Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid
*albums in response to the death of George Floyd*
Look look look look! It's finally here. I still say their paper mache recreation of The Shining is the best way to listen to Aesop Rock's The Impossible Kid if the record itself isn't on your top shelf.
I love this album. The songs connect with me. He's amazing. The Weathermen, The Uncluded with Kimya Dawson, Malibu Ken. I'm not one of those people pretending like i've known about him for ever, i'm not one of those underground or die guys, i'm not here because NPR sent me or because his vocabulary is in a different zip code from most hip hop, i'm here because i'm a scholar of music and the easiest way to broaden your horizons is to actually go listen to things other people say are awesome or amazing. I heard Dorks and it was the same feeling of "yes please, more of this" just like Symphony of Destruction when i was a kid.
If you were to say bottle, point me to some hip hop you think i should check out i would say in no particular order start with Aesop Rock, 3rd Bass, Run The Jewels, Cut Chemist (a turntablist), The Avalanches, and Deltron 3030, and go from there. Follow the youtube rabbit holes or read liner notes or check out associated acts on their wikipedia pages. You can't find stuff you like until you search for it, and you don't know what will reach out and grab you. And, you literally have nothing to lose. These people want to share their hard work with you, and they won't be mad if you happen not to like it. They don't want to hear you yell "you suck!," but no one else does either. They aren't trying to ruin your afternoon, don't be such a dork.
And as for the idea that you can "hate" a genre, i give you all of my positive reviews of country albums. You don't have to like a specific example of something, but using that as synechdochal evidence that an entire art form should be eradicated from existence does in fact put you in the same ballpark as Hitler, Stalin, Amin, Mary I, but i digress. If you can find rhyming Sprechstimme agreeable in the broadest sense, then it's quite easy to distinguish between what you may or may not personally enjoy v. saying perhaps i am not qualified to voice my opinion on this particular issue. In any case, if you asked me what i thought, i'd just say "why? You clearly don't care. Let's talk about something else." Luckily, i can't hear you, so i'm free to just ramble to my hearts content.
I love this album. There's a Star Wars reference, a cat, death, stories about his brothers, his past vocations and hobbies, his brother liked Ministry!? I like Ministry!
That joke is funny because the original thing i used this joke for was She Likes Basketball from Promises, Promises, but Blood Sandwich starts off with a story about his other brother Darrell playing baseball, and those two sports placed against each other in the context of the Bob Newhart Show forces you to think about racist stereotypes that are engrained in your own thinking. I'm lying when i say i don't put much thought into these essays, but i assume you knew that. The fact that i throw them together in 30 minutes to an hour every night belies the fact that i'v been thinking about how i might frame a particular album for months. That's the musician in me. I've been practicing in my head 24 hours a day, and the actual writing is a strange type of performance art that no one gets to see. In all honesty it's like a jazz jam session, or one of my weird loop pieces. Some nights i'm just off, and i say sorry for bombing tonight, please check me out tomorrow when i try something different. Rehearsed spontaneity.
Sorry, josie interrupted me to ask "what's a wire?" and i'm pretty proud of saying "it's like string made out of metal."
Where was i, oh yeah, being completely open to new experiences and different ideas and being patient and friendly and ooh bubbles. Sorry Josie is blowing bubbles.
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I give up, this album is awesome, go check it out. It's my turn to blow bubbles, so bye now.
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