The Impossible Kid

Good stuff 4 5

Aesop Rock is a rapper with a “wickedly extensive vocabulary”. This results in rap virtuosity with fabulous rhythm, flow and visualization. Musically the monumental songwriting and production are also to the point. Great (s)tuff!

Fourth Abstract Hip Hop album I've had in 10 days. This is not my favorite Aesop Rock album ("None Shall Pass" is so much more consistent and was also way more varied with its beats/themes), but you can't deny that the guy's always been a crazy lyricist. Your mileage may however vary whether "crazy" in this context means "extremely good" or "insanely up his ass". Probably sleeps with a dictionary under his pillow. 3/5.

Has things to say, says them well

Aesop rock is a rap artist that I’ve heard a ton about but never was exposed to any of their music. I’d give the beats a 3.5/5, flow 4/5, and lyrics/word play a 5/5. Very complex lyrics that will take multiple listens to fully appreciate everything. I definitely want to listen to more.

Story time! In 2014, visual journalist Matt Daniels did a graph for his website The Pudding that sorted rappers by the number of unique words used in their first 35,000 lyrics. Lots of Wu-Tang members ranked high for their diverse vocabulary, with Kanye and Snoop somewhere in the middle and DMX at the lower end. This made the rounds on reddit and users pointed to Aesop Rock's impressively vast verbiage in his raps, which led to Daniels updating his graph in 2017 to place Rock wayyyyy ahead of every other rapper. At this point I'm a junior in college and I'm invested in checking out his albums based on the graph alone. Turns out I had already heard his song Labor on one of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtracks but that only gave me more reason to dig into his earlier stuff. In the meantime, I planned on checking out his latest album at the time, which was The Impossible Kid. From the opening lines of this album, Rock is keen on breaking out the most cryptic bars known to man: "Tech support, feral army/In a cave on a failed bit of terraforming." I'd given up long ago on trying to decipher whatever oddball shit he throws at the listener, because the real amusement is in the lyrical gymnastics he pulls to match the energy of the seemingly alien production (also by Aesop Rock). Some of his best stuff shines in his storytelling, particularly in the song Blood Sandwich in which he recounts childhood stories of his brothers that brings his family dynamics to life on the dance of another memorable beat. When Rock reels me into another one of his stories, I have a tendency of getting lost in his world. Speaks highly to his captivating vocal delivery, makes me feel like I'm getting schooled left and right despite how hokey it can be. I wouldn't consider Aes to be the best rapper of all time, but he certainly made himself stand out in a number of ways. Impossible Kid is a great album to just get lost in, swim around in Aes' funny songs and come out the other end a new person. I think this album is great for fully getting a feel for his personality and style so I'm glad someone suggested it for the user's list. Massive props. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: As a Def Jux fan, I am compelled to put Labor Days or None Shall Pass before this album, but then should we include EL-P's Fantastic Damage too? What about Company Flow? Argghhh so difficult. Put it on the list, whatever.

Could you call this technical rap? I mean, the flows are incredible.

A cracking album, his flow and rhymes are close to flawless. An artist I only previously knew by name, and from a couple of features, but will now explore much more fully (in between the ever growing list of suggestions!)

To whoever picked this album, I respect the choice, but ‘None Shall Pass’ is a better album. I remember listening to Aesop the first time. Immediately shot to my top ten hip hop artists. I enjoy the production and beats. The lyrics can be are refined, almost to a fault and the flow is alright, but paired with the monotonous tone of his voice, becomes dull. Otherwise, I love his work. Great stuff, Kirby. 4/5

I sometimes struggle on rap albums because I very much tend to be a music > lyrical content listener. Always rules to get something like this where the productions is showing up extremely well

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Kirby

I like this man! His raps are good and he seems kinda nerdy in a way that I feel like we would be friends.

This LP has some great things going for it in the production, but the vocal delivery just killed the whole thing for me. The beats go above and beyond the typical Ableton preset standard for rap nowadays and incorporate some well-done electronic elements, but Rock's flat delivery became monotonous and grating real quick. He's got some great flows and has clearly put a lot into the lyricism, but the complete lack of vocal emotion made everything feel homogeneous.

I really don't get why so many reviewers in here consider *None Shall Pass* (2007) as a superior effort to *The Impossible Kid* (2016) within Aesop Rock's discography. Is it hip-hop head nostalgia for times when those reviewers were way younger and more hip during the noughts, instead of later years when they finally realized they were getting older? Well, if that's the case, it's pretty ironic given that *The Impossible Kid* addresses those sorts of topic quite a few times during its course... Don't get me wrong, *None Shall Pass* is cool as f*ck, but *Skelethon* (2012) marks the point when Aesop Rock's music started to match the insane quality of his flow and lyrics -- just as the rapper started handling production duties himself, not coincidentally for me (what a talented guy, right?). So let me state it while I'm at it: for me, *Skelethon* is another stellar entry in the rapper's body of work, just as *The Impossible Kid*, released four years later, is. About the latter album, the tracklist starts and ends very strong ("Dorks", roasting mainstream rappers and the media industry supporting them, opener "Mystery Fish", "Rings", "Water Tower", closer "Molecules" and its bassline going bonkers towards the very end...). Aesop Rock here explores alternative hip hop turf adjacent to El-P / Run The Jewels, with his trademark surrealistic lyricism to boot. Yet as great as those tracks are, I think the most impressive stretch of songs is neither at the start nor at the end of the record, but right in the middle of it. "Supercell" sounds like a ghost-in-the-machine sci-fi epic taking place in a barn around Christmas (don't know if I'm doing justice to the lyrics here, lol, but if you can picture what a song about this weird topic would sound like I guess I'm not so far off the mark!). "Blood Sandwich" uses two very specific memories about the rapper's two brothers to celebrate their family (one anecdote cryptically told, the other more straightforward, but both terrific in how evocative they are). "Get Out of the Car" could pass off as an interlude, but it's also a touching tribute to a rapper friend who passed away long ago and how the artist painfully tries to pick up the pieces from there. "Shrunk" starts with Aes filling out an medical form in ways only him can pull off, followed by a retelling of a first psychotherapy session that's rather confrontational, explained though all sorts of witty metaphors and innuendoes -- the lyrics are as bright and sophisticated as the music is catchy and infectious here; when this perfect balance is reached, Aesop's artistry becomes a near-genius thing. And "Kirby" is a cute and very surreal cut about the man's... cat, with a hilarious punchline saved for the end -- slyly referencing the subject of the previous track at the eleventh hour. Aesop Rock is famously known for having the most varied vocabulary compared to any other famous rapper out there (there have been very serious research about this, actually). But the man's set of lyrical skills are always used to serve the songs and stories he tells, instead of indulging in mere intellectual exercises that would turn emotionally sterile. You may not *get* what he raps about right away. But it always *rings true*. So yeah, I guess we could nitpick about which Aesop Rock album should be on this list, from his underground beginnings to *None Shall Pass*, to this year's *Black Hole Superette*. The man's career sure is consistent, I guess most fans can agree on that at least. But for me, Aesop's apex is around the time he released *Skelethon* and *The Impossible Kid*. Hence the grade I'm about to give now. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 56 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 76 (including this one, even though I think *Skelethon* could take its place, and it would be difficult to have two Aesop Rock albums in a finite list like this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 136 --- Émile. Ça y est, j'ai *enfin* répondu (en deux temps). Tu trouveras ça sous les reviews des disques de Blackalicious et Alexisonfire au dessus

Normally my type of thing and love the beats, can't get over his accent however and doesn't quite reach enough highs 3.9

Very cool. The lyrical depth is pretty special and helps make it instantly interesting. I also like the pretty sparse beats and grooves the support the music... certainly more reserved than most hip-hop/rap. It feels like rap poetry with a beat. Happy to listen to this.

Aesop Rock is what you get if Eminem grew up in a good household. His lyrical ability is really impressive. His cadence is unique and you can obviously know it’s him on the mic. The worst part of this album is the production as most of the beats stay on that underground theme and lack any strong originality. The lyricism is the shining part of this album but without great production the songs get a bit more lost in the mix. 6.6/10

White rap to the max

Generally easy to listen to, voluble rap. The density of the lyrics though can cause the meaning to get lost in the sauce.

It’s the hip hop that plays while you listen

Very pure hiphop album

Not an album that is in my sweet spot genre-wise, but I loved the energy of the opening tracks! As it progressed though my interest started to wane and it went on longer than optimal for maximal enjoyment.

This looks like it's going to be modern prog metal. Cartoony yet serious. It's gonna be lame, and probably go for 2 hours. Ok I am WRONG. It's rap. Actually not too bad at all. Update: kinda stayed about the same for most of the album, same cadence to his flow most of the time. Nothing groundbreaking, but lyrics definitely a little POMPOUS. 3/5.

This was fun. Musically creative, lyrically clever. I can take or leave Aesop Rock's voice. Fave Songs: Rings, Kirby, Mystery Fish

Very well produced- slick and polished which isn't necessarily a good thing. I can't claim to be an expert but there's echoes of a less manic Rage against the Machine and others in the genre here. It's interesting and articulate.

rap! i dont hate it. Like a really punchy rap debut. Not bad, but not necessarily clicked for me. 3. A very talented rap virtuoso, but I don't think aurally the tunes worked for me as well as otherwise.

He may have known more words than MF Doom but his album ( yesterday) was better.

It's hard to sound "new" in well-consolidated styles, and although I didn't enjoy everything on the album, I believe it deserves a spot since they tried to sound somewhat different.

3.5? Not bad at all

This kind of hiphop is [almost always...] just not something I like (and usually something I can't stand) - aggressive spewing of so(too)manylyrics that aren't necessarily rhythmic at all; almost completely detached from the music - although I'll say I can't conceive of how difficult it is to rap like this. I heard the word "cuneiform" in here somewhere, so early points for that. I'll give it up for the music which ranges from interesting to "that's really cool" when I'm not distracted but this is (obviously) a super vocal-heavy/front album, a style I mostly can't connect with ... although funny thing...this really started to grow on me as it went on - I swear 90% of professional reviews of albums that praise "incredible lyrical ability" are bunk but there's definitely something to it here; it's not all about the lyrics/flow - this music is kind of the perfect backdrop. Am I starting to like this? What the hell is happening? TL; DR: Props to the talent involved overall here - I don't know if I'll listen again but this is kind of a perfect example of why we do this; if I'd bailed after a song I'd have given a 1 but there's a lot that's unique here - of all the holyhelltoomanywords hiphop albums this is the first I could get through without rolling my eyes and by the end I was grooving. Huh. 6/10 3 stars. IMO: like it or not: should this have been in the original book [which should be called: 1001 Albums That Helped to Shape Music History]? yes.

I enjoyed this album. Didn’t think I was going to but I did.

Hip-hop. Me ha aburrido. Un 2.

Vibes.

Hip-hop. ¡Habla muy rápido!

Hip-hop. Me ha aburrido. Un 2.

It's possible that there is a never ending well of bang average hip hop albums.

What a god awful record.

Absolute rubbish. So cringe

Well so this was definitely something. I like absolutely hate the way he sings and I think everything like it was kind of funny because how bad it was