None Shall Press
It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a huge Aesop Rock fan (see my Stylus review where I try to re-invent what it means to be pretentious,) so needless to say I was pretty amped to interview Mr. Bazooka Tooth himself. Of course, when it came time to write my interview questions, I was completely stumped. At this point, I’m reasonably convinced that there is an inverse relationship of my interview ability with how much I respect their work of the artist I’m interviewing. (the Will “Okkervil River” Scheff interview was just straight awkward).
So maybe it’s for the best that Aesop flaked on the phoner and wanted to do things via e-mail. This saved the futility of stammering around like some sort of tongue-twisted yahoo (no Serious). Bottom line, the story’s up now at the Arizona Republic and I think it came out fairly well. Aesop talks MTV (he was recently named Artist of the Week), the state of contemporary hip-hop and why Blockhead won’t do another Party Fun Action Committee. Also, be sure to scoop up the B-sides and rarities tracks below. They’re all highly recommended if you’re into that sort of thing.
My Aesop Rock Feature in the Arizona Republic
Download:
MP3: Aesop Rock-”Wise Up”
MP3: Aesop Rock-”Take me to the Basement”
MP3: Aesop Rock-”Water”
MP3: Aesop Rock ft. Vast Aire-”Sinister”
Stumble It!
October 12th, 2007 at 3:36 am
“At this point, I’m reasonably convinced that there is an inverse relationship of my interview ability with how much I respect their work of the artist I’m interviewing.”
YES. I know exactly what you mean. See my pitiful excuse for dialogue with one Eric Claridge of The Sea and Cake. The more intense the idolization, the dumber I get.
What a curse it is to be a blogger sometimes.
Oh, and by the way, I rather enjoyed your Stylus review of None Shall Pass.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I really can’t believe that people bitched about Aesop being MTV. If they watched the show he and Blockhead put together for 3 minutes, they’d realize he won–he literally did whatever the hell he wanted while getting his name and face broadcast to a whole sector of people who most likely never heard of him before.
You know where I stand on him, so props for the inteview, brother!
BTW Vast Aire’s verse on “Sinister” is probably one of the worst rhymes I’ve ever heard of my life, No Limit Records included.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Good read, and I can’t say it enough how much I love ‘None Shall Pass’.
October 14th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for posting Water. One of my alltime favorite, and least-heralded Aesop tracks.
Zilla:
Sinister is hardly Vast’s worst verse. It’s just that there are so many stinkers, its hard to pick one that soars so far above the rest. The tragedy of abundance rears its ugly head once again.