None Shall Pass - Aesop Rock (2007)

Ideated from: a favorite album that starts with “N”

Two things people often get wrong about Aesop Rock: First of all, it always sticks in my craw when I play Aes for somebody and they come away thinking I played them the better known ASAP Rocky. Aesop, not ASAP. Secondly, people occasionally talk about “stream of consciousness” or “abstract rap” or even “nonesense” when referring to the lyrics. I would argue there there is no one in rap who puts more structure into their lyrics, but it masquerades as if it’s nonsense because it takes a while for the themes to emerge. To be sure, he’s usually talking about something coherent, or at least entertaining.

The beats are often self-produced. This one also has production credits for several collaborators with no notes I could find about who produced what. The beats are always slinky and groovy, usually lagged a bit behind his 4-minute-mile flow. His vocals work like a trap drum, driving the beat even more than the instrumental tracks. I could go on: he’s one of my very favorite rappers. But this is a great intro to Aesop Rock, in addition to being one of his best.

Tracks I Liked

None Shall Pass - “OK woke to a grocery list / Goes like this: duty and death”

Catacomb Kids - “Sparky nails pig stigmata for all good sport / Garbage Pail Kids unite at the mall food court / They chase cheese fries with Binaca / They had shut the school down early / There were bombs inside the lockers”

Bring Back Pluto - “When the freakishly disfigured have been triggered to surround you / You will live inside the actual second they let the hounds loose”

Citronella - “And that’s unevenly rendered / To those who grew up thinking faith was a surrender of reason / but not a reason to surrender”