CD Review: Aesop Rock's None Shall Pass

And who would figure that the greatest MC was neither from Detroit nor Brooklyn? This cat hailing hard from Long Island does something so different to hip-hop it’s almost unrecognizable in his vice grip. Aesop Rock’s latest release on the Definitive Jux label, None Shall Pass, is the quintessence of this transformative art known as hip-hop.

He opens the album strong with “Keep off the Lawn”, taking on the theme of phantasms with bad manners. The illustrious intro proclaims to the heavens behind dog barks and what sounds like helicopter mayhem, “It’s good to be breathin’. I am alive!” What a statement considering no one ever doubted the man’s ability to live and walk among us. Perhaps his proclamation dares to slap those who forgot what real hip-hop is and yell, spit flecks flailing about, You forget I was here? You must have because this is what you do in my absense!”

With title track, “None Shall Pass”, he uses illusions to films starring hobbits and wizards. Rock has created the perception that hip-hop can, and should be provocative and strange all in the same breath. His lyrical dexterity (a testament to his encyclopaedic knowledge of the English language) is further catapulted by his ability to syllabically discharge some of the illest flow I’ve actually come across in hip-hop since Mos Def—if I’m not being too bold. The ebb and flow of his voice is reminiscent of such new-age battle legends as The Saurus and Parable with a swagger that reads, “To all who’d challenge me: Fuck you! I live and breathe this shit!”

Skip down a bit to track #8, “The Harbor is Yours”. This track almost knocked me off my fucking feet, and I was sitting down! Again, Rock is a beast with his topical lyricism—this time giving Davy Jones (of nautical lore) a shout out. Are you mad?! The man uses metaphors like only the most seasoned of poets have the ability to do and it’s scary! With lyrics like, “Dead, men, tell no tales / Up push the daisies 'till the soil is stale / In a powder blue tux for the farmer's sail / Mister big sleep with the carp and kale”, how can you not want to meet this man and shake his hand?

The album suddenly gets unbearably out of control flow-wise and lyrically from this point on. Kinda hard to pick a standout joint when the next six sort of set a new standard for any writer who picked up a quill and pad of parchment, yeah? “Gun for the Whole Family” is almost a testament to human form in real time. His flow is in fine form and his lyrics are frightening for their relevance in this day and age where war is actually a fashion statement: “Infiltrate each others’ crops and murder each others’ queens / back to the very last rafter / clung to the rafts and the cameras to capture the damage / next swivel with a chop-chop bombing where the ants leave nothing but the bones and the car keys.” What?!

What do you do when the most impressive thing to come out of hip-hop takes vocabulary and makes it his bitch? It’s almost offensive how easily this man slides in and out of poetic language and device like he created the damn thing!

Aesop Rock stormed into the hip-hop neighbourhood, guns blazing, with his bizarre lyrics and his charming flow style. He has categorically raised the bar for the so-called “artists” of this day and age to a level that has more than surpassed those who tend toward the corny downbeats and candy-school raunch lyrics of radio fodder. I am out of sorts with this artist. His flow is delicious; his lyricism is perfect for those who seek something interesting and alarmingly significant in this world where everything seems to have morphed into an unbearable piece of half-retarded quips about loving strippers and wanting to by drinks for random chicks. Not bad for someone who’s first introduction to the MC was an insatiable lust for information about Shia Labeouf. (I love you Wikipedia!)