Def Jux Entertainment has always been the breeding ground for unique, political, and abstract hip-hop music. From the label's CEO El-P, a Company Flow alumni, to the groundbreaking work from artists like Cannibal Ox, Murs, Mr. Lif, and of course, Aesop Rock. Aesop Rock dropped a handful of dope EPs before getting the attention of El-P and was immediately signed. In 2001, Aesop Rock dropped his seminal debut LP Labor Days, an album loaded with intelligent, refreshing, and bizarre hip-hop. He followed it up with a nice EP with a collection of some of his lost, earlier work entitled Daylight EP. After his fans steadily awaited his full length sophomore album, Aesop delivered in 2003 with Bazooka Tooth. After recieving mixed reviews, the question popped up: Would this album be a near classic like his debut? Or would he hit the Sophomore Slump?




Track List & Rating

1. Bazooka Tooth (*)
2. N.Y. Electric (**)
3. Easy (**)
4. No Jumper Cables (***)
5. Limelighter f/ Camp-Lo (**)
6. Superfluke (***)
7. Cook It Up f/ Party, Fun, Action Comitee (**)
8. Freeze (**)
9. We're Famous f/ El-P (****)
10. Babies With Guns (****)
11. The Greatest Pac-Man Victory Ever (**)
12. Frijoles (****)
13. 11:35 (****)
14. Kill The Messenger (***)
15. Mars Attacks (****)



In listening to Aesop Rock's debut album Labor Days, we found a unique artist with metaphoric, political points of view, loaded with intelligence and backed by unbelievable, if bizarre, production. On the introductory track "Bazooka Tooth", it appears that Aesop has taken this ecleptic style a tiny bit too far. After some weird, scientific instrumentals, the track kicks in as Aesop drops a verse. The production is confusing, simplistic, and disfunktional. Aesop's voice is so muffled on this track that you can't understand a damn word he's saying. Now, normally his unique vocal style would be a plus due to its creativity and abstract delivery, but it simply does not work this time around because it makes no sense.

This is the absolute worst way to kick off an album. However, i am not giving up on Bazooka Tooth yet, because as i kept listening i found that there was indeed, some worthwhile material.

I continued to listen to Bazooka Tooth and was again, frustrated by failure. The next few tracks were loaded with a completely off-beat flow (which is normally good for Aesop, when the beat is decent), some unlistenable production, and a muffled vocal delivery. "N.Y. Electric", though loaded with a couple of hot lines, is mediocre due to its refusal to stay on topic, or maybe i just didn't understand it this time around. "Easy" soon came on, and gave me the worst excuse for a beat ever. Its unlistenable, video-gamish noises are seemingly thrown together without thought, and sound completely unorganized and boring. Aesop's lyrics are seemingly uninspired, but still contain its own share of witty, scientific metaphors. Its not unlistenable, but it IS below average to me.

"No Jumper Cables" had the potential to be a good song, but fell on its face once again. The production is up-tempo, featuring rapidly fast, thumping drums, which honestly weren't awful (though i felt they could've done better without the freakin electronica chime). The track is an improvement, as Aesop actually stays on beat and gives us a pretty nice political lyrical display, rapping about children ridden with poverty and unable to do anything with their lives. Though its decent, It is still lacking the agressiveness and anger that Aesop typically shows on his political songs, but the introspection is indeed appreciated.

After this, the next few songs on the album were average to mediocre, featuring some bad production, uninspired vocals, and a rehashing of old tunes from Aesop's debut. The best of these songs would have to be Aesop's collaboration with the Party, Fun, Action Comitee on a song called "Cook It Up". Aesop manages to stay on beat here, and the beat itself is actually pretty decent. The lyrics are pretty ill as Aesop shows his creative metaphoric and intelligent style to describe his unique view of a relationship and a female. The sound of the song is pretty humorous, reminiscent of some of Outkast's recent work: a very ekelptic, P-Funk sounding beat and a funky chorus provided by the comitee. The track lacks from the usual complex subject matter Aesop touches, but its still good enough to earn its rating.

At this point, Bazooka Tooth, after a long wait, finally hits us with an above average track in the unbelievably angry "We're Famous".

The Label CEO El-P joins Aesop Rock to whoop the preverbial a**hole of commercial rap and put these "so-called thugs" in their mother f*ckin place. El-P provides the first verse, as well as the beat, which is a slow-tempo track loaded with banging drums and unique scientific backdrops. El-P uses his metaphor, intelligent, and complex lyrics, backed by similes and an extensive vocabulary to explain exactly why hip-hop has achieved such an idiotic stage, as El-P explains that hip-hop is far from being dead. El-P pokes fun at emcees being unable to keep their identity, changing styles to suit the mainstream. For about four minutes and ten seconds, El-P dominates the track, then passes the track to Aesop Rock. Aesop shows off his own battle skills, as he proves exactly why he is an "emcee". Aesop and El-P's analysis of the hip-hop game is the first (and sadly only) real classic from this album.

The next song, "Babies With Guns" provides another intricate view at the world, as Aesop uses an unbelievable metaphor to describe the ridiculous violence amongst our own children in this country. Spitting in a style that is certainly something Chuck D would cry over, Aesop is given dope production to drop his knowledgable, creative, and inspirational song about idiotic thugs and children and how the planet is turning worse and worse on a daily basis. If Aesop would do more songs like this one on this album, then i would be happy to give this album a higher rating. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that way at all.

"Frijoles" comes on soon enough with much more sombre production this time. Resorting to very atmospheric feelings, backed by unique flutes, thumping bass, and some nice guitar, the track is perfect for introspective lyrics and Aesop Rock gives us exactly what we want. He gives us a unique scientific braggadiocio track with a tad bit of introspection focusing on hip-hop's state and the ignorance of the fans purchasing commercial rap and not freeing their minds. Aesop reminisces on the past and how hip-hop used to be, and once again sets his place in that he wont sell out. The R&B vocals to outro the track are perfect as Aesop pens another beautiful track.

Aesop decides to close Bazooka Tooth with "Mars Attacks". The track's format is the most unique piece. Aesop gives us an ecleptic track where he analyzes both sides of commercial rap, from the thuggish part to the sell-out, materialistic part. The first half of the song is a slow montage of thuggish rap, then soon switches to a triple cadence flow and fast beat to have Aesop poke fun at commercial rap. He uses such cliche lines as "break bread", and "rollin on 20s". Its pretty funny, but keep in mind that this is not sell-outish at all. In paying more attention to the song, the entire metaphor that Aesop is trying to shove through our heads is that he considers sell-out rappers as "martians". Pretty Ill...

Bazooka Tooth could've been an unbelievable classic if Aesop had adapted a similar, yet more diverse formula for his eclectic hip-hop style. The intelligence, science, and knowledge is greatly appreciated, but i feel as if he could've worked on it a bit more and not tried so hard to be so muffled and confusing on the first half of the album. The second half of the album rarely struggled and delivered a nice chain of dope tracks reminiscent of Aesop Rock's earlier work. It does indeed have a nice selection of songs, but not enough great songs to reccomend this album. So i do suggest buying it for collections or if you happen to be in the mood for ecleptic, unique hip-hop music. Still, I'm sick of Aesop.

2 Stars



Other Similar Artists:

Eyedea & Abilities - First Born

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda

Aesop Rock - Daylight EP




Recommended: No