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Album of the Year Write-Up #8: Aminé – Limbo - HipHop

Album of the Year Write-Up #8: Aminé – Limbo - HipHop

Album of the Year Write-Up #8: Aminé – Limbo

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:35 AM PST

Album of the Year Writeup # 8: Aminé – Limbo

Artist - Aminé

Album - Limbo

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Background

Adam Aminé Daniel, otherwise known as Aminé, has had one of the more interesting careers in modern hip-hop since breaking into the mainstream in 2016. Born and raised in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Portland, Aminé was one of the first real breakthrough artists to come out of Portland. This created an interesting conundrum for Aminé, because while he was able to instantly become the shining jewel of whatever small hip-hop scene there is in the city, there also just isn't that many other talented people making music in Portland, at least not on the level that Aminé is. Also worth mentioning is that with there not being much of a scene for Portland hip-hop before him, Aminé had a ton of leeway with how he wanted to take his sound. For a young rapper in Atlanta, or in the Bay Area, it can be incredibly difficult to breakthrough without playing into the sound the city already has established. That's what the city plays, that's what most of the audience in the area wants to hear, and that's what they expect of you if you want to make it big there. But in Portland? Not really the case. As an extension of that, he didn't grow up just listening to one sound - his influences come from all over the country, citing Kanye West, Andre 3000, and Odd Future in particular. This helped set Aminé up for an unlikely career trajectory, where a distinct lack of a particular sound is what has propelled him into the limelight, and since nobody like him really exists, he found a unique niche in the modern hip-hop market.

While it's unfair to completely ignore Aminé's work pre-2016, much of it does feel like a young artist trying to find his footing. While there are some moments on these projects where his potential shines through, much of it is just unpolished and at times sloppy. All of that took a turn in early 2016, when his debut single "Caroline" was released. Reaching as high as number 11 on the US Hot 100, "Caroline" stands on its own among Aminé's work as the only song to reach true commercial success, with around 6x the views of his second largest video, "REEL IT IN". It would've been easy for Aminé to end up another one-hit wonder, as this time in hip-hop had plenty of artists come and go in a flash. But with the success of "Caroline", Aminé was able to partner with Republic Records and maintain his momentum. Even if he didn't maintain the level of popularity that "Caroline" had, he managed to land a spot performing "Caroline" on Jimmy Fallon (Link) and on the 2017 XXL Freshman List. Leading up to the release of his debut album Good For You, his singles "REDMERCEDES", "Turf", "Spice Girl" and "Wedding Crashers ft. Offset" all had decent commercial success and were fairly well-received. The album itself had largely positive critical reception, with many critics citing it's upbeat feeling and infectious hooks as reasons to keep an eye on Aminé in the future.

Just over a year after Good For You's release, Aminé followed it up with OnePointFive, which I will simply refer to as a project because Aminé refers to it as an "LP/EP/Mixtape/Album" and I have no interest in typing that more than once (he called it this as a jab at artists who release an album and then call it a mixtape if it flops). Prior to its release, Aminé had dropped a single with Injury Reserve titled "Campfire", and while it didn't end up on OnePointFive, I still wanted to highlight it because it's a fantastic track. As for the project, the aforementioned "REEL IT IN" served as the only true single. With features from Gunna, Rico Nasty, and G Herbo, OnePointFive is an amalgamation of fun pop-rap tracks that manages to intertwine a surprising number of heartfelt, genuine moments, with tracks like "DR. WHOEVER" and "TOGETHER" acting as standouts amongst what can otherwise seem like a relatively shallow project.

Following OnePointFive, Aminé was uncharacteristically quiet. Since "Caroline", there had been a relatively constant stream of music coming out of his camp, and the rollout of OnePointFive suggested that it was meant to hold fans over until the next full length album. So when it had been well over a year without any indication of when more music was to come, many fans were getting impatient. So when the lead single to his second studio album, "Shimmy", finally released, Aminé acknowledged the uncharacteristic wait with the first line of the track. The following singles, "Riri" and "Compensating (feat. Young Thug)" carried the braggadocious attitude of "Shimmy" while showcasing completely different styles from track to track. This somewhat set the stage for Limbo, which feels like the most confident, matured, and varied version of Aminé yet.

Limbo represents where Aminé finds himself in life. When speaking about the meanings behind it, he gives two. One represents not knowing where to go – being stuck in limbo. He's found relative commercial success, but with a style that can be hard to push into the next level. Even outside of music, Aminé captures the essence of a quarter-life crisis – figuring out how to transition from being the kid who's broke and doesn't give a fuck because he's just having fun, and turn that into figuring out what you actually want out of life. The other meaning relates to the game of Limbo – he told HighSnobiety, "I feel like I grew up thinking that once I achieved one level, the next level would be easier to achieve. But as I've grown, I've come to realize that with every level that I achieve, every level gets harder".

Track by Track Review

--- Writer's Note: On December 4th, Aminé released the deluxe edition of Limbo, adding an additional seven tracks. In a comment, I will add additional thoughts on these songs, but with how much less time I've had to sit with them, I didn't feel as though it was fair for me to give them a proper review without spending an appropriate amount of time with them and giving them a fair listen. So they won't be included in the main portion of this review. ---

Burden

"This is like some shit you go and pick your homie up from jail with", states writer/comedian Jak Knight before a single note has been played. Before you can even stop and think "what the fuck does that even mean?", the sample kicks in. Some r/hhh listeners will pride themselves in recognizing that this is the same sample used in Wrestlemania 20 by Westside Gunn, because they don't have better shit to do than remember obscure samples from one of Westside Gunn's 14,000 tracks from the last 3 years. It originates from Darondo's "Thank You God", and the way 22-year-old British producer Mac Wetha places it amongst the rest of the instrumental gives it a ton of shine, really helping to emphasize the mood he's trying to create. It's kind of a difficult tone to actually pin down in writing, because it's not quite somber, and it even branches into anger as he reflects on race and gentrification in his city. Throughout the project, Aminé's complicated relationship with Portland is on full display, as he goes back and forth between showing love to the city that made him and attacking how its treated its diminishing black community.

He certainly sets a tone early, as the first bars of the album tell you exactly how the album is going to feel – "When your skin darker, shit gets harder; This a Black album, like Shawn Carter". This serves to connect the portion of his audience that doesn't hail from Portland to the issues he's speaking on later. "Shit is legal now, the dealers know the jig is up; When it's us, n*ggas getting' years, maybe ten and up; Soccer moms do the same, but government don't give a fuck". It's a sharp juxtaposition with the chorus, where Aminé's crooning line "Bury me before I'm a burden" plays off of the soulful background vocal loop that I'm not even going to attempt to describe. But the point is, the beat's so cold it made Aminé wanna open up. His intro's are meant to be a bridge between him and his fans, basically like a, "Hey, haven't talked to you in a while, this is where I'm at right now". And once again he nails it, and he is now officially 3/3 for knocking his intro's out of the park.

Woodlawn

If "Burden" highlights Aminé's love-hate relationship with Portland, "Woodlawn" is mostly just the love for his city. It's the closest we get on this record to the type of over-the-top, joyful youth that Aminé originally broke through with. It's dedicated to a close friend who got locked up in 2019, and he told GQ earlier this year that when he played him "Woodlawn" over the phone, "he was dancing in his cell". The bouncing 808s give Aminé plenty of room to combine his flexes with the type of humor that he's become known for over the years.

There's a Buffie the Body in every city

And sloppy toppy the hobby, so baby get in the ride

Bitch you bad as fuck, swipe the Visa

Just watch what you spend cause my mama need rent

And my neck gotta look like a freezer

I keep some Prada on my ass

I put Chanel on the bag

Shawty wanna sit on my face like a new chair

I ain't gon' show up til' you pay up and its all there

While the track serves as an ode to his city, I think it's important to note the frustration he's shown towards the gentrification going on to the already small Black community in Portland. Woodlawn was once a vibrant Black community, but that community has been rapidly pushed out. He told GQ, "Going back home doesn't feel like home anymore". There's a level of frustration that is increasingly apparent throughout the project. On the surface, it would seem like a good thing to drive through his old neighborhood and see Black Lives Matter signs in front of every house. But when you consider that they pushed out Black families to buy that house, it can all seem incredibly shallow.

Note: To any aspiring rappers, please stop using Push-to-Start as a flex, that shit came out in like 2012 and unless you're also flexing on your iPhone 5c, it doesn't really work anymore.

Kobe

When Kobe died, it was one of the first times where I just genuinely didn't believe it was real. Seeing video of the remnants of the crash and knowing Kobe was in it, I genuinely felt like "If anybody walks out of this, it's Kobe". Kobe's passing was for many people far more than just a loss of life, and it kicked Aminé's quarter-life crisis into full-gear. Kobe represented a lot of what it felt like to be that young kid who's just having fun and doesn't give a fuck, and as a fan he honestly felt invincible. "That was like seeing Superman die", he told GQ. For a lot of people in that age range that grew up on basketball and watching Kobe, the whole Mamba Mentality concept represented an entire attitude and an entire way of being, a state of mind. When he died, it was like that part of Aminé's (and my) childhood died with him, and that vulnerability and feeling of mortality kickstarted the process of figuring out how all this life shit works. Jak Knight does all the talking on this one, and he captures it perfectly – "he died and I feel like… a lot of my innocence in, like, being a young person died with Kobe. And now, like, with him being gone, I'm like let me figure out how money works".

"Woah."

Roots (feat. JID and Charlie Wilson)

On Roots, Aminé spends some time contemplating, well, his roots – his Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage. After all, this is a Black album. The song serves as a pretty straightforward metaphor, saying that his roots are what actually made him into the man he is, and they are what actually allows the flowers – his art – to grow. Without his roots, he wouldn't be able to bring his music to the world. Frequent collaborator Charlie Wilson helps him lay the hook, which basically just drives home the flower metaphor while serving as a relatively lowkey transition between verses.

Destin Route, commonly known as JID, offers a little spoken word interlude reinforcing the concept of the roots being what's actually responsible for the beauty of the flower. The following verse from JID is one of my favorites of his entire career, because while he's become known for his ability to quickly transition between intricate flows while spitting double time over whatever beat you throw in front of him, he's a much better writer than he usually gets credit for. He has a lot more in his arsenal than being able to rap fast, and this verse is packed to the brim with interesting metaphors on how Black history has allowed for modern Black culture to be as ubiquitous as it is today. It's an interesting way for JID to be able to lay a verse that can relate to Aminé's while still taking a different angle on the topic.

The instrumental from in-house producer Pasqué walks a line between being barebones and still giving the vocals enough to work off of. At times it can feel a bit quiet, but it serves the actual topic of the track well to give the vocalists the shine and to ensure the main focus of the track is on what is being said, as opposed to the instrumentation of the track.

Can't Decide

Aminé has made a lot of his young career off of talking about relationships in relatable, but interesting ways. It was kind of surprising that it took this long to have a track about Aminé's love life, and it fills its role in the album really well. The T-Minus assisted track gives Aminé a pretty comfortable pocket for two short verses, and the Luca Mauti guitar gives the track what it needs to actually be engaging and somewhat different from, well, just a song about girls over a T-Minus beat. Without that guitar this song would've felt like generic album filler, but it gives the song a lot more character.

As far as content, Aminé struggles with a budding relationship where he doesn't really know what the girl he's with wants out of it. It adds to the overall aesthetic of Limbo, where he once again finds himself unsure of where to go next. He doesn't know if there's anything more to get out of the relationship, and he finds himself stuck between two minds. While not a standout, it does add to the overall concept of the project and also serves a needed bridge between the dense "Roots" and the next track, the Young Thug-assisted "Compensating".

Compensating (feat. Young Thug)

Aminé landing a feature from Young Thug has actually been a long time coming – in the summer of 2016, he met Thug backstage at a European music festival, and Thug called him a "young legend". While it might not seem like much – a gesture that small could easily just be Thug complimenting some other artist backstage at a festival – co-signs from major artists can have quite the impact on a relatively small artist's career and, more specifically, their confidence. So it only makes sense for Thug to show up on a track where Aminé hits a much higher pitch on the main hook than most artists would ever attempt on a major single. But fuck it, Thug wouldn't be afraid to go for that note, so why should he?

T-Minus provides another instrumental here, but this one is certainly a lot more interesting, and it kind of has to be if you're going to get the most out of Young Thug. But even though he takes up a healthy chunk of the song, Aminé really steals the show on this one. The refrain Aminé offers before the main hook is honestly such a great earworm, and the entire track is catchy as hell. He told Pitchfork that "Every part of the song is like a chorus, it's all everything that should be addictive……I was like dancing in the studio with a joint in my hand, really happy". And it all comes together really, really well. T-Minus' production is just as catchy as the vocals, and Aminé and Thug are two of the best in modern hip-hop at finding little melodies that'll be stuck in your head for weeks. This song grows on me every time I hear it, and its already one of my favorites of the year.

Shimmy

The first single out of Aminé in a year and a half, "Shimmy" was a hell of a statement – 'y'all ain't forget about Aminé, right?'. And to come back with an interpolation of Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya", with an accompanying album art reproducing the cover of the classic Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, was a bold angle for sure. Had he fumbled the track, a hell of a lot of people wouldn't have been very happy with an artist who, if we're being completely honest, just isn't that respected (yet) by hip-hop-heads. It's a bold move to risk swinging and missing on putting a new take on such a classic track from a late great. ODB was already on the beat when Boi-1da played it for Aminé, and so finding a way to interpolate that while paying proper homage was important.

Fortunately, Aminé nails it. Much of the song sways between Aminé bragging about his own talents and calling out other rappers for how fake their own personas and appearances are. The interpolation of ODB's "Off on a natural charge, bon voyage" leads perfectly into Aminé's take on the hook, and he continues the homage by adding the short interlude with "Ooh, baby, I like it raw". Overall, it felt like a respectful way to pay homage and also made for a great track, and a great reminder that, hey, this dude's kinda dope. Should probably keep an eye on him.

Pressure in My Palms (feat. slowthai and Vince Staples)

Despite being far from the biggest names on the feature list, this was the song many people circled when the tracklist for Limbo was announced. It was hard to imagine how those two would fit on the same track, and with Aminé of all people. I doubt many people would've responded with "idk maybe something grimy and bass-heavy?". But it works, and it works really damn well. The first half of the track is just that, with Aminé talking his shit while still delivering funny lines all over his verse. And while a lot of people were disappointed with how short the slowthai feature is, it transitions perfectly into Vince's verse. They both float on the beat, and Vince reminds everybody that he's still a really great rapper when he wants to be, and for just a second, you might even be able to forget about that time you heard The Vince Staples Show singles.

The transition following the second hook lets Aminé go back and forth with the uncredited Bree Runway for a nice bridge as the beat becomes far more laid-back, almost tropical. The last verse from Aminé is one of my favorites on the whole project, and while I've seen it criticized for not going in a more introspective direction and playing into the overall album concept a little more, I think he flows over the second beat really, really well and it's just a really nice sounding verse. Overall, this track is a clear standout, and it really showcases Aminé's versatility as he steals the show from some insanely talented artists.

Riri

One of the more polarizing tracks on the record, Riri continues to explore the relationship Aminé talks about on "Can't Decide". He continues to feel like things are one-sided, stating that "I was callin' your mama and you was callin' my accountants". The overarching feeling of being stuck in Limbo, and having to make a call on how to move forward with life, continues, this time venturing into his love life. Pasqué delivers a solid beat, and the change-up leading into the second verse helps keep things more interesting in what could have otherwise become a stale track. While it isn't a stand-out per se, I think the track got done a little dirty and it would've been much more well-liked had it been rolled out differently. It shouldn't have been used as a single, and it just doesn't stand up to "Shimmy" or "Compensating". Had "Woodlawn" been the second single, I don't think "Riri" would have been nearly as critiqued. It's an important album cut, as it helps tie together the rest of the relationship tracks on the album and tie those into the Limbo concept. But being used as a single, and then coming right after a song like "Pressure in My Palms" (which is honestly just a more impressive track) ultimately made this song look much worse than it actually is. It's a good album cut, it just wasn't delivered like an album cut.

Easy (feat. Summer Walker)

I wanted this to be a stand-out track soooooo much. I know a lot of rap fans aren't big fans of Summer Walker, but I enjoy her music a ton and I think Aminé has way more potential to deliver great R&B style tracks than he gets credit for. But this track just lacks some level of punch to make it truly stand-out. It's not bad by any means, and I don't dislike anything about it. I think Summer Walker sounds great, and Aminé plays off of her voice really, really well. He even takes on the role of falsetto on the hook, and it plays off of her more casual vocals and a laid-back beat. It's a good song, it just doesn't feel like it lives up to the potential that's so clearly there for the song to be a stand-out, and instead its just another good album cut that feels like it fell short of what it should have been.

Mama

I saw a ton of people hating on this song when it came out, and y'all need to call your damn mother. Look, I get it. The rap song dedicated to their mom, about how she was their number-1 fan and made it where they believed in themselves, blah blah blah, its overdone, whatever. But on the other hand, no. I accept no hate towards these songs whatsoever. I love hearing these rappers open up and show love to their mom, and I'm an absolute sucker for them. And it's so important to have these songs out there and released, because it means so much to them and you never know how life can turn. Mac Miller's "I'll Be There" is proof of that – it hurts like a motherfucker to listen to now, but you know it means the absolute world to his mom that that song exists and that it meant enough to him to put it on his project. And to relate it back to Kobe - as Jak Knight said in a conversation with Aminé for Interview Magazine - "Oh, shit. God is dead. I didn't know they could kill that n*gga. That means I'm easy". So no, do not say a single foul word about this song because it's important, even if it's not important to you.

Becky

In one of the more interesting concepts on the project, Aminé reminisces on a rather unique situation from his childhood. Growing up in one of the only Black neighborhoods in Portland, Aminé finds himself conflicted on a relationship with a white girl. When he brings her around his neighborhood, he feels like he's being looked down on for being with a white girl when white families are constantly displacing Black families around his city. It's even worse when they're around her friends, where he sees them "clench their purse, lock their doors when I'm around". His family doesn't want the risk of being with a white girl and catching a case, and her family isn't even allowed to know about the relationship at all.

While this seems like such a specific issue, it's an important one to apply in a much broader way. No matter how much he tries to explain his concerns to her, she just can't understand the feelings he's going through. It serves a pretty direct metaphor for a lot of modern racial issues in America, where no matter how Aminé tries to explain what he's going through and what he's feeling, he can't really make her understand what he's going through. The only way to really understand it is to actually live through it, and his frustrations with that make him decide the relationship just isn't worth the risk at all. And really, it's about a young kid realizing what his city and his country are actually like. It awakens him to the problems with Portland, and how even though it's "so progressive" and "so liberal", it's still fucking Oregon and it can still be racist as fuck. Just because you're not chanting "Build that wall" doesn't mean you're any less racist when you're shutting down hip-hop concerts in the city just because it's attracting predominantly black kids.

Sonically, the track is pretty interesting as well. He changes up from the standard rap-sing song structure, singing the verses and rapping the hook. While the beat doesn't do a whole lot, it's meant to take a back seat to let the topic at-hand take center stage. Ultimately, though, there isn't enough going on in the track to give it much replayability. It's definitely an important song, and I don't want to diminish that or how important the topics are. He just needed to do a little more to keep listeners coming back to the song, because as it exists now it's just an album cut – an important one, but an album cut nonetheless. And when compared to some of the things he does on earlier tracks, it can feel like it falls short, and like he could've explored the issue a little more and gone more in-depth.

Fetus (feat. Injury Reserve)

Yeah, this one's tough.

This song is so….forward-looking. Hopeful. Not just positive, there's fear in there too. But ultimately, it feels like its one for the future. Aminé and Injury Reserve team up to contemplate on what kind of life they'd be providing their children, what kind of world they'd be coming into.

On June 29, 2020, Jordan Alexander Groggs of Injury Reserve passed at 32, survived by four children. This song was the first Injury Reserve music to be released after his passing. This song was always going to be a heartfelt, touching track. It's a track of trying to figure out where to go, figuring out what kind of life you could give your kids and if you're ready for everything parenthood brings. Parker Corey's production adds a moody atmosphere fit for introspection, and every rapper delivers. It's not fair to ignore Aminé's or Ritchie's efforts, because their contributions are excellent in their own right. But I don't feel qualified to talk about this song anymore than I already have. It's beautiful, its haunting, and it's perfect.

"Hope I can be half the father that my mama was".

Rest in Power Jordan Alexander Groggs

My Reality

The closing track to Limbo feels like the perfect way to book-end Aminé's first real trip into introspection across an entire project. He's certainly had moments of it, and the reception to those moments likely helped Aminé become more comfortable exploring these ideas. The track feels like Aminé finally feeling triumphant – he made it. He's found his footing and has a successful career, he overcame all the odds. It feels like an exclamation mark on what is certainly his most complete and intelligent work yet. The surprise Daniel Caesar appearance for the outro gives the track some additional punch, and it only makes sense that the last voice you hear isn't Aminé. After all, the first voice you hear isn't Aminé either. That feels like an overarching theme on this project, that while Aminé is speaking strictly from his own experience, he knows that there are people all over the world who can relate to what he's saying, and that's kind of the point. He's making music about his own experience, but it isn't just for him.

Closing Thoughts

Limbo is one of the best projects to be released this year. At times, it can feel like some of the best hip-hop to come out in quite some time, especially in the front half of the project. Really, the first eight tracks – from "Burden" to "Pressure in my Palms", are all genuinely excellent, even if they aren't always as boundary pushing as Aminé is capable of. Had the deeper cuts of the project lived up to that standard, I think Limbo would be getting far more love from year-end publications and would be considered amongst the absolute best in what has been a relatively dry year for music. Unfortunately, though, the standard he sets early on isn't carried on every track, and some of the R&B-style cuts just kind of blend together, with few standout moments to separate them.

Overall, I think the project pretty comfortably sits as Aminé's best work. The joyous, carefree nature of his early work meets the internal struggles of a young adult just trying to find himself in the world, and being completely unsure of where life will take him next. And when Aminé hits on this record, its arguably the best music he's ever made. Aminé could have very easily faded away as another one-hit wonder, fading into obscurity as so many of his contemporaries from the #BlackBoyJoy Summer of 2016 did, or like much of his 2017 XXL Freshman class did. But somehow, he keeps sticking around and honestly, I think his best work is still ahead of him. But that potential that's been on full display since he broke through with "Caroline" is starting to really come together, and Limbo is the most complete work the Portland starlet has put together, shoring up the weaknesses of his past work while amplifying the strengths.

Favorite Quotes

  • "At the barbershop I got the bald fade; That was before the chubby n*ggas had the Balmain; You know Giuseppe-ass n*ggas with the Louis shades; Type to call a girl a bitch if she don't give 'em play" – Aminé, Burden
  • "Maybe I'm the one who really need the Lord to save me; The last time I went to church was in the fuckin '80s, can you believe that? I was born in '94, can you believe that?" – Aminé, Burden
  • "Look, RIP Kobe, N*gga RIP Kobe, You was like a dad to a n*gga, so I'm sad, my n*gga, had to get you tatted on me" – Aminé, Woodlawn
  • "Yeah all I see is red, so we awake the dead; She likes my third eye, she loves my third leg" – JID, Roots
  • "I fucked up once again; And you know that I'm never too proud to beg; It's hard to admit that I made my bed; And you know I'ma always wish you the best" – Aminé, Compensating
  • "I eat a lil' cheese like a snack, baby" – Young Thug, Compensating
  • "I've been flyer than a pelican" – Young Thug, Compensating
  • "You've been givin n*ggas surgical head; You've been eatin out a young n*gga flesh" – Young Thug, Compensating
  • "You thought you made you an anthem, but you just sang you a Fergie" – Aminé, Shimmy
  • "Man, this like when Fergie peed her pants" – Aminé, Pressure in My Palms (Fergie roasts on back to back tracks!)
  • "Feel like I'm Harden, I was shootin' on Artesia with him" – Vince Staples, Pressure in My Palms
  • "I keep her bad and boujee, booty on a hundred thousand; Big-headed, barely fit her weave around it" – Vince Staples, Pressure in My Palms
  • "I know very untalented people with a lot of love in their heart who are doing great" – Jak Knight, Pressure in My Palms
  • "I'm protective cause this world got a evil will; They givin' guns with every muthafuckin' Happy Meal" – Aminé, Fetus
  • "Can't believe my baby girl's already turnin' six; Pray you nothin' like your daddy, stay away from drugs; Hope I can be half the father that my mama was" – Groggs, Fetus
  • "I think we are just so used to life not being valued that we think wasting it on kindness is a bad idea. You should be gettin' money, you should be fuckin hoes, you should drive fast cars. And then you realize that you, sometimes, you get those things….and now you're just a n*gga with those things….and it's like well, I never tried a grapefruit by itself. And now you're just a n*gga peelin', like, eatin' a grapefruit, and you're like, "This is nice….Why is this nicer than my Ferrari?"" – Jak Knight, Fetus
  • "I'm steppin' over n*ggas and I'm skippin' the practice; A.I, when it comes to the checks, I'm like "Taxes? Taxes? Taxes?" – Aminé, My Reality

Discussion Questions

  • For fans of Aminé's older work, how would you compare this project to his older ones? Do you prefer his older, more introspective style or his older, more carefree music?
  • For people that grew up watching Kobe, did his death have a similar impact on you?
  • Do you prefer the songs where he's predominantly rapping, or the R&B-style cuts?
  • Do you think Aminé's singing is good enough to warrant how much of the project it takes up?
  • Do you think he does a good job of paying homage to his influences on the album (ODB on Shimmy, Kanye on My Reality), or do they feel like toned-down versions of someone else's style?
  • What's your favorite feature? Did anybody steal the show? Did Aminé mesh well with everybody, despite having such a wildly varied feature list?
  • Was this project worth the wait? Do you think his next project will be better than Limbo, or has he already made his best work?
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Daily Discussion Thread 12/28/2020

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 03:52 PM PST

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Report: Lil Pump Banned From JetBlue AirWays for Refusing to Wear a Mask

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 04:50 PM PST

Ex-Nintendo of America President Reflects on Declining Kanye West Collab

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 11:02 AM PST

Kid Cudi - Sept. 16

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 04:56 AM PST

Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats - 'Cosmic'.m4a

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 01:30 PM PST

Young Thug says he has more hits than Jay-Z, immediately walks back statement

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:55 PM PST

[SHOTS HESITANTLY FIRED THEN IMMEDIATELY RETRACTED AFTER TAKING THE HINT FROM THE INTERVIEWER]

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1343703852365864961?s=19

submitted by /u/PmMeYourChromebook
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A Social Media App for Music

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:37 PM PST

I have been making this app with my friends. It's called MySound and you can share music from Spotify and Apple Music. You can open your friend's playlists in Spotify or apple music (the app converts the playlist). You can also follow people and like their playlist. Pretty cool if you wanna check it out. Also follow me on there my username is @ Dylan iOS only:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/mysound-share-music/id1517458369

submitted by /u/dylanbaij
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Playboi Carti - Stop Breathing

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 09:13 PM PST

What lyrics did you hear that made you think “Wait, what did he just say?!”

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 03:22 AM PST

For example, I was listening to the new Lil Durk album and on 'The Voice' he says "and I nut in all the hoes I fuck, I blame the porn sites" I had to rewind that 4 times to make sure that's what he said. Any lyrics that made you guys feel like this?

submitted by /u/bizzys92
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Playboi Carti - On That Time

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 10:59 AM PST

Vince Staples, Teyana Taylor - Limos

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 10:31 AM PST

Yo what is The Game doing in IG?

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 09:55 PM PST

He's gotta be goin broke or something, I can't understand why else rappers would offer promoting random people on their Instagrams. I know Freddie Gibbs posted a video a while back telling people that shit is a scam...seems wack to me too. What do y'all think?

submitted by /u/Devo43evo
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Playboi Carti - ILoveUIHateU

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 03:05 PM PST

Big Sean - Paradise (Extended)

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 08:46 AM PST

Three 6 Mafia introducing Mark Henry at a WWE SmackDown 2006

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 12:54 AM PST

I never made the connection that Three 6 performed Mark Henry's intro song. As a former huge fan of the WWE and current Three 6 fan, this is so dope to me

https://youtu.be/ThfVvz-h-Lw

submitted by /u/ProudKingbooker
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UnoTheActivist - Pissy Pamper (Kid Cudi Remix)

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:41 AM PST

Craziest rhyme scheme you've heard?

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:23 PM PST

My favourite is JME on "Issmad" from his newest album "Grime MC".

He finishes each bar with either a number or a letter and makes it rhyme for each bar and makes the number/letter increment each line. Usually changing the number/letter every 4 bars.

Standout bars:

"My booking fee was under 1K

When I started spitting in the year 2K

Feds don't like me like the 3 Ks

'Cause I film them and upload in 4K"

...

Also:

"Man are out here tryna make one M

I need a mixdown, send it to(two) M

I go to Yiannimize for the wrap, 3M

So I drive to the cashpoint for(four) M's

See me on road in the AM

But you can't keep up in your BM

Man's a T high streeter like CM

Don't follow you so you can't DM"

The effort isn't needed to make the song a banger (imo) but the extra effort goes a mile and makes me constantly rewind to catch some new bars each time.

submitted by /u/LordNadez
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Quarantine got me so lonely im sippin 40s

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 11:01 AM PST

Playboi Carti to Headline Free Livestream Concert on New Year's Eve

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 02:13 AM PST

https://www.complex.com/music/2020/12/playboi-carti-to-headline-cyberwurld-new-years-eve-event

​

Playboi Carti will head into 2021 with a special gift for fans.

Fresh off the release his Whole Lotta Red album, the ATL rapper is gearing up to take the stage at Cyberwurld, an online New Year's Eve celebration presented by Thunder Studios. Carti will headline the virtual event, which is billed as a fusion of music, technology, and gaming. Sada Baby, $NOT, Jasiah, Popp Hunna, ilyTOMMY, Lil Eazzyy Bktherula, Sparoh, and Ken Car$on are also slated to perform.

​

Cyberwurld will be free to stream via Twitch beginning at 8 p.m. PT on Dec. 31. You can learn more about the inaugural event here.
>The concert is expected to by Carti's first live performance since dropping Whole Lotta Red on Friday. His long-awaited sophomore album featured guest appearances by Kid Cudi, Future, and Kanye West, who also executive produced the project alongside Matthew Williams.
Carti has been teasing the effort for the past couple of years, and recently called it his "best work yet."

Here's the IG post by Cyberwurld

My bad if someone already posted this, I didn't see any threads about this.

submitted by /u/leetcode4life
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Moneybagg Yo & NBA Youngboy - Contempt of Court

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 10:53 PM PST

Tried to make a movie/ documentary out of my childhood days in the late 90's era. Freestyles, Blunts, Cyphers, highschool, laughs, getting kicked out on the LA streets as teens and making the best of it.

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 09:17 PM PST

How is this not El-P’s best bars?

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 10:38 PM PST

Mach-Hommy - Soon Jah Due (ft. Earl Sweatshirt)

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 01:29 PM PST

Trust Gang may of had the best year in underground hiphop

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 11:39 AM PST

I am going to be in the minority that says this but TRUST had an amazing year, maybe the underground hiphop label, if you consider all the projects they released. And for the sake of the argument I'm including all of Ransom's projects this year. I apologize if I'm wrong to include them.

38 Spesh

  • Loyalty and Trust 2(With Flee Lord) One of the better Flee Lord releases this year, this tape brings out a good combo and they've always worked well together.

  • Trust the Chain (With Planet Asia) Solid project, Planet Asia is a terrific MC, I think the fact he's collabed with Trust so often is an overlooked fact. He's a legend in California and to collab with Upstate NY quite often is special. Also the beats on this album are crazy, 38 does his thing.

  • 6 Shots EP- What I love about these Upstate dudes is they release a lot of EPs that are quality and this 6 Shots EP is a terrific capsule of pure talent with features from Ransom & Eto. The song Flour City 2 is amongst my top 10 songs of the year, they both go crazy.

  • Interstate 38- The production value on this album and the amount of effort put into 38 is evident. This is a solid album and I think at 33 minutes, 38 delivers one of his most complete albums. His production stepped up this year and his lyricism stays on point.

Che Noir

  • Juno- Che's first album, entirely produced by 38 Spesh, this 23 min project demonstrates why she's one of the finest MCs from Buffalo. Notable songs like Queen City are fire. I'd like to see her continue to make complete songs.

  • As God Intended (Prod by Apollo Brown)- Legendary producer Apollo Brown gifts Che with a bounty of nice beats and the connection to a legendary feature with Black Thought this album is solid boom bap and it's one of my favorite projects of the year.

  • After 12- Che Noir produced this EP and showcases that like 38 Spesh, she's good on the boards and the mic. This EP also has one of the verses of the year with Sa-Roc's verse on Moment in the Sun feat RJ Payne. (seriously that verse blew me away)

Ransom

  • Director's cut Part 1-3, Deleted Scenes, and Crime Scenes- Ransom collaborated with Canadian producer Nicholas Craven and made some of the best rap projects of the year. I especially like Part 2. Ransom is easily one of the top MCs this year and I highly recommend checking out all his projects this year. They're relatively short and an easy listen.

  • Ransom's guest features. Ransom has been on a tear this year with his guest appearances. Torch Carriers, Mind over Matter Working with other talented artists seems to bring out the best in him and he doesn't waste a bar

Griselda has a terrific year and released 11 projects this year- nothing to sneeze at- but I am very impressed by Trust and the quality of their output

submitted by /u/BiggieSmallz12345
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Migos perform Handsome & Wealthy w/ a Live Orchestra (Trap Symphony)

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 06:37 AM PST
at

Album of the Year Writeup #7: Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide - HipHop

Album of the Year Writeup #7: Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide - HipHop

Album of the Year Writeup #7: Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 05:49 AM PST

Artist: Aesop Rock

Album: Spirit World Field Guide

Listen:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

Tidal

Zippyshare

Background by /u/ItsBigVanilla

Aesop Rock probably wouldn't want you to know his real name. Despite the rapper's current standing as underground legend and collaborator extraordinaire, he's never quite been the approachable type. He doesn't revel in the obscurity of an MF DOOM or a Billy Woods – in fact, he's much more candid and intimate with his audience than either of them – but he is, decidedly, not an extrovert, either. A rare sight in the age of digital promotion, he prefers to use his social media as a journal, documenting his art and travels as he sees fit, and he keeps the conversation one-way by restricting his (obsessive, devoted) fanbase from commenting or interacting, even on news such as album announcements. He's had a multi-decade career and he boasts the biggest vocabulary in rap, but he's never been one to brag or adopt the typical look-at-me rapper posture. This shouldn't be mistaken for humility; rather, he's a proud introvert, a loner who picks pizza and pot over people and pictures, 10 times out of 10. So yes, sure, he's willing to give us glimpses into who he is, but only to a certain extent. It's a tightrope act: we know Aesop Rock the figure, the only rap GOAT who has walked the animal's walk (i.e. sleeping in a barn and eating trash) - but what can we learn about Aesop Rock, the man? I'd wager that most of his fans don't even know that he was born Ian Bavitz, in New York, 1976.

Ian was a middle child, sandwiched between two brothers whom he would immortalize in a song when he was 42 years old. By all accounts, he lived a normal, white, Catholic, nuclear, American life: bright kid (I assume), loved to skateboard, graduated high school at 18, studied visual arts at Boston University, picked up a bachelor's degree, even married a nice girl somewhere along the line (the exact "somewhere" is unclear, even on the mystical, all-knowing Internet, as is the date of their eventual divorce). To all concerned parties, he had no good reason to run off and become a rapper.

But run he did. As he made his way through school, Ian developed a passion for music. He inherited his older brother's punk rock taste – New York, riotous, Dead Kennedys, mosh pits before they called them mosh pits – but he also had an ear for hip-hop, which genre he followed from its infancy. And like every white boy does when he grows up on Run-DMC and Beastie Boys, Ian decided that he, too, might be good at that. Fashioning himself Aesop Rock, he started recording tracks while making his way through college, tapping into the creative energy of his friend Tony Simon, who would remain a steadfast collaborator for years, producing for him to this day. Tony – aka Blockhead – worked with Aes and producer Dub-L, and together they released Music for Earthworms in 1997, one year before graduation.

The album showed promise, and although it didn't propel anyone's career straight out of the gates, it signaled the start of something long-lasting and exciting. Aes and Blockhead followed it up two years later with Appleseed, an EP that highlighted their chemistry, expanded on their strengths, and attracted label attention. The label in question – Mush Records (which also released some early Busdriver albums) – offered him a deal, and in 2000, he released his official debut album, Float.

On Float, a sprawling, uneven record, Aes continued to throw everything at the wall to see what stuck. It's an album that, two decades later, feels charmingly dated, but it holds up in a way that many early-2000s indie rap projects don't. For a few long-gone New York rappers of that era, it would have been the high point of a career - but Aesop Rock was still just dipping his toes. And then he signed to Def Jux.

Definitive Jux should require no introduction, but alas. The label was (or still is, some argue) a New York-based collective co-founded by legendary rapper/producer El-P. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, Def Jux existed at the fringes of rap, releasing some of the most innovative, forward-thinking, and downright strangest music in the history of the genre. The label's roster reimagined New York as a gritty dystopia on now-classic albums like Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein and El-P's Fantastic Damage, which sound just as uncompromisingly fresh today as they did upon release. These albums, as well as those of artists like Mr. Lif, Cage, and RJD2, flipped the foundations of hip-hop on their ass, exposing a gleaming robotic underbelly of bizarre, creative energy and ambition, free from the constraints of any sort of mainstream attention. While the label hasn't been active since 2010 (good things, of course, never last), Def Jux represented a major moment for underground rap, which means that it represented a major moment for rap, full stop. This was Aesop Rock's moment.

Aes became involved with Def Jux shortly after releasing Float, signing with them as he worked on his next full-length project. He thrived in this space, both personally and creatively, forging close relationships with El-P and labelmate Camu Tao while collaborating with them - as both rapper and producer - on numerous tracks. Fans familiar with Aes's 2020 persona recognize the irregularity of this period – a time in which the rapper was anything but a loner, a time where the report card might have read "works well with others." Experimenting within a bubble of oddball brilliance may have been the push that he needed to tap into his own potential, and in barely any time at all, he made his mark as an artist with the just-seven-days-after-9/11 release of his first Def Jux album, Labor Days.

Labor Days is the work of a rapper whose head is bursting with ideas, ideas that must be crammed into the confines of a single record because the next one isn't promised. It's a young man's album – overlong and grossly ambitious – but that of a young man in complete control of his abilities, and one whose talents run at a higher voltage than most others'. To speak nothing of Aes's talent as a wordsmith (think "got stoned and read the dictionary"), Labor Days features a fascinating glimpse into the man that he would become, in the form of "No Regrets". The track tells the tale of a girl named Lucy, who eschews almost all social interaction in favor of her art, taking a lover from a considerable distance, and eventually dying alone, surrounded by her work and completely satisfied with her accomplishments, unphased that the rest of the world sees her as an outcast. Should we view this as a metaphor for the rapper's own eventual isolation? He probably wouldn't want us to. He'd probably be uncomfortable with it.

That album has now reached cult classic status. It sent Aes's career into orbit (a small orbit full of skateboard gaming song placements and a fanbase of dedicated nerds), and cemented his place in the world of underground rap. It took him another two years to release another full-length, which came in the form of 2003's Bazooka Tooth, a concept(-ish) album where Aes reimagines himself as the titular super-loser, relaying stories of city living, drug use, and rap beef atop production that he mostly did himself. The album took his already cynical lyrical content to an even darker place, perhaps inspired by the rapper's own mental health at the time (this period clouded by unconfirmed reports of anxiety attacks/depression/a nervous breakdown). The years that followed saw Aes become further entrenched in Def Jux, featuring on members' projects and dropping the occasional EP, but he wouldn't release another album until 2007.

2007 was an epilogue for Aesop Rock. It was the year he released his last album for Def Jux, the last time he released a solo project with rap features and outside production, and the last year that Camu Tao would spend alive, before succumbing to lung cancer in 2008. It's a year that marks the beginning of a sea change in Aes's public persona, and a shift in the content of his art. So it's best first to focus on the album.

None Shall Pass is the culmination of a career spent learning and evolving. It remains Aesop Rock's most accessible album to date, but instead of sacrificing any of the rapper's esoteric sensibilities, it elevates them to a pitch-perfect sweetness: listeners might not catch exactly what he's saying, but they hum along regardless. Aes shared production duties with Blockhead in almost equal measure, and the chemistry between the pair shines throughout each track. The album was a success: dense enough to satisfy hardcore fans, yet fun enough to attract hordes of new followers. It was Aes's biggest and best album yet, and it felt like he had nowhere to go from here but up. So naturally, he went down.

In short, Camu died, Def Jux fell apart, and Aesop Rock didn't release a solo album for another 5 years. In some ways, there's not much else that feels comfortable to say about this period, because Aes keeps pointedly silent about it when he isn't in the booth. There are rumors – fans whisper of a falling out with El-P over how to handle Camu's unreleased music – but not much is definitively known, except that the frequency of material released during this period is considerably lower than any period before, or after, it. If we extrapolate from lyrics and interviews, we can piece together one major component: Aesop Rock and Camu Tao were great friends, and watching Camu deteriorate took a massive toll on Aes's mental health. He became depressed, unable to maintain regular relationships, and he disengaged from the crumbling label he had spent the last decade of his life a member of. In 2012, El-P released an album, Cancer 4 Cure, dedicated to Camu. He sampled the late rapper's voice for the project's first and only single. It was his first studio album not to feature a verse from Aesop Rock. Aes had other plans.

In 2012, he released a solo album, Skelethon, his first on the label Rhymesayers Entertainment, to which he is still signed today. The project was, for the first time in his career, entirely self-produced, and arguably bleaker than any of his past material. It's an album that embodies what makes Aes unique: playful songs about haircuts and eating veggies (which are clearly inspired by featured anti-folk legend Kimya Dawson) line a tracklist that's full of brutal introspection, concluding with "Gopher Guts", the most painfully honest song he's ever written, a song about his utter failure to treat himself and others correctly, an admission that he is losing his battles with personal demons. Skelethon marked another career shift, into a level of insularity and reflection that he had not shown previously. The album's legacy shines still: it is fully realized, meticulously crafted, a masterpiece.

And it wasn't the only one. After a four year period and some loose material, 2016 saw the release of The Impossible Kid, another completely self-produced project with even less outside assistance than the last one (not a feature in sight). What's immediately striking about the album is its clarity: Aes traded in (most of) his lyrical maximalism for something more easily digestible, and a few confessional tracks can even be made sense of on first listen, specifically "Get Out of the Car", which directly addresses the pain and loneliness he felt after Camu's death. We take a funhouse tour through the labyrinth of his personal life, some of which might be troubling if they weren't so on-brand (getting a therapy cat, living in a barn, feeling like an old man at a juice shop, etc.). Moreso than anything he had released thus far, The Impossible Kid solidified his status as a loner, a pot-smoking homunculus who prefers the company of animals to humans, and who, against all odds, is one of the most talented rappers of all time. (Not to interject, but this is my pick for best Aesop Rock album, and it's the one that confirmed his spot as my favorite rapper.)

But Aesop Rock cannot be defined by his solo albums alone. In addition to the fantastic career he's built on his own merit, he's also an ambitious collaborator. He's released two albums alongside Rob Sonic as one half of Hail Mary Mallon, a group just dumb enough to structure a project around a fundraiser-concert-to-save-a-bowling-alley narrative. He's teamed up with Homeboy Sandman to release the Lice trilogy, a perfect series of EPs packed with enough one-liners to make Bruce Willis sweat. He even rapped alongside Kimya Dawson on Hokey Fright: released under the moniker The Uncluded, it's a mix of anti-folk and geek rap, and it tackles subjects such as laundry, organ donors, and sandwiches. It might be the strangest piece of work that either artist has ever been part of, and it's especially notable because the pair's goofy musical chemistry flies in the face of the current personal animosity between them. In a revealing series of statements (as well as a song), Dawson has accused Aes of emotional abuse and manipulative behavior during their time together (fans were initially unaware of a relationship). These allegations aren't particularly surprising given the rapper's own admissions of similar behavior, but they do highlight the reality of his situation: the more insular and elusive he becomes, the more his mythology deepens. Even revelations of alleged shittiness feed into his carefully cultivated persona, and although fans condemn his actions, they're not exactly unexpected.

His most recent project is 2019's Malibu Ken, another collaboration, this time with producer Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow. It's a psychedelic trip into Aes's mind, and it demonstrates that he doesn't have to have full complete creative control to make great music. It's packed to the brim with the humor and wit we've come to expect, and it advances the personal, self-deprecating narrative that's been woven throughout the last eight year's slew of material. However, even though it's a full-length album, it felt like a minor release upon arrival - something perhaps less spectacular than usual - and fans wondered what else was in store for the future. Now, just one year later, we find out.

Review by /u/ItsBigVanilla

Rap is a young man's genre. It's a world full of masculinity, braggadocio, and sexual feats that the oldheads just can't pull off anymore. Hip-hop has been getting louder, crankier, and more aggressive with age: if Phife Dawg were alive today, would he dare enter a rap show without earplugs? Rappers come with expiration dates: 20 is the new 30, and unless you're one of the three 1980s-born artists we've allowed to top the charts, you're a dinosaur. It's a rule that some fading stars (who shall remain unnamed) have refused to accept, instead grasping at youth in a last ditch, gray-hair-died-black attempt to reclaim the glory that they lost before some current hit-makers were even out of diapers (it's Eminem – I'm talking about Eminem). Even the most elegant transitions to the elder role, a la Jay-Z's 4:44, are only possible in reference to a body of past work that is considered to be untouchable. And as much as we all claim to love the wizened perspectives of veteran rappers, let's face it – nobody wants to hear Hov rap about his back problems.

In limps Aesop Rock, with a bucket of curly fries and a pocket full of arcade tokens. His career runs longer than most: his first album released 23 years ago, and since then he's been a fountain of material, dropping a steady stream of full lengths and EPs across a discography littered with both solo and collaborative efforts. The mid-40s rapper has seemingly done it all, from the too-wordy street tales of his youth to the grim depths of brutal self-reflection and back again, settling into his current role as a lovable loser, stoned on the couch watching cartoons while his dusty phone rings off the hook. In 2005's "Facemelter" he proclaimed himself a "longevity veteran": that was 15 years ago, only a third of the way to where he's at now. In this time he's amassed a fanbase devoted to dissecting his lyrics and speculating on his personal affairs, a fanbase so large and dedicated to supporting him that he can hardly be considered an underground artist anymore. Aesop Rock is a bona fide rap star – he's just spotlight-averse and happy to keep it to himself.

So how does a relatively low profile artist survive the gauntlet of a multi-decade rap career? Doesn't he run the risk of repeating himself, the fate-worse-than-death of descending into parody?

In short, yes.

It's no secret that Aesop Rock is a loner – he's been rapping about it for four presidential administrations. "Loser" is his M.O., his friendlessness makes us all feel like we're all his buddies, and despite his extraordinary musical abilities, he's spent years cultivating his image as an everyday slacker. He's been so successful from the fringes of the genre that he quite simply cannot claim to exist in the fringes of the genre anymore. It's the purest contradiction: he's an introvert, but he won't shut up about it. After 2019's (very good, but not quite up to par) Malibu Ken, this reviewer wondered: can a career like this survive, or is the formula bound to devolve into shtick?

Then, just one year later, Spirit World Field Guide arrives. At 21 tracks and 63 minutes, it's the rapper's longest album in 13 years (and fourth longest overall). Every track is self-produced, and only one ("Sleeper Car") bears a co-producer credit. There are no skits or interludes past the intro, and, for the fourth album in a row, every verse is rapped entirely by Aesop Rock. By taking such complete control of his vision, Aes ensures that we're immersed in the world he's creating, and on this album especially, world-building is everything. As its title suggests, the project is structured to serve as a handbook for "all modern supernatural tourism" through the "spirit world", a place of "unwavering otherness" that listeners may someday find themselves in. It becomes immediately clear – the theme isn't exactly subtle – that the world we're exploring is the rapper's own mind, a place of oddity and isolation, a phantom zone as full of adventure as it is divorced from reality. Bring on the eye rolls: just when he starts running the risk of beating a dead horse, Aesop Rock decides to make a concept album about it.

Rappers hate clear narratives. Adhering to a concept is difficult in any genre, but in one so wordy and full of distraction, the results are often less than cohesive. On such an ambitious undertaking, Aes could be forgiven for occasionally veering off-course, but instead, he spends each and every track building his universe from the ground up. After a brief and hypnotic introductory message in the form of a transmission from a spirit world traveler, we find ourselves at "The Gates", a track that reintroduces us to the misfit we've come to love while cleverly delineating a physical starting point for our journey. In classic Aesop Rock fashion, it's brag rap about having nothing to brag about, sporting bars such as "I'm like Vincent Van with that instant rice" and "I don't stay for tea, I can't slow the code / I go coyote alone and ghost." He's said it all before but it's still inimitable, and his flow has never sounded so technically perfect, so sure of itself over a beat that feels plucked out of a sci-fi arcade shooter. And with that, we're off. Welcome to the spirit world.

There's a lot to miss out on by half-listening to an album like this, but even the most cursory playthrough reveals that Aesop Rock has made astonishing progress as a producer over the last few years. The attention to detail rewards multiple spins: whether it's the Atari sounds that shape the wall of "Button Masher"'s Space Invaders-esque beat, or the subtle number-dialing effects that slide into the hook of "Jumping Coffin" as soon as Aes raps about "any kind of woo-woo tryna make a phone call", there are so many production choices that serve conceptual and thematic purposes in addition to sounding great. Much like former collaborator El-P, Aes never lets his beats stagnate; instead, they're constantly shifting and evolving, introducing new elements between hooks or sometimes even within the span of a verse. Past projects may have seen the occasional beat switch, but never before has Aes been so sonically adventurous. From the mounting textures of "Pizza Alley" (complete with a glorious drum-dropping beat change) to the last-minute moodswitching of "Boot Soup" and "Coveralls", the soundscape weaves and bobs, refusing to leave any room for boredom or repetition. Having self-produced his solo work since 2012, Aesop Rock deserves to be recognized as a visionary producer; this is the work of an artist talented enough to bring fantasies to life.

And those fantasies run deep. For all of its accomplishments, perhaps the most infectious thing about Spirit World Field Guide is just how packed to the brim it is with things that Aesop Rock loves. He's always been an animal lover – apparent from his album packaging to his merch to his lyrical content – but he's never managed to create a space so infested with critters. There are near-constant references to the fauna of the spirit world on each track (two of which are named after animals), and Aes is more likely to compare himself to a "deer in a scope" than to any of his peers. This is hardly gimmickry, as these references come to be greater than the sum of their parts, populating the album's human-averse universe with a menagerie of creatures both friend and foe. (Without peeking at any lyrics, I can think of mentions of horses, dogs, cats, flies, eels, fish, birds, dolphins, bats, wolves, and rats.)

Aes's preference for woodland pets over guest rappers isn't the only way he divorces his work from that of his peers. In fact, the Spirit World seems to exist in an entirely different decade than the rest of the genre. From the cheesy-80s-sci-fi-flick aesthetic of the album's music videos to the video game fetishism of its lyrical content ("I started spilling all my problems to the final boss / He shed a tear and let me by him like 'what's mine is yours'" on "Crystal Sword"), this project is more indebted to Sega and Ghostbusters than it is to anything to be found on Top 40 charts. Aes has been a student of rap since its birth, so it shouldn't come as a surprise when he samples Raekwon ("Straight up and down, don't even bother") for a hook on "The Gates", or weaves Ad-Rock's voice into a verse on "Salt".He's utterly disinterested with the outside world, and even when he throws it a bone (i.e. a triplet flow at the ends of his verses on "Gauze"), we get the impression that he's only doing it to flex his muscles. The album feels like a throwback, albeit one that could have only been made by someone who's filtering his nostalgia through a time machine planted firmly in the future.

The result is something that we rarely find beyond rap's mainstream: an album brimming with pure fun. If it's a joy to listen to, that's because it feels like it was a joy to create. Late-stage Aesop Rock could easily phone in a few tracks every two years for a paycheck, but no - he refuses to kowtow to any will but his own. Every one of Spirit World's ingredients is something that he loves, and they come together to form a project that' feels like a personal victory lap: it's charmingly weird, infectiously confident, and as self-indulgent as a Tarantino movie.

Which isn't to say that there isn't a darkness lurking beneath the surface. Sprinkled throughout the tracklist are a few bite-sized songs, shorter than anything Aes has ever released in the past. These aren't merely interludes, they're the cracks in the walls of the Spirit World. On "Flies", reality creeps through the facade, as Aes attempts to oust the horde of creatures infesting his drains, to no avail. "I'm clapping at the air, I'm cornered by the plates / I'm brought unto my knees, I'm forfeiting the space / I'm clawing at the walls, swarm ordering me ate / It's death from above, nobody saying grace", he raps at the track's conclusion. It's funny in the same way that it was funny when he had a mushroom growing in his car, but it's also... a bit concerning. "1 to 10" is an ode to back pain that sounds like it's being rapped by a disappointed parent, or a man having his temperature taken – rectally. A bar like "Rate your pain level on a scale from one to ten / I said 'Well doc, I tell you, it feel like I lost a friend'" encapsulates the joylessness of middle-age, and if risks tiptoeing into dad-rap territory, it can be forgiven for its honesty. While these short detours feel like stares through the fourth wall, a few harsh moments of reflection seep into the longer tracks as well: when Aes raps about being the "architect of my Kodokushi", what he's really saying is that he's created a life for himself that will result in a lonely death, one in which nobody will even find his corpse for days. Hiding a statement so grim behind a word that most of us won't understand without a Google search - and packing the whole thing into a one-liner – is enough to cause concern, especially considering that he said something pretty damn similar back in 2016. Just a few minutes later, Aes insists on "Marble Cake", the true finale of the album (it was originally planned to be the final track), that he wants a death with no fanfare - "Y'all can feed me to the fucking pigs." As much as he loves to couch these sentiments in snappy bars, they signal something else, a bleak cynicism that not even the fantasy of a Spirit World can obscure.

Yet overall, isn't this exactly what we've come to expect from Aesop Rock? Haven't we already seen him at his emotional worst on Skelethon, his most sentimental on The Impossible Kid, his weirdest on Malibu Ken? As enjoyable as these new tracks can be on their own, do they equate to a meaningful whole? Is there something fresh to be gained here, or is just Aes ushering in the new decade with a rehash of the last one?

(Side note: these are questions that I asked myself coming into this album, and I considered them every time I played it back. Aesop Rock is my favorite rapper, so I hold him to the highest standard; an artist's biggest fans should be the first ones to criticize them, and my conclusions are meant to reflect that.)

Spirit World Field Guide is a strong entry in the Aesop Rock catalog, and its high points stand among the best moments in the rapper's oeuvre. It's a culmination of the collection of skills he's acquired over the years, and it may offer a hint of things still yet to come. Aes sounds sure of himself in a way he never has before: he's mastering new flows, he's experimenting with production, and although he insists that he doesn't take himself too seriously, he really is gloating – 20 tracks, all by myself, not a skip in the bunch. He's perched atop the underground of rap, a veteran and a legend, and he knows it. It's a testament to his considerable greatness that an album released 23 years into his career feels almost like a greatest hits collection, and one that works perfectly as an entry point for new fans.

The Spirit World is more than just a half-assed metaphor, it's a living, breathing place. When Aes says "the river boils when it sees me", then eight tracks later he's rapping about "river water that'll melt your fucking hands off", it's because he's just as much an architect as he is a lyricist. It's truly remarkable that he can describe so much and never contradict himself, that he can drop 21 tracks and leave us wanting more, that he can rap forever and never spit a forgettable verse. This isn't an album, it's a bag of tricks: the paranoid storytelling of "Dog at the Door", the double-time flow on "Gauze", the 6/4 time signatures on "Side Quest", the triumph of the synths that slide into the second half of the hook on "Holy Waterfall", the crispness of the drums on every track – there's something new to fall in love with every time.

But when you're in Aesop Rock's position, a great album isn't always enough. This project represents the perfection of a formula, but the formula remains. Aes still mostly raps about being a loner, and while the sheer number of ways he's been able to revisit this idea is impressive, the content itself risks running thin. If this album is going to be remembered 10 years from now, it should be remembered as the end of an era – not as the moment a rapper became a caricature.

What keeps an artist great, decades into his career? If Aesop Rock wants to remain unique and compelling, to avoid treading the same waters twice, he will need to find ways to reinvent himself. He will need to capitalize on the experimentation of a Malibu Ken, or to expand on the introspection of an Impossible Kid, or perhaps to set his lyrical sights on something broader than himself. Maybe the coming years will see a more collaborative Aes lending his production skills to other rappers' work, or – heresy – even allowing them to feature on his. Hopefully some of the risks we're seeing him take with elements like song structure and time signatures will reappear in future projects. Spirit World Field Guide was originally supposed to be between 40 and 50 tracks; this might be feasible for the next one if Aes keeps his material as short and sweet as "Flies" or "1 to 10". And call me crazy, but does anybody else wonder how he'd sound on a Griselda collab?

The possibilities are endless, and if the past is any indicator of what's to come, there will be surprises aplenty. On the album's final track, "The Four Winds", Aes raps, "Baited adventuring out of his norm is a lesson in mapping the doors / Anything more in the lap of the gods, anything less an imbalance ignored." I haven't figured out exactly what the hell it means, but I'm excited to find out.

Favorite Lyrics by /u/ItsBigVanilla

Tangentially related in the sense of one's environment informing what they're made of

There was a ghost who broke it all up into tiny numbers

And dated vector graphics, and New York Times puzzles

Who struggled knowing love as more than boring data entry

More reported from an orbit all his own, to say it gently

I'm reporting from an orbit all my own, to say it gently

• "Button Masher"

What ship, what shore?

I grew up writing riddles under bridges in New York

Now I travel like a highwayman who whispers to his horse

Sharing stories out of winter, trying to trigger something pure

• "Pizza Alley"

No stacked sash or accolades from authority

The backstory gets all back-into-a-corner-y

Abuses in the feeding tube that circle back to eat at you

Bacteria that tip the hat, adversity that gleam the cube

It's tit for tat with slippery aristocrats who pity cops

And brilliant rats who find the grit to slip out of the Skinner box

The moat's supposed to keep the rivals out

The calls are coming from inside the house

• "Marble Cake"

Breaking out of that boarded house, faking normal has wore me down

Hit the road, an old misanthrope alone, tip me over and pour me out

Cozy up to that pressure cooker, my heart's a bottle, my head's a butcher

My blood a mix of both milk and sugar, I push the pencil, no pencil-pusher

• "Boot Soup"

I've been ignoring any semblance of relatable Earth

I got a homie from the region who could name every bird

And tell you what it is to wake up with a tank in the yard

Type of shit to make you question what your days even are

There's a holy waterfall where you could rinse and repeat

Find religion while the minnows eat the skin off your feet

If you wake me on a January morning at four

Don't get excited when I bark at the door

• "Holy Waterfall"

Discussion Questions by /u/ItsBigVanilla

• 1) What can Aesop Rock do to avoid becoming too predictable and formulaic as his career progresses? Do you prefer solo work since he's been self-producing, or was his output stronger before 2012?

• 2) In my review, I mentioned a few production details that add life to tracks like "Button Masher" and "Jumping Coffin." What are your favorite moments of production on the album?

• 3) If Aes did decide to work with outside producers or feature other artists on his solo work, who would you like to see him collaborate with?

submitted by /u/ItsBigVanilla
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Sunday General Discussion Thread - December 27th, 2020

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 02:23 PM PST

Don't go out for NYE, stay safe at home :)

Drop your NFL playoff and draft predictions

Make sure that you've read the December Announcements / Rule Changes / Feedback thread so you know what's going on in the sub and so you can ask for what you want to see changed.

We are looking for a couple users very knowledgable about hiphop history to help us revamp the essentials list and make it really just the essentials, so please fill out this form if you wanna help. Oldheads this is your time to shine.

submitted by /u/HHHRobot
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808 Mafia producer Pyrex Whippa was diagnosed with dissociative amnesia after suffering a head injury during an epileptic seizure

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 09:45 AM PST

Pyrex describes in this Instagram post (deleted) that he barely remembers himself and others, and will be getting treatment indefinitely to regain his memory.

Figures like Hit-Boy, TM88, Tay Keith, JID, Don Cannon, Sonny Digital, Childish Major, Tank God, Metro Boomin, Bas, Lil Gotit, Teddy Walton, and more are offering their support in the comments.

Imgur mirror

submitted by /u/KanyeWestNile
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Jimmy Wopo - Elm Street

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 06:49 AM PST

TIL that 2 Live Crew were the plaintiffs in a Supreme Court decision that decided that commercial parodies were protected by the 1st Amendment. The suit stemmed from a parody they did of Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman".

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 11:24 AM PST

EARTHGANG - Monday (ft. Mac Miller)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 11:14 AM PST

Analyzing How the Content of Rap Music has Changed!

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 05:19 PM PST

Me and u/fatlips222 used AI to quantify how far hip hop has drifted from its origins in racial inequality.

Here is the link if you want to check it out: https://github.com/fatlips222/Quantiative-Analysis-of-Rap-Music-from-1989-to-2020

Let us know what you think!

submitted by /u/SmileyFace2121
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070 Shake - The Pines

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 03:55 PM PST

[Discussion] JACKBOYS - JACKBOYS (One Year Later)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 08:17 PM PST

It's been one year since Travis dropped the jackboys album. How do you all feel about this project now?

submitted by /u/abatmobile
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Ace Hood's Wife Gifted Him Custom Plaques to Celebrate Independent Success

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 04:56 AM PST

[FRESH] DE LA SOUL - A JAZZ SPASTIKS MIX

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 03:25 PM PST

Video i made to Suicideboys song Antarctica

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 11:53 AM PST

Project Blowed 26th anniversary PPV tonight! - Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, Myka 9, Chillin Villain Empire, many more...

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 06:39 PM PST

Eazy-E - Boyz-N-The-Hood

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:24 AM PST

Chief Keef - Laurel Canyon

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 09:40 AM PST

Big Pun - You Ain't a Killer (1998)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 06:42 AM PST

[FRESH ALBUM] Lady Leshur - Astronaut EP

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 03:19 PM PST

Flee Lord - Doors Locked (feat. Conway the Machine)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 06:17 PM PST

Jeremih - Planez ft. J. Cole

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 12:36 PM PST

Daniel Son x Asun Eastwood x Futurewave (aka the Toronto Griselda) - Heightened Senses

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 07:58 PM PST

Ka - Peace Akhi

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 09:54 AM PST

BlueBucksClan - Pocket Watchin’

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:37 PM PST

Jadakiss - Shoot Outs feat. Styles P

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:31 AM PST

[FRESH] Varg²™ - C2E (feat. Bladee)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 04:26 PM PST

The Firm - Desperados ft. Canibus

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:44 AM PST

Gucci Mane - Miss My Woe (feat. Rico Love)

Posted: 27 Dec 2020 10:03 PM PST
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