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Aesop: Aesop'
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The place of Aesop's birth was and still is disputed: Thrace, Phrygia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Samos, Athens, Sardis and Amorium all claimed the honour. It has been argued by modern writers that he may have been of African origin: the scholar Richard Lobban has argued that his name is likely derived from "Aethiopian", a word used by the Greeks to refer mostly to dark skinned people of the African interior. He continues by pointing out that the stories are populated by animals present in Africa, many of the creatures being quite foreign to Greece and Europe.[1]
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Building on the rapping style of eccentrics Kool Keith and Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Def Jux headliner Aesop Rock became one of the hottest MCs in the post-millennial underground. After a pair of self-released LPs (Appleseed, Music for Earthworms), he recorded Float for Mush in 2000. The former Ian Bavitz then issued a pair of singles -- "Coma" and "Boom Box" -- for another underground rap label paragon, Definitive Jux. His second full-length, 2001's Labor Days, earned positive reviews and featured production from El-P and Blockhead. The Daylight EP kept his name in the papers, and his Def Jux follow-up, Bazooka Tooth, was released in September 2003. A seven-track EP, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives, followed in early 2005.
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The Life of Aesop contains some contradictory details of his life, though contributes to his mythic proportions. The location of his birth is open to much conjecture though the ancient colony of Thrace, Phrygia, Aethiopia, the Greek island of Samos, the city of Athens and Sardis, the capitol of Lydia, are included in the possibilities. His name is from the archaic Greek "Ethiop" in reference to a person of African descent. The first known mention to the man Aesop is contained in the Greek historian Herodotus' History (c.425). There are many other allusions to his life in Greek literature including writers' Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. Born into slavery and depicted in some sculptures with physical deformity, it is ... mentioned that at an early age he suffered a speech impediment, miraculously eradicated by a deity.
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The Latin translation of Aesop's fables helped them survive the ages. Their enduring appeal, wrote English poet and critic G. K. Chesterton in an introduction to a 1912 Doubleday edition, might lead back to a primeval allure. "These ancient and universal tales are all of animals; as the latest discoveries in the oldest prehistoric caverns are all of animals," Chesterton wrote. "Man, in his simpler states, always felt that he himself was something too mysterious to be drawn. But the legend he carved under these cruder symbols was everywhere the same; and whether fables began with Æsop or began with Adam … the upshot is everywhere essentially the same: that superiority is always insolent, because it is always accidental; that pride goes before a fall; and that there is such a thing as being too clever by half."
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The legion of fans that follow Aesop Rock's every move is ever growing, and next year's 'Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives' EP should win over more to the tribe. The eclectic rhyme-sayer who burst onto the radar with his first album Float, raised the stakes with his universally acclaimed Definitive Jux debut Labor Days, followed it up with the anthemic EP Daylight, and cemented his place as a star in progressive hip-hop with the epic 2003 LP Bazooka Tooth, now drops his most Dangerous and playful project ever with the EP ‘Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives.’ Perfectly straddling the divide between artistic progression and NYC grit, Aesop has constantly evolved over his career, with each release strengthening his song craft and production while continuing to collaborate masterfully with his main-man Blockhead & other brethren. The release of ‘Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives' sees Aesop at the peak of his creativity.
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Aesop Rock contracted his musical prowess by falling in love hip-hop music and absorbing as much of it as he possibly could during his teenage years. He then used this knowledge to create his own take on the music; an extremely lyrical style accented by Blockhead's (on Float and Labor Days) beats and rapped in his unconventional yet incredibly individual voice. His music became increasingly popular due to the observational and revealing lyrics about himself and the current times. He was very reclusive and tended to stray away from the media during this time period before finally accepting their presence. Then Aesop began producing his own tracks and started to experiment with his sound and turned away many of his hardcore fans before finally winning them back with Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives after they accepted his new musical explorations.
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