arsonill

1. Big L
2. NAS
3. Method Man
4. Eyedea
5. Aesop Rock
6. Evidence
7. Rustee Juxx
8. Sean Price
9. Vast Aire
10. Slug

Sparky

I dunno man, I think your unfairly generalizing people. It's pretty evident Aesop Rock puts in work, one of his verses alone has more content even on the surface then plenty mixtapes.

I don't know why Aesop is deserving of being judged only on his own work and not every artist.

I honestly can only go back and listen to float and bazooka tooth. I like how when listening to him i feel as if he's letting out ten tons of stored up anxiety and frustration. I guess what im trying to say is his wordplay is more similar to how my thought process, its all scattered and not everything fits together, but it is connected and...

**** it i'll figure out how to summarize it later. Not everything he says seems to have an interpret ion, and he opts for just straight up imagery, which im fine with, they're no rules.

His delivery and wordplay are extremely original, but his actual outlook and viewpoints are sometimes cliche and traditional "backpacker" (not that im dumping him in that), and seem to be aimed at a target audience, primarily teenagers. I am basing most of this off bazooka tooth, since it was what got the most plays, but i have listened to all his albums extensively.

I think what a lot of people, myself included, look for lyrics that reflect stuff in their lives. Aesop rock does this, but you really gotta listen to it over and over before any of it clicks. I think he writes pretty good hooks though, and his production has gotten excellent as well, so i don't know why people still have this barrier.

Also, downloading all balls don't bounce, i dont know if this rapper has enough swag for me to like him tho

Mrd00d

Labor Days is best, how can you not listen to Battery or what not?

I didn't hear about Aesop until I was in my 20s and I don't know any teenagers, but my viewpoint is that teenagers aren't smart enough to listen to Aesop; they're mostly Eminem, Lil Wayne jockies.

I don't see any difference between Bazooka Tooth and any of his other work, really, as far as artistic style. I love We're Famous... I don't think teens can relate to that.

__________________
Mrd00d's Last.fm

Jester

Really? I don't think I was unfairly generalizing at all. You think people really put in as much work as they should to get much out of Aesop Rock? Like, don't you EVER see all the Aesop Rock haters who dismissed him right away because of his unconventional style? "omg, aesop makes no sense," or "omg, he can't flow." Both of those complaints are just straight WRONG. To me, those complaints are perfect evidence of laziness in evaluation (amongst other possibilities, but that seems to make the most sense...).

What do you mean by this?

I really don't know how you wouldn't be able to go back to Labor Days or None Shall Pass--Aesop Rock's basic emceeing approach hasn't really changed much, but he like, updates his formulas and keeps them fresh.

There's no way Aesop Rock's work is targeted towards teenagers, lol. They like him, but there's just too much content there to assume this was meant for teenagers to digest.

Word, but I think as an artist, he's doing right to weave his ideas through his lyrics in ways that take some work and real listening to catch--it's certainly more interesting than being all preachy and didactic, and it usually means people who catch onto things like that will probably appreciate his work a lot more. Those moments in art when something just clicks to you, I think that's one of the best parts.

Aceyalone is one of the most stylish rappers ever, again, someone who you're going to have to give time to. You have to hear Innercity Griots by Freestyle Fellowship, and you have to hear A Book of Human Language (solo Aceyalone album), on top of All Balls Don't Bounce. These are seriously three absolutely classic masterpieces that are probably never going to get much attention. Freestyle Fellowship are EASILY one of the most important groups to ever exist in hip hop.

Sparky

Its a overused argument, but it is still subjective , and sounds good in your brain for reasons which probably complicated to explain. I think the averagelistener who is familiar enough with underground hip hop has an idea of how to listen aesop rock. I'd say his rapid pace and vocabulary actually gets stupid people to think he's really good because they just assume its all coherent and like immortal technique or something.
Like it seemed like what you were saying is you can't rate aesops music in a conventional way because you have to judge it as being in his "world" or compare it to other aesop music. What is it about his music, and not every artist that makes that the case?if thats what you meant anyway
Labor Days is just too much of a normal? aesop rock. Like lucy sounds like an atmosphere song, daylight, etc it just covers stuff that I hear more in other artists, it's still good, and listened to it to death; for some reason i can't come back to it that often. In float,especially songs like commencent, he just has so much ****ing **** to say. He sounds really raw and energized, while on none shall pass he's sounds more relaxed and has more typical "flow" which i think it was his easiest and most popular album. Bazooka tooth he's raw as ****.
your right its wrong to assume it. But stuff like "all i wanna do is break apart the day and put the piesces back togethor my way" isn't that hard for a teen to get into, regardless of what he actually rhymes in the song.

Absolutely

Yeah that was just some weird joke which i cant remember why was funny today

bigwax

1. Wax
2. Nas
3. Guru
4. Shad
5. Big L
6. Eyedea
7. Rappers from Wu-tang
8. Rappers from Jurassic 5
9. Biggie
10. Eminem (as much as I hate him)

Dirty

Did you really just put yourself ahead of Nas?

bigwax

Lol, I'm not Wax.

Have you ever checked this guy out?

Watch these 3 videos to the end, listen to the lyrics, and then tell me he doesn't belong in the top 10

Bane of your existence

That's insanely easy to do.

Also, if you want to claim it's not you, you shouldn't put your musicbanter name in the first video as part of your twitter feed.

Bane of your existence

But for what it's worth, I did like that first song.