Extra! Extra! Read All About It: The Dark Heart News Of Aesop Rock

Album: None Shall Pass
Artist: Aesop Rock
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Year: 2007
Label: Definitive Jux

My original introduction to Definitive Jux records was through the El-P album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. On the album were two tracks featuring guest appearances from two other Def Jux artists: Cage and Aesop Rock. Because of this, I will forever think of these three artists as the individual parts of a triad: El-P is paranoid, Cage is gross and Aesop Rock is weird. Born Ian Bavitz, Aesop Rock is one of Def Jux’s best and strangest artists and a personal favorite of mine in the Hip-Hop world. What makes him a favorite are the bizarre, often surreal lyrical themes the man surrounds himself with. Half of the time I couldn’t begin to tell you what it is he’s rapping about but I like it. He’s not like abstract rapper Busdriver, who is often nonsensical. Like his namesake, Aesop Rock tells stories. Odd stories, strange stories, but stories none the less. Deciphering them is the fun part, as the imagery he creates is something else.

None Shall Pass is thus far my favorite Aesop Rock album and features some of the best production that he’s had so far. Rock’s main collaborator in the production world is Blockhead, who produced almost the entirety of his Labor Days album. He returns here for seven tracks while Rock himself produces five. Other guest producers include El-P and Rob Sonic who also both rap on individual tracks. The Rob Sonic track is actually one of the most fun on the album. Rock and Sonic wax lyrical about the supernatural news service “Dark Heart News” a shout out to all those who can “levitate or bend spoons”. There are other great collaborations on the album, like “Getaway Car” on which both Breeze Brewin’ and Cage (the gross one) appear. It’s actually sort of odd. Both Brewin’ and Rock stick to the tracks plan of highlighting the woes of being stuck in a cubicle all day, but when Cage gets to the mic he goes off about his experience in a mental institution from when he was a kid. It’s not so much that it’s bad rapping, what Cage has to say is interesting; it’s just sort of off topic.

Of course, I’m only guessing at the interpretation of the lyrics here. I could have it all wrong but it’s more fun to think I know what I’m talking about most of the time. The greatest moments on this album seem to be produced by Blockhead. The title track “None Shall Pass” is a bouncing ball that you chase down the street after and “Coffee”, the albums closer, is nothing short of stomptastic and features a vocal section by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. Both of these tracks showcase Aesop Rock’s weirdness wonderfully too, that, of course, being the point. The album has weak points, the tracks “Fumes” and “No City” being two of them, but that’s really about it. If you like strangeness in your Hip-Hop mix, don’t pass Aesop Rock.