Had YouTube existed when I was in college, I would have memorized every single word of this cypher. At least, the El-P, Slug, and Aesop verses. I was never a big fan of Immortal “WARFARE IN THE JUNGLES OF GUATEMALA” Technique. There’s no tape date here and no concrete location, other than that they are chanting Delancey Street. So probably somewhere in the LES and probably after Aesop signed to Def Jux but before he dropped Labor Days. 2002? I remember listening to the Orphanage and Weathermen freestyles in the Napster days and this is of the highest caliber. Literally, figuratively, etc.
10 years gone and it’s strange to marvel at how young everyone looked and the days when underground rappers would cypher on the streets. This is one of those moments that at the time most have felt like a tossed-off bullshit session, having fun freestyling as kids, but now, you look back and it feels like a moment frozen in rap history. Most of the monuments of that era are gone. No Def Jux. No Fat Beats. No Joey Bada$$. The days when Cannibal Ox didn’t have to fund their album via Kickstarter. But even if none of that nostalgia matters to you, this is just good rapping in the art of rapping.Credit due to Grandgood for bringing it to my attention
A few months ago, Blockhead posted an old track of him and Aesop. I never wrote about it here because I am a single man in a solitary apartment that may or may not contain a chicken. You understand. Either way, it is below the jump along with a video of Aesop’s new (excellent) collabo with Dark Time Sunshine.
Download:
MP3: Aesop Rock (prod. by Blockhead) – Hall of Game (Left-Click)
