Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
Aesop Rock, indie-rap mainstay, has announced today the release of his new album The Impossible Kid, set to be released to the public on April 29th on Rhymesayers Entertainment. This new album Marks Aesop Rock’s second venture into the solo realm since his album Skelethon which was released in 2012. He is at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000’s, continuing into today’s age being ranked number 19 on betterPropoganda’s top artist of the decade list. Included in the announcement of the new LP, Aesop Rock has also released a new music video to the track “Rings” off the new album, giving fans an audio and visual gift celebrating the upcoming fresh beats.
Born in Syosset, New York, Ian Matthias Bavits (who created the stage name Aesop Rock for himself) has had quite the interesting life, and on his new album Aesop continues to find new ways in improving on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. Going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationship with his family, and the turbulent handful of years following a friend’s death that culminated in Aesop leaving his home of San Francisco after a messy divorce with his now ex-wife Allyson Baker, his new creative process has included a newfound willingness regarding opening up about his personal life through music. Recording the foundations of The Impossible Kid in a barn out in the woods where Aesop exercised complete creative control over every aspect of the album, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Federation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee. There are moments of levity, as Aesop taps into the funny side of his persona that he suppressed during the period where being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority, and allows listeners to connect strongly with the subject material. Each and every aspect of the album is completely thought through to provide the utmost listening experience. Going back to his roots has proven useful in processing everything that’s happened in his life over the past couple decades, and maybe to figure out the person he’s become: The Impossible Kid, a person who’s spent his life doing things that seemed unthinkable before he just went and did them, blazing a visionary trail all his own. Two decades in, he’s still out there pushing the envelope more and more.
Even the music video that Aesop released for the track “Rings” provides a lyrical and visual story telling that you do not see much of these days. Using techniques such as stop motion, as well as powerful imagery of Aesop himself performing the song while being operated on, gives an inside look into how the mind of this artist works. “A mission that was rooted in a twenty year affinity and rickety condition with an ID crisis” Rings is a visual showcase of what the rapper’s mind goes through when trying to put together his rhymes.
Aesop has been working on plenty of side projects through the last few years, creating beats for commercials, collaborating on movie soundtracks, plus he’s also started skateboarding and drawing again, which were his big passions before his hobby of making rap songs turned into a paying gig that evolved into an accidental, 20-year long career, taking him from making beats in his bedroom to playing for crowds thousands deep.
The Impossible Kid Track List:
1. Mystery Fish
2. Rings
3. Lotta Years
4. Dorks
5. Rabies
6. Supercell
7. Blood Sandwich
8. Get Out of the Car
9. Shrunk
10. Kirby
11. TUFF
12. Lazy Eye
13. Defender
14. Water Tower
15. Molecules
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