s self-titled EP in 2015). He’s also been actively crafting beats. Recent projects include producing the 32+ minute instrumental mix, The Blob, working together with Nike to provide the music for a series of their skateboarding videos, and producing the soundtrack for the upcoming film Bushwick, starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow.
Now comes The Impossible Kid, which finds Aesop still finding new ways to improve on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. Part of the new creative process he brought to it includes a willingness to embrace the funny side that he kept quiet, when being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority. Combined with another newfound willingness to open up about his personal life, the bits of humor spiked throughout the album create a potent emotional cocktail. “Lotta Years” uses two short vignettes to meditate on outgrowing your corner of the culture while chuckling admiringly over the audacity of youth. “Blood Sandwich” recalls a couple of very weird scenes from his childhood starring his two brothers, told with the same combination of surreal comedy and genuine tenderness as a George Saunders story.
At the same time, this is the most purely Aesop Rock record of his career. Like Skelethon, Aesop exercised complete creative control over the whole thing, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Foundation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee.As you might have guessed, The Impossible Kid is a reference to Aesop himself, a person who’s spent his life doing things that seemed unthinkable before he just went and did them, blazing a visionary trail all his own. Two decades in, he’s still out there pushing it forward.
---------
New York-born, San Francisco-based Aesop Rock (aka Ian Bavitz) is a critically acclaimed hip hop artist/producer, recognized for his dense and abstract word play. Between 1997-2007, he released five solo albums, three EPs, and a 45-minute piece of music designed for runners, commissioned by Nike. His lyrics have been published in the New York Times Best Seller Hip Hop Speaks to Children, by author/activist Professor Nikki Giovanni (Oct. 2008), as well as Yale University's Anthology of Rap (Nov. 2010). Aesop is also co-founder of 900bats.com, a creative resource of arts, information, and oddities.Since the release of Aesop’s last solo album None Shall Pass (2007), Aesop toured the US extensively, as well as Australia, UK and Europe, returning to an eclectic mix of collaborations, landing him both behind the board and in front of the mic. He provided music for the short film Wallyball (Apr. 2008) for the McSweeney’s “Wholphin” short film series, scored the Ace Norton-directed short film Dewana's Bridal (Sep. 2009), produced the third installment of the Slug and Murs Felt series A Tribute to Rosie Perez (Nov. 2009), contributed both beats and vocals on Kimya Dawson's album Thunder Thighs (Oct. 2011), created music in collaboration with Jeremy Fish's “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast” art show in SF (2009), co-produced SF rock outfit Dirty Ghosts' debut album Metal Moon, (Feb. 2012), and started and recorded albums with two new groups – Hail Mary Mallon (with rapper Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz) and the Uncluded (with Kimya Dawson). Aesop also started his own imprint, Block Block Chop, which is now the home to his catalog.
Skelethon marks the first entirely self-produced album for Aesop Rock, with additional instrumentation and back-up vocals from the likes of Allyson Baker (Dirty Ghosts), Hanni El Khatib, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Rob Sonic, and the Grimace Federation, as well as scratch performances provided by long-time friend and collaborator DJ Big Wiz.Starting off by touching on the death of a close friend in 2008, subject matter wades through subsequent losses, jostled memories, relationships gone awry, and the occasionally amusing, if futile, attempts we make to cope with these things. There is light humor in the darkest corners, juxtaposed with pitch black in the jokes. With Kimya Dawson as its sole vocal collaborator, Skelethon is packed with Aesop's unique handle on interweaving imagery and urgency together in what will surely prove to be the centerpiece of his catalog thus far.
show less
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