Aesop Rock
Float (2003)

review by: Alexander Washburn
Date: 3/18/03

Attention. Aesop Rock will be hung in the village square in exactly five minutes and he doesn't want you to miss it. Dark and uncertain times, calls for heavy, thick beats that boom out of the systems LL talked about. When we can go from an Orange to Yellow terror alert back to Blue in a moments notice, we need a rapper who gives us a full entrée of lyrics and not the appetizers Jay Z is serving. In these challenging times, we need music that challenges us to think – not about what he said but why he said it. And how did he get it to rhyme? When you're ready to rip the lid of a big, heavy can of words – grab Aesop Rock's Float and let the games begin.

The first beats will break out your back window but that's just part of the experience. If you're listening for a "bitch" or a "ho," you came to the wrong place. If you want praise and peace – get that somewhere else as well. Aesop Rock doesn't play any of these things.

Aesop Rock rapid fire rapping pulls from pop culture in thoughtful and insightful ways. He was talking about Bilbo Baggins long before the 'Lord of the Rings' made it to the movies. If television is the worse of your vices, then 'Basic Cable' will hit home. In it, Aesop Rock begs that he wants to donate "his brain to the monstrous Panasonic profit," as he sits in front of the television "that will be his mother when she's gone" until his "little eyes glaze." Aesop Rock is not predictable in his lyrics, nor is he with the music. When the beats feel as if they can't get any harder – up from the bottom comes a tenor saxophone or stand-up bass – that give a brand new feel. When the record seems sample free, in comes a sample of Lady Bug's rapping "I'm from where the phat beats stretch for mad blocks" from the Digable Planets single 'Where I'm From." Aesop Rock is also not following the form of rapper whop boast of cars and riches galore. He's a rising rapper and not afraid to admit he "smells the warm blood of the bill collector" knocking on his door. For Aesop Rock – is far from being all about the Benjamin's.

I must admit, I feel a certain kinship with Aesop Rock. I too, have lived in a six-floor walk-up and have spent many days "looking out my Hell's Kitchen window." Unlike me, Aesop Rock wrote amazing lyrics looking out of window and on 'Lunch with Blockhead,' Aesop Rock in beautiful prose describes what he sees sitting out on his fire escape, which ranges from "a little girl with bubbles, braids and barrettes" to "a teen mother, with Similac, a pacifier and regrets." He not only sees "an angry right-to-lifer," among the "dirty pigeons," Aesop Rock spies "a broken open sign and a bar kicking drunks to the curb – it's closing time."

Pick up Float and experience the world through Aesop Rock's eyes. In a "bling-bling" world it's the reality check we all need.