now playing--- "Easy" by Aesop Rock


I went down to Austin with my dude Khalid for STAPLE, the independent media expo this past weekend. Like any road trip with Khalid, it was a oasis of underground hip hop bliss! It was a special treat listening to Aesop Rock's 2003 smash Bazooka Tooth, which would have stayed on repeat if I was driving. Aesop really embraces rhyming as if he is an instrument on the track, not a dude rapping over a metronome. Underground hip hop gets accused of being stuck in the mid-nineties a lot, but there's nothing more futuristic than turn-of-the-century Def Jux. Because his flow is so unorthodox, I was more into tracks with guest emcees like Limelighters (f/ Camp Lo) and the underground anthem We're Famous (f/ DefJux ceo El-P) at first, but now... it gets no better than Easy, where 'Sop is in rare form. Like a lotta the music I like, Aesop Rock songs are not designed to have their full effect on the first listen, but Easy is jamming nonetheless. 'Sop sits in the space between emcees rehashing old Quest albums and the next version of the second (thousandth) coming of Tupacalypse... He's a emcee who honors the rappers before him by trying to do something totally different.
word.

-samax.

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