Ian Bavitz, better known as Aesop Rock, broke into the underground hip-hop consciousness in 1999 with his fantastic debut album, Float. The album mixed sparse but unusual beats with Bavitz’s enormously complex, literate flow. He signed to underground trend-setting label Definitive Jux and released the critically acclaimed Labor Days in 2001, one of the most coherent rap albums in recent memory. While his 2003 follow-up, Bazooka Tooth, didn’t fare as well, he has just released the Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP, complete with a book containing all the lyrics from his three albums and two EPs. In anticipation of his show Tuesday, April 12 at the 9:30 Club, Voice Leisure called him up in New York to talk about the stress of a rap career, the pains of transcribing and his feelings on touring.
Voice Leisure: If you could just introduce yourself, tell us who you are.
Aesop Rock: Aesop Rock from Definitive Jux Records outta New York and I make rap music for the people.
Voice: How’d you get started?
AR: Probably just like anybody who’s just a fan at one point. Any fan of rap eventually tries to do it. I just started trying to freestyle with friends, and my older brother had a four-track when I was in high school so I started making little rap songs on that. Eventually I met Blockhead, who I work with now, in’94 and we started working together on songs. Eventually we got into slightly better studios and started working our way around New York. I did every show I could and let people know my name. Selling CDs out of a bag.
Voice: Who would you say your top influences are?
AR: I don’t know, man, that’s a hard one. It’s so across the board it’s hard to name. People from underground shit to top 40 shit and rock music from today, from the ‘60s. When I was 17 I was such a hip-hop snob, and if it wasn’t rap then I wouldn’t even give it a chance. The older you get, the more you learn how to just open up and appreciate everything for what it is.
Voice: Who do you think are the most important rappers to watch in the underground?
AR: Well, my whole crew of course. MF Doom is pretty on the scene right now. Definitely a veteran and someone everyone should be taking lessons from. Cage has got his record coming out this year with us. It’s phenomenal and he’s always been an influence on me. Lotta people are really doing it now and depends on what kind of style you’re into.
Voice: I’ve been listening to the Fast Cars EP a fair bit. How do you see it as a move forward from Bazooka Tooth?
AR: I’m just trying to do things that are interesting to me at the time. There’s always gonna be a little change, and there’s always gonna be a little evolution as far as the style goes. It overall sounds a bit more playful than Bazooka Tooth. A lot of people will make a good record and then people like it and so they’ll go back and make the same record again. That’s just not really that interesting to me.
Voice: Going back to Labor Days, which was so focused on your aversion to being a nine-to-fiver, I’m wondering if you still hate work.
AR: I quit my day job pretty much the day Labor Days came out and haven’t been back. I’ve entered this whole new realm of the word “job” that I wasn’t even aware of. Full-time rapper is not exactly not a job. I still have to make ends meet and pay the bills. A nine-to-five labor day is hard, and I’d been working an irregular job and it was very demoralizing and soul-sucking.
That being said, there’s a whole new set of stresses and annoyances that come with quitting that and trying to put your own team together so you can have a successful career in music. There’s a whole world I didn’t even know about. It’s been cool learning about it and everyday I’m figuring something new out about what I’m doing and how to do it best. But yeah, work sucks.
Voice: Where do you think your trademark combination of manic imagery and fast, intricate delivery comes from?
AR: I never grew out of the whole era where it was cool to have a different style than the next guy. It was celebrated to be original. It was like b-boy rule number one to not bite and still have fly shit. Nowadays it’s more celebrated to be a little more formulaic and it’s harder if you’re doing something original. I just let my style evolve, talking on subjects and saying rhymes and phrases that interested me. I never really stopped that. I’m here to do what I like to do.
Voice: For long-time fans, the lyric book that comes along with Fast Cars is invaluable. Did you put that together?
AR: Yeah. I had a designer I worked pretty closely with but I had to transcribe all the lyrics obviously and then I sat with the designer and worked on basic style elements of how it was gonna get laid out.
In music now you can’t just do music. You’ve gotta have your little enhanced CD or DVD that comes free with the package. None of that interested me and I was trying to think of something cool that I could do that hasn’t been done too many times so that’s where I came up with it. It ended up being better than I thought it would be.
Voice: How was it going back through all your lyrics and having to write them down?
AR: It was awful, man. It was so annoying I can’t even describe. I literally came up with the book idea and started the next day and I was immediately regretting all of it. Some old stuff I’ll pick out a line and be like, “oh, this is cool,” and then I’ll hit another song and I’ll be, “Wow, this sounds like such a piece of shit.” It was interesting ‘cause I’d never really done that. I don’t go back and listen to the old stuff all that much ‘cause I listened to it so much when I made it that, unless I’m still performing it, I don’t really listen to it. It was weird. When all was said and done it was kinda fun to go back and read through rhymes I don’t even remember writing.
Voice: What’s the worst comparison you’ve ever gotten in a review?
AR: That’s hard to answer without naming some names, which I’d rather not do. Sometimes they compare you to other groups or artists and you know and everyone around you knows that you have no similarity at all. That’s the kind of thing you get used to pretty quick ‘cause it happens a lot. It’s all part of this. Everyone’s opinion of me is spread all over the table and they all argue with one another and I have a handful of fans and half of them get excited when I put something new out and some of them are disappointed with the new shit and it’s just … no one’s ever fully happy.
Voice: Do you go back and read some of the reviews?
AR: Yeah, I try to read ‘em. I’ve hit points where I’ve said I’m never gonna read them again, but inevitably if you see your name in a magazine you’re gonna read it.
Voice: Do you enjoy touring at this point or would you rather be in the studio?
AR: I would rather be in the studio, but touring is a pretty important piece of the whole puzzle, so I know it has to be done. I like doing the individual shows and meeting people. I just hate the schedule. It’s really rigorous and annoying: physically and mentally draining. After 20 shows in a row it’s hard to put on a good, honest performance when you’re driving all day, getting out and performing, then going to sleep.
Voice: One more question. If Timbaland remixed one of your songs, who would you have sing over the bridge?
AR: Honestly, probably Pharrell. I think Pharrell makes the best singing choruses, and I don’t really get tired of them for some reason, so I’d have to go with the Neptunes/Timbaland combo.
