Aesop Rock preview

Aesop Rock
Metro, Chicago
Thursday, September 13, 2007

A decade in the can, Aesop Rock is still one of the biggest fish in indie rap. Back when he started, the failure to gain at least a modicum of mainstream attention would have signalled failure; nowadays people are ready to hand him a gold watch.

He hasn’t slowed, however. None Shall Pass, released last month on Definitive Jux, takes a couple tracks to get out the gates and sounds weirdly compressed (almost as if it has been warped), but from “Catacomb Kids” on ranks with his best. While Jewish kids from New York are hardly outsiders to the rap game, Aesop (born Ian Bavitz) nonetheless managed to cultivate an anti-mainstream audience and has ridden an underground wave as far as it can take him.

None Shall Pass weaves seemingly opaque lyrics through his relentless vocal syncopation — the anti Chingy — and tangles with pirates, the hallways, and the media. While Blockhead still provides most of the beats, chip ins by El-P, Rob Sonic, and Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle all find themselves sucked into Aesop’s verbal vortex.

Rob Sonic, Octopus Project, and Blockhead open.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly