Aesop Rock

Hello and thanks very much for the interest. You guys are awesome. I will do my best. Some things I won't answer.

FINAL EDIT - 3:08 AM - Pacific Standard Time - I thought i was gonna get another couple hours tonight to get to some more of these questions, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I can't thank you all enough for participating. Have a good one!

I'll be lurking...

Best A.R.

C'mon, I'm sure there's been at least one comment you've seen on this subreddit that makes you bite your tongue because the downvotes aren't worth it. I want to hear your confessions. I can start:

I dislike Salt and Pepper Squid, specifically the chorus. I haven't dissected the lyrics yet, but the song itself doesn't do it for me.

*Edit: I thought of another one. I like the story of No rEgrets and the message but I have to be in the mood to listen to it...overall I don't enjoy it as a song.

Here's mine:

When Aes and Blockhead collab, it's dope. When Blockhead remixes one of Aesop's songs it's usually just.....bad. Like, real bad.

Big examples that come to mind:

- Pigs

- Kodokushi

- Defenders

The originals just sound so much better.

What's yours?

Imo Aes is top 3 lyricists easily, wondered what the wider opinion on him was as well as who else people consider the best

What Aesop Rock song would you say is the best to wake up to?

Im very new to aesop rock, only listened to skelethons, and im also pretty new to abstract / experimental hip hop but aesop rock feels different. What does he rap about, what are the themes he discusses? Whats all the spirituality aesthetic he got on? which are his best albums?

I really need some sort of introduction to aesop rock haha. Its not easy to find stuff about more underground artists, almost no one talks about them. Ive never seen aesop rock on any sort of feature, list, chart, etc etc, never heard of h but he sounds so good. Idk i just need to learn more about him and idk where.

EDIT: Thank you all for commenting, this post has opened my eyes so much, cant wait to listen to all his albums, hes def going to be my obsession for this entire year.

EDIT 2: I went to sleep 6 hours ago, and Ive gotten so many messages haha, I dont have time to respond to them but I will read them and read future comments.

Either that he made or he rapped over

So, after No Regrets on the front page I (my first ever!) and asked about an IAMA, his response: @wordgoeshere I always feel like an AMA would flop if I did one. Upvote this if you don't think it will flop! I think we've got a good chance here!

EDIT: Great job everyone!!! (and linked to his twitter)

SWFG is well-known as a fantastic, if flawed album. There's nothing wrong with the raps, or the beats - it's just the mixing. In fact, only the vocal mixing - the rest of it is fine.

As an ex-studio engineer it pained me to hear a vocal mix which was so clearly fixable. It struck me as strange that the album was released in the form it was in, without any oversight or anybody telling AES, hey dude...

That aside, I love the album. And I thought to myself that if it weren't fixed in due course, I would take it upon myself to fix it. So - I did.

With the aid of an AI-based vocal splitter (UVR) EQ and switching between the instrumental versions released on bandcamp (where possible) and the instrumental track created by UVR (where necessary), I believe I've created a much more listenable version of Spirit World Field Guide.

While I can't really control your behaviour, I make the humble request that only people who've bought the album in some form eg. on bandcamp () or physical media, download this, as I have. Streams don't count (they pay less than a tenth of a cent). It is available in lossless 24-bit/98khz, 16-bit/44khz and MP3 formats here:

Or you can listen to it on youtube here:

Now for some details: I tried to alter as little as possible, and only used EQ to adjust the vocals. Albeit one of my EQ units has a bit of mojo on it, but otherwise, nothing special. I played around with some expander stuff but in the end realised it wasn't necessary and did not improve it. I had to switch between the UVR-instrumentals and the 24-bit/96khz bandcamp instrumentals quite a bit as sometimes UVR would include some specific non-vocal instruments in the vocal split, so I would swap from the bandcamp instrumental to the UVR-instrumental for those sections. Otherwise, all things considered, the bandcamp instrumental is the bona fide and is of very-slightly better quality so it was the default.

I had to adjust each song individually in terms of EQ and volume, as there were significant differences between each of the songs in the original mixing. There was a lot of fine-grained editing, up to 20 EQ customisation points per track. Such a shame having to adjust it at all, as I think it's some of AES's better work, and the spiritual (pun intended) successor to The Impossible Kid. I think you'll agree the results are a bit more listenable without having to adjust the EQ on your stereo.

Happy Easter -

Rapper's that i think r similar to him is MFDOOM rob Sonic El-p Homeboy sandman