Aesop: Steps Outside His Comfort Zone

By Zoneil Maharaj
Photo By Chrissy Piper

Aesop Rock is jet lagged. He just got back from a week-long press tour in Europe where he did 12 interviews a day to promote his new album on Definitive Jux Records, None Shall Pass. “It’s a nice way to go to Europe without seeing anything ... It gets a little intense. It’s not exactly the European vacation,” he says.
After sitting in offices answering mundane questions about his new album, he’s now stuck on the phone with another journalist, talking about his new album while he tries to recoup in his San Francisco home. It comes with the fame — something he’s struggled to adjust to.

Ten years ago, Aesop Rock was an unknown New York artist peddling his first independent album, Music for Earthworms, on the street. Now he’s internationally acclaimed and heralded by critics as hip-hop’s savior for his surreal lyricism, off-kilter flow, bassy baritone and raw, electrofunk-fused production. But it’s been the changes over the last two years that inspired None Shall Pass: he got married, relocated to San Francisco and turned 30 (now 31).

“It seemed like a time to say no one will get past this mid-period in life of when you’re sort of officially an adult and you can’t blame your youth for any mistakes you made,” he says. “I felt it was impossible to hit this point and not reflect and, at the same time, see where you’re heading and how your contemporaries are judging you.”
None Shall Pass is Aesop Rock’s fifth full-length album. He’s also released three EPs and a few side projects. Last year, he and artist Jeremy Fish even collaborated on a storybook and 7-inch single. Then earlier this year, he released the iTunes exclusive All Day, a 45-minute mostly instrumental track for the Nike + Original Run series. “They wanted me to make music to inspire athletes for training. It seemed like an odd thing to do ... Usually, if I get an offer that I don’t understand why I was offered, I’ll take it,” says the emcee who’s never afraid to exert his creativity.

His latest offering is a more personal yet less first-person reflection. Rather than fall into the self-indulgent braggadocio rap trap, Aesop Rock takes the campfire approach. “I tried to tell stories and make it a more visual experience and tell tales ... and hopefully try to step outside some of the things rap music tends to repeat,” he says.
Each song conjures up different periods of life, from the children’s story-inspired pirate tale “The Harbor is Yours” to the malicious, teenage mischief of “39 Thieves.” “You’d have to be from the suburbs to understand,” says the Long Island native. “We were either skateboarding or loitering from one parking lot to the other. It was an odd time period I wanted to describe. Most of my high school experiences take place in random grocery store lots.”

The production, split by longtime collaborator Blockhead and himself, with Rob Sonic and El-P lending a track apiece, is a mesh of samples and instrumentation. The guitars, keys, drums, bass, turntables (with scratching supplied by DJ Big Wiz) and other instruments used to craft his compositions are more prominent on None Shall Pass than previous releases, creating an atmospheric experience for each song.
“I wanted it all to cater to the stories. Each of them to me has a very distinct feeling,” says Aesop Rock. “Even without lyrics, the music is pretty visual. [The songs] all have their own mood and time periods to them. It’s more than straightforward beats to rhyme over.”

Also contributing to the album, along with the usual Def Jux suspects, is Juggaknots emcee Breeze Brewin, firing over the album’s sometimes manic, sometimes sagacious production. But the most unexpected appearance comes from Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle; rather than singing the chorus, as is often the case in cross-genre collaborations, the prolific singer-songwriter lends his haunting wail for the final verse on album closer “Coffee.” To some, it may seem like an unlikely pairing, but the collaboration serves as a testament to the dilettante’s eclectic background.
The multi-talented artist played bass for various bands when he was in junior high. It was around that time he began messing around with his brother’s 4-track recorder and beat machine, creating “weird music projects.” Before his music career took off, Aesop Rock obtained a degree in art from Boston University where he studied painting. Maybe that’s why he has a tendency to think visually — the album art on None Shall Pass, done by Fish, was also conceptualized to accompany the music, and the characters from the six-page foldout will soon be featured in an animated music video.
The emcee traded coasts after marrying guitarist Allyson Baker of the now-defunct San Francisco indie band Parchman Farm. Though the Yankee now walks with Giants, he doesn’t plan on staying too long. “It’s more like a field trip. I have a feeling I’ll end up back in the East Coast,” he says.

Though most of Aesop Rock’s new songs were recorded at his in-home studio in San Francisco, living in California hasn’t had a tremendous effect on his music or lifestyle. “I’m pretty self-sufficient. I don’t need anything beside my studio,” he explains. “It’s shaken me up because I’m not in my comfort zone. I don’t have this blanket of New York ... I have more solitude and can focus on music. I kinda like it.”
Aesop Rock has never been the typical narcissistic rap cat; he remains humble and tries to duck the spotlight as often as he can. And though he’s collaborated with Oakland stalwarts Del Tha Funky Homosapien and Zion I in recent years, he hasn’t quite integrated himself into the Bay Area hip-hop community because he stays locked up in the studio.

“If I know someone playing in San Francisco, I show up and perform,” he says, “But I’m not going to as many shows as I used to probably because I’m 31. When I was 18 or 20, I was at every show possible just because it was part of the scene...”
“I go out when it’s time to show my face,” the self-reflecting artist says. “A lot of what I do is burying my head in the dirt and coming out when it’s time to promote my music.”
Luckily for listeners, Aesop Rock will pull his head out for a national fall tour, which kicks off at Musicfest NW in Portland on September 6. Keeping it eclectic, the tour will include not only indie hip-hop heavyweights Blockhead, Cage and Rob Sonic, but psychedelic indie rock bands The Octopus Project and Black Moth Super Rainbow on select dates.

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