Aesop Rock
None Shall Pass
Play None Shall Pass
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AMG Review of None Shall Pass
Marisa Brown
All Music GuideAesop Rock has been impressing the backpacker crowd with his intricate lyrics and dark, dirty, melodic production ever since he self-released Music for Earthworms back in 1997, helping to define the East Coast underground scene and validate the presence of white rappers. And even though he moved to San Francisco in 2005, prompting some outcry from New York purists, all thoughts of bright, funky West Coast beats and lyrics can be put to rest, because None Shall Pass, the album being heralded as the true follow-up to the seminal Labor Days, is as powerful as anything the MC has ever created. Once again Blockhead takes responsibility for most of the production here, though he's helped out both by Rock himself (who showed off his skills, as well as those of his guitar-playing wife, on the Nike/iTunes-commissioned Original Run series back in February 2007) and Def Jux labelhead and near-legend El-P, who also adds vocals to "39 Thieves," one of the few tracks on the record that has a fairly comprehensible message ("Money is cool, I'm only human/But they use it as a tool to make the workers feel excluded/Like the shinier the jewel the more exclusive the troop is/Bullets don't take bribes, stupid, they shoot shit," he rhymes in the breakdown). Because despite, or perhaps more accurately, due to, Aesop Rock's verbal talent and his ability to combine complicated internal rhyme with innovative phrasing and metaphors, a lot of his couplets, and even entire stories, are fairly cryptic. "None Shall Pass," with its great keyboard sample and helium-voiced chorus, is vaguely about society having to pay for its sins, the fantastic "The Harbor Is Yours" tells the tale of a "pirate," and features some great vocal stuttering ("And you should tell them where you situate the gold/That is unless you'd like a vacation with Davy J-J-J-Jones"), and "Bring Back Pluto" is more than an appeal to astronomers, though to who else it applies to is a little unclear. This doesn't mean that there are a lot of empty phrases here -- Aesop Rock is clearly a careful, deliberate writer -- but he can tend toward the experimental school of rhyme, which can be a little alienating. Still, his cadence, sharp and accentuated, and his bitonal flow are strangely warm and inviting, and it's hard not to get sucked into at least trying to understand what he's saying, trying to make sense of it all. Plus, the talent, both of Rock and his guests (which, besides El-P, also include Ron Sonic, John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats, Breezly Brewin', and Cage) is impressive, and makes None Shall Pass an album that deserves a lot of attention, both inside and outside the hip-hop world.
Aesop Rock Spills Album Details, Hear The First Single
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Aesop Rock returns without his dreads but with his fourth studio album, None Shall Pass on August 28th. It features Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, El-P, Cage, Rob Sonic, DJ Big Wiz, and Breeze Brewin as well as beats from Aesop and his frequent collaborator Blockhead, El-P and Rob Sonic. None Shall Pass tracklist:Keep Off the LawnNone Shall PassCatacomb KidsBring Back PlutoFumesGetaway Car [ft...
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DRM is Officially Dead? Sony BMG Throws in the Towel
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From "Gizmodo":http://gizmodo.com/340598/drm-officially-dead-last-major-label-sony-bmg-plans-to-finally-drop-drmIt's over. The last major label to hold out on selling DRM-free MP3s, Sony BMG, is "finalizing plans" to sell music not locked down with DRM. It'll be available sometime in the first quarter, apparently in time to get in on Amazon and Pepsi's 1 billion song giveaway, which now looks l...
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Music Maps: Who is Listening to What and Where
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http://www.gracenote.com/map/A Flash based map by Gracenote showing what albums and artists are popular by geographic location.perty cool
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HHT: Aesop Rock: Catacomb Kids
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Damn... it's been a while for me to put up an actual post. It's quite pathetic. But I wanted to post a song off Aesop Rock's newest album None Shall Pass... so without further adieu:
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Aesop Rock - "Pigs" (Video)
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Track:Pigs
Here's the video for Aesop Rock's "Pigs". It was the hidden track on None Shall Pass , and one of my favorites on the album. The video features artist Jeremy Fish. Final words for the finer birds taking notes: I dig a chick in pigtails. "That's all, folks!"PigeonsandPlanes
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New! Aesop Rock Daytrotter Session
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Daytrotter is a great concept. "What Daytrotter is attempting to do is to not kid around with you and tell you that we found something that you never knew existed. We are going to contribute to the musical landscape, not just toss it around like a used book or a stolen pick-up line. We're going to give you something that you truly have never heard...We're giving you exclusive, re-worked, alt...
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 "None Shall Pass")
