Fans of Daft Punk, Tyler The Creator and breakcore TUNE IN
Peel back in and take a step out to discover what Aesop Rock has so inventively cooked up to perfection. Thanksgiving is just right around the corner and Aesop gave listeners the dish early with this immaculate flow of techno, record scratches, bass lines and Arabian guitar strings.
Back to back, Aesop pays homage to various forms of media as he touches on the distress of the manipulative history people have faced. An artist’s greatest tool is using their platform to call out struggles the government imposes that cause mental strife due to systemic oppression. Aesop has a line in “Pigeonometry” mentioning the fentanyl epidemic and how people keep going back to the drug for a high that could potentially be their last. Aesop questions why people like to go back to the things that hurt them. Loved ones beg addicts to stop, which leads to people flushing away their guilt with a high.
The entirety of the album, so creatively crafted, is reminiscent of a line from The Perks of Being a Wallflower that says “we accept the love we think we deserve.” Particularly from Aesop’s discourse on fentanyl, listeners learn more about the unfortunate epidemic that dealers risk the lives of others to save a cut on their own drugs. This drug that people are addicted to, not just the high of, but the escape that comes with it.
On social media, people can see the multitudes of beauty society offers, but they see it in another persons perspective. A whole perspective that in fact is not even the creator’s own, but rather a perspective people continue to feed themselves, of what an ideal life should be. Aesop continuously reminds listeners to come back and shout for themselves. Be angry, be grateful and be all the forms of love that they can be because they are here.
Taking a brief pause on the discourse throughout Aesop’s album, listeners realize that maybe people are not satisfied with the love around them because it is not like what they see on social media. But that’s exactly what life is supposed to be. It is so easy to create such an immediately seamless connection of our own lives and what it is on these tiny screens. Aesop wants listeners to hear his message that in a world full of pain, one needs to continue to strive for their own fulfilling lives, whatever that may look like.
Aesop emphasizes the loss of perspective and forgotten gratefulness. It is hard though, as Aesop defines in his lyrics that he does not forget the strife, his strife and the strife of various communities due to systemic oppression. He continues to fight through the government regulations that oppose the people fighting for and to make anything an hour. Aesop reminds listeners of the social regulations that are difficult to escape. Tune in to Aesop’s release Integrated Tech Solutions and get served.
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