Don’t confuse “too lyrical” with you just not having much familiarity with art language and concepts to understand what he’s talking about. As someone who went to art school and who makes a living as an artist, I can confirm that almost all the terms in this song that are foreign to you are part of many artists’ vocabulary. Instead of seeing Aesop’s expansive lyricism as a negative thing, try seeing it as a chance to learn some new words and concepts. He’s a master craftsman when it comes to rap, and I’d rather hear an intelligent song with metaphors and creative multi-syllabic rhyming than hear him dumb himself down so that he is more appealing to the mainstream. He’s an acquired taste, but so is a lot of great art.
This song is actually one of his more easy to interpret on his discography. This song is about the fact that he used to do visual arts (sketching and painting). He went to a visual arts school, but eventually had to drop out (for financial reasons I think), and eventually gave up on visual arts. This song is about the grief and regret he feels about giving up on art. A majority of the song is just abstract wordplay about art. Aesop Rock's lyrics are very difficult to interpret sometimes, but they definitely have meaning. I've been listening to his music for years and I still pick up on new things in some of the songs I've listened to plenty, because his lyrics go extremely deep. There's no shame in not understanding some stuff he says, but if you're expecting to understand every line on the first listen then you aren't going to enjoy Aesop Rock
100% agree with this. It may just be me, but if I completely understand a song the first or second listen, I may love it briefly, but it will soon be replaced. But, stuff like Aesop sticks with me for a while. Every time I figure out a new lyric it makes me want to listen that much more.
The wordplay isn't abstract. Most lines are just images. The fire he stenciled on his roommates bass, a book that has been littered with so many doodles it looks like the pigskin a tatoo artist practices on, a painting of a person where he gets the perspective right and the fore-arm finally fore-shortens correctly. It's all very visual and concrete.
@@Staunomat *some lines There's plenty of lines throughout the song (in fact I'd argue the majority) that are not static imagery, but rather abstract musings about the imagery. Largely due to his use of figurative language. But as I said, out of all of his songs, this is easily the least abstract.
IMO he's talking extremely directly about art. Hands dragging graphite, oil paint on canvas, the stuff Staunomat said, lighting, form, perspective... There are some abstract lines in there, metaphor, etc., but it's definitely only some.
@@toddpertll5502 I'm the exact opposite. I find overly difficult to interpret art to be elitist, and pretentious. I don't feel any satisfaction from breaking down complex things, just tiredness and annoyance. I far more gravitate to things that are simple but powerfully evocative. This is one of my favourite Aesop Rock songs for that reason. Not only does he manage to convey these emotions well, but it's pretty easy to understand what he's talking about. At most it takes a few seconds of thought.
Aesop is an incredibly private person. He says he doesnt go out of his way to be complicated, however he has admitted that since he's very private, when he talks about personal issues he can hide behind his lyrics. So the more personal something is, the more complicated his lyrics can get so you dont see the full picture, but he's not talking nonsense. For Rings he's actually being literal and direct. I think you might be overthinking his lyrics here or might not have enough experience in traditional art, but after 2 listens I was able to pick up what he was talking and able to relate to it as someone who also did art. he's using a lot of art vocabulary in his rhymes showing his love for art is still in him but regrets walking away from it out of fear and his own insecurities.
I would normally not do this, but I think this song is easier than reactors give it credit for. So, while I expect others might provide more specifics, I'm going to try to explain his lyrics so that they generally make sense. Urban Experience, if you read this, I hope it helps you take it in. First verse: "Used to draw; hard to admit that I used to draw..." It's not easy to admit that you no longer do something that you did (and still do) love. "Portraiture... muse from beyond..." Doing silly things like drawing a fusion of human and unicorn (the muse from beyond) was a thing that calmed and centered him in who he was as a person ("it was soothin'") "Even if it went beautifully wrong... youth who refused to belong..." It was a way he created identity apart from the people around him, created distinction for himself. "No name nuisance... gray scale ungluing his world..." Enjoying time alone in his bedroom creating his own new language of expression (hence reference to cuneiform, a type of writing in early civilization), hardly ever going out because he's too busy with gray scale, an art form that only works with monochrome like a pencil. "Might zone out... black ink after a Bristol to baptize..." While he's drawing with his graphite he's just got the birds behind him to listen to. Then some art terms where cross contour is the outline of the shape, backlight helps define it's three dimensions, and then the ink "baptizes" it in liquid, making the lines permanent. "You can't imagine the rush that ensue when you get three dimensions stuffed into two..." Getting a three dimensional object to look right on a page provides an emotional rush of satisfaction; artists love seeing their work turn out right. "Then it's off to a school... observed by a capable few..." Went to art school, observed by the teachers who train you in the art forms. "Back in New York... distractions free to maraud..." Out of school, living in New York in a two bedroom apartment with four other guys and a dog working low pay, stealing, writing rap lyrics, the new environment provides huge amounts of distractions that ensure you never actually do the thing you were trained in - your art. "I left some years a deer in the light... my skill deteriorate..." Got scared of whether he could do his work well or not, took excuses to leave it alone, left it long enough that he lost the skills he had and regrets having lost them "Haunted by the thought... with an ID crisis..." He'd loved the craft for twenty years, thinks he never should've let his will to do it die, and its hold on how he defines himself still causes him to doubt who he really is. Chorus: I'll be honest, the only thing I can say here is that he believes people will kill you just to see what it was you learned and survived throughout your life; they'll prevent you from living to learn about your life. Second verse: 'Used to paint... stenciled fire on his roommate's bass..." Once again, the regret that he doesn't paint any longer. Reflections on the wonder he felt trying to capture natural light on a canvas. The stenciled fire would have been a decoration on his friend's bass guitar. "It was blooming addiction... book like a tattooed pigskin..." Painting became an obsession, his books were covered in doodles and drawings, anything he could draw on he would. "Pinhead kids of the minute drank Kool-Aid from a tube of acrylic..." Acrylic is a kind of paint. But the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" refers to indoctrination because of the cult leader who caused the mass suicide of his followers through drinking spiked/poisoned Kool-Aid. He'd given himself wholeheartedly to the art of painting in his youth. "And it grew up into linseed oil... stay tuned for the spooky adventures..." Here he's describing the process of editing and reworking a design until it looks real, until it looks plausible, rearranging the position of the anatomy until he has a figure decorated fit for something like a cartoon panel (spooky adventures) "You can't imagine the stars that align... reads as warm and alive..." If you don't draw, you don't understand how difficult and rewarding it can be to see a figure on a page go from lines and color to a person you could look at and imagine to be alive. "Routine day with a dirt cheap brush... you beat yourself up..." He always told himself that he'll get back to it, he'll finish it up. But as time goes by and he neglects his art, the desire to go back and finish that piece of art diminishes. Eventually, you grow to hate the sight of it because it reminds you of how long you've left it alone unfinished, but you also hate the fact that you haven't ever gone back and completed it. "I left some seasons eager to fall... I let my person curl up and die..." Told himself he didn't want to do it anyway, stuffing down the child inside crying at the way he was losing a thing he loved so much. It makes you grow hard, to curl in on yourself in secret pain you won't admit to anyone. "Eating up his innards... trials of the anti-Midas..." The loss of his art kills him inside. The reference to Midas refers to the ancient story of King Midas who asked for the Golden Touch... that everything he touched would turn to gold. By saying "anti-Midas", he's effectively saying that everything he touches loses any value it once had, turning it from gold into trash. It's a negative self-talk, and that sort of thing is self-reinforcing. For those of you who read through this whole thing, feel free to correct where you think I'm mistaken. Hope you have a great day.
Here’s a tip for listening to Aesop: listen to the song, read the lyrics, and then listen again and focus on the imagery. And then when he breaks back into the typical form of first-person narrative, really listen to it. Discounting an artist because you don’t get it isn’t a reflection of them; it is one of the audience. Cheers
I looked it up he's officially the rapper with the largest vocab. I remember at one point GZA from Wu-Tang once had it but he lost it and slid down to fourth place which is still impressive.
Yeah aesop and bus driver really stretched the top numbers on that list and created a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd where the numbers were already impressive.
In case it wasn’t said. “Used to draw, hard to admit that I (used drugs) to draw. The rest is about how he went to art school. “Unseen hand dragging his graphite” is the creative muse that moves your hand when you draw. Then he mentions being a clod, distractions free to maraud (being on his own let him fuck up and not get through art school) I left some years a deer in the light (not doing shit), I left some will to spirit away (lost motivation) All heart but we would have made cowardly kings (we were good at heart but were too apathetic to make hard decisions) They will cut you down just to count your rings (like a tree, you count the rings to see the age and can see historic rain levels by the thickness of each ring) so they will break you down just to see what you are made of It sounds cryptic but it all is actually pretty succinct, it just might take a few listens or even a trip to the dictionary every so often.
"stenciled fire on his roommate's bass" If we're assuming that the previous line is connected (although it may not be), then he's painting his roommate, who is holding a bass guitar. The bass has a fire graphic/design stenciled on it, similar to how many hot rods have fire designs, and Aesop is currently painting that design.
I took it as he is literally painting his roommate's bass. When I was a young musician I asked a super talented painter friend to paint a Vargas girl on the back of my upright bass.
He is definitely the most lyrical artist out there.. but the thing is the more you listen to him the more you'll understand him, you'll have to learn a lot of new words though and think of it like he's narrating a dream or explaining an emotion. This song is about how he lost his ambition do his favorite thing which is art.. he gave it up for rhyming as a career. "You can't imagine the rush that ensue When you get three dimensions stuffed into two
MF DOOM is another great recommendation. One of the best that ever done it and a great producer as well. R.I.P to him. He earned the nickname of Your Favorite Rappers Favorite Rapper. Madvillainy and MMFood are two amazing projects.
The whole thing makes sense a lot of it is art jargon but he’s expressing artistic frustration and create a frustration to the artists in the creators who are listening
Aes was a visual artist. That was his passion, that's what he went to school for. When he devoted himself to rapping, he set aside all of that, so he could focus 100% of his creative energy on his music. This song is about the regret he feels over losing something so precious to him, and lamenting how his skills as a visual artist may have progressed, rather than gathering rust, had he continued to pursue that path. As he says on another track, 'My dude, I walked a million miles away from my original muse.'
"Roomates bass" line. He's describing how he "used to paint" and it's hard to admit bc he doesn't do it anymore and wishes he did. "Natural light on a human face" - Hes painting a picture and putting "natural light" on the face "Stenciled fire on his roomates bass" - Another thing he painted, a flame on his roomates bass guitar. Hes just naming a few things he painted. "It was blooming addiction amiss in the pushing of pigment book like a tattooed pigskin, look" Recalling when his love of art "bloomed" "Pushing of pigment" is just coloring/drawing and his notebook looks like a tattooed pigskin (tattoo artist practice on pigskin before they tattoo people, so his book is his practice like a pigskin is a tattoo artist practice) "drank koolaid from a tube of acrylic" He "drank the koolaid" was obsessed, cult like with art. A tube of acrylic is acrylic paint. So he's drinking the koolaid when it comes to painting.
Why do you count rings ? Only in a tree, to find out how long it’s lived. But to do so you have to chop it down…. Kill it. But the song is about regret, he use to draw/paint and spent several years realizing that the he lost his love for it at some point.
"it was blooming addiction, amiss in the pushing of pigment" he got addicted to losing himself in the act of painting "book like a tattooed pigskin" his book is filled with drawings and doodles and shit "pinhead kids of the minute drank koolaid from a tube of acrylic" not entirely sure what the pinhead kids part means, but he and his friends "drank the koolaid" of becoming artsy types, basically
Started listening to Aesop over 20 years ago. I stopped checking for him around ‘05 or so & finally tried him again a couple years ago. Now he’s by far my favorite rapper of all time.
Aesop Rock literally has the widest range of vocabulary and his entire catalog of music than any other MC there's a literal chart online if you look it up it shows Aesop Rock Way in the lead with the most unique words used out of any of them
He's talking about having the fire to create when youre young, the life gets in the way and you lose your fire. the chorus is about the critics and everyone that judges you as soon as you slip once. "they will cut you down just to count your rings" is a reference to the rings of a tree, saying they'll cut you down and count your accomplishments like rings on a tree and then judge you on them. But all he wanted to do was create art and hone his craft. Aesop writes in metaphors so you gotta come into his music with that mindset. Like abstract word flows.
He's an acquired taste. You really gotta dive into what he's talking about. I interpreted this song as being about regret which another commenter have already stated.
In the hook, Aes is explaining that just as you have to kill a tree to count it's age, people are so invested in understanding what he is saying and truly feeling that they would "chop him down" or destroy the mystery in his art to do so. Part of what makes Aesop rock so good is that he can't be understood with a single listen, and his lyrics require work to unpack. If we could truly understand just by listening, the music would lose its magic. They will chop you down just to count your rings. They will also destroy that magic just to know what is really going on.
Stenciled fire on his roommates bass. He’s painting a picture of a bass guitar that has flames painted on it. Also, the easiest line to understand “chop you don’t just to count your rings” is reference to cutting down a tree and counting the rings to see how old it is. But he says they do it just for that, no other purpose.
Stenciled fire on his roommate's bass (he drew a neat fire design on his friend's bass guitar). it was a blooming addiction (drawing and art became his new passion). Amis in a pushing of pigment (he got into doing tattoos) book like a tattoo pigskin (pigskin is what tattoo artists use to practice on) Drink koolaid from a tube of acrylic (he's referring to those little kids bottles of koolaid they sell in packs at the store.)
listening to aesop is putting together a puzzle. it isnt immediate victory. but its catchy enough and has enough brilliant one liners to stick around and wanna figure it out. for me anyway. holy smokes is probably the most immediately understood. buuuut its also bound to offend a lotta people. my favorites are probably low tide or gopher guts. none shall pass is probably his catchiest, and actually ended up on the radio. but its so dense youll need 3 tabs open to figure out whats going on. haha
I get it sometimes people don't get it but the bar when he was saying drank coolaid out of a tube of a acrylic is him saying he painted that scene with acrylic paint and a stencil is a set tool to replicate an image bass is an instrument so he had a flame stencil that he used on his roommates instrument to give it flare I get some people don't understand metaphorics but you just gotta think a little harder on it
I really want to break every single line down for you. A lot of this is referencing art material and the struggles of being an artist in an addict and a young man growing up from the perspective of the writer
KRS One is a legend in hip hop. He's seen as an all time great by the hip hop community. He's one of those guys that other rappers talk about and usually ranked pretty high on all time. He never went mainstream like that but he's technically profound.
He’s talking about being an artist and growing up as a creative person sometimes shoving away those creative impulses and how you regret itWhen you don’t seek to fulfill those creative urges
Either way sorry for 3 comments but one of his songs that’s pretty easy to follow is “blood sandwich” the video paints the picture well. So maybe check that one out. He’s the middle child and has an older and younger brother. It may mean more if you had siblings. I am obviously a fan of his but I think you should do a few more before you close the book on him.
Rolling Stone did a study a few years back and Aesop Rock's vocabulary is 4 TIMES as big as ANY OTHER RAPPER. He writes in straight metaphors and shit. He has been on another level for straight 2 DECADES. And asap rocky stole his name.
On the one hand this feels pretty obvious to point out but if he simplified the lyrics he loses the entire beat baked into the lyrics. He's not just picking words for the rhyme,but to build patterns with the stressed and unstressed syllables, alliteration, etc. He does that while using every word correctly, rarely throwing one in for filler, and usually staying out of the Word Salad territory.
OK now I will explain the song for you. It's a existensial expression of self reflection. Your response is exactly what he is talking about. How critics who don't understand art with cut you down in order to try to understand you because they don't understand why you would draw things like a "two headed unicorn" There is tension because he wants to create art that is appriciated but at the same time people do not have the ability to appricate and its disheartening for him. It's kinda like the story of the goose with the golden eggs which is an Aesop Fable in which they wanted to get the gold out of the goose and so they chopped it in half and killed the goose loosing the golden eggs and to find there was no gold inside. The idea is just because you can't understand something doesn't mean you can't appreciate it. The bars you are having a hard time understanding is when he tells stories as examples of his artistic creative process. He is also a visual artist and when he talks about painting and drawing he is really talking about drawing and painting. You are not an honest person you are an impatient ignorant person who thinks oppinions are honesty. But you are funny.
Aesop Rock: I used to draw. It was cool. Went to school. I got scared. This Clown: WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT I HAVE NO IDEA. Aesop Rock: I used to paint. It was coo- Clown: I AM SO CONFUSED, WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN???? TOO LYRICAL OMG SEND HELP.
No disrespect or negativity here at all man but this really is one of his most easily understandable songs he’s basically talking in plain English about how he used to draw and paint and how he essentially regrets giving it up
“You can’t write 24 bar versus You can’t talk in 3rd person They wont purchase & Why You call Yourself a dream merchant? You’re too deep. You need to call Yourself a sea urchin.” -Homeboy Sandman-
Dude, he's cryptic at times but this song was extremely straightforward. Everything here makes perfect sense, nothing is rhymed just to rhyme, he just likes to tell very detailed stories. "Stenciled fire on his roommates bass" could mean two things: he literally took a stencil of fire and stenciled the bass (bass guitar) or, he stenciled something extremely cool as is in, "that design is fire". I think you just misunderstood the key word here and the whole point of the song.
I honestly think there’s enough context clues and comprehension mixed with heavy metaphors that you could pull out that he’s speaking on his lost of interest in drawing and paint when it was something he loved to do for years. I personally believe that most hiphop has remained shallow in lyrical content and most have become susceptible to it for so long that-along with Aes remaining exclusively underground his entire career-when a rapper uses more than “___ like a ____” metaphors, its deemed too lyrical or counted as nonsense. Its a shame, because guys like El-P used to use this style but flipped it for RTJ to get big, which is a topic Aes briefly covers in Dorks. Good reaction though, just wanted to say that.
lmao he's talking about drawing and painting, how you not able to make sense of it is beyond me. if this was any other song of his I'd get it, but this song is simple as fuck
Screaming at the tv* "HE'S TALKING ABOUT ART FFS!!!🤬" this is one of his most straight forward songs he has. There is literally ZERO complex ideas in this song😂
So you stated that this song has many areas that make no sense, and that the video is useless... Let me explain how interpret this song. First off "rings" is referring to tree rings... you can count the rings of a tree, to see how old it is. In other words "they will cut you down, just to count your rings" is saying that many people will often tear others down, just to see how much they can take... to see how rooted and experienced you REALLY are... Second verses I'll explain (as to how I interpret and what the lyrics mean to me) ... regarding the "I used to paint" bars... so he's basically saying that he used to be a visual artist with his hands... i.e. "I used to draw", "I used to paint" ... he was totally sold out to it e.g. "addicted" ... then he had things happen in his life that lead him toward music, he references his "roommate's bass" as a nod to hip-hop having an influence on his life... he goes on to say that became his new "unicorn" i.e. dream / something that one strives after, that's nearly mythical or rarely seen or achieved ... remember, he states in the beginning of the song that it's a "two headed unicorn" The song is largely talking about the inner struggles he's dealt with being an artist, and longing to feel normal in a society and industry that often will "cut you down, just to count your rings" ... I'm other words, as many artists over the decades have expressed having to deal with, where the industry executives, and even the fans at times, will push the artist to the limits, just to bleed them dry, of all their creativity. That is just one part of the song, he also references his struggles with drug addiction, loss of close people in his life, and a few other intense subjects... i hope that helps to open you up to why these metaphors he uses, make a lot of sense, if you dive deeper into the artist himself... which is exactly the reason he speaks almost entirely in metaphor and symbolic phrasing, in most all of his songs, to force the listener to think of what he's saying on a much deeper level.
Sorry my guy but him “not making sense” is absolutely on you. There isn’t anything overly complicated in this, it’s just dense. I can understand you not wanting to do the work to “get” it, everyone isn’t for everyone, but this isn’t about him doing something wrong just something you don’t vibe with. From the first line he makes it clear. “Used to draw, hard to admit that I *USED* to draw” is about him having regrets that art is something in his past. The song is about his love of creating art is something he gave up on as he got older.
A lot of the references to art (drawing and painting, specifically) are absolutely easy to not catch if you also haven’t been exposed to that scene, but that doesn’t mean it is meaningless. A line like “It was blooming addiction Amiss in the pushing of pigment, Book like a tattooed pigskin” could be meaningless to you but if you knew that tattoo artists use pigskin for training because of how it simulates human skin accepting the ink then you see it is just a reference to his own collection of practice sketches.
Yeah…this song isn’t all that hard to digest. It’s about looking back in regret that you didn’t pursue your dreams. You’re overgeneralizing. Just cause you miss it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t get it. No disrespect. But to say a man who puts this much care into his lyrics, doesn’t make sense, is just shortsighted 🤷🏽♂️
Homesty is fine but think, don't just react man. "They can hop you down so they can count your rings." What do you chop down that has rings ???? A Tree man....a Tree !!!!!!
Step YOUR Mind Skills Up Before You Go Throwing Shade On Aesop… Like Straight Up son. & It’s Sa-Roc (For the back of the class🗣 Its pronounced like SAAA - ROCK 🪨) Not saroc like some cheap alcohol❗️ Respect The god enough to say her name right❗️
Don’t confuse “too lyrical” with you just not having much familiarity with art language and concepts to understand what he’s talking about. As someone who went to art school and who makes a living as an artist, I can confirm that almost all the terms in this song that are foreign to you are part of many artists’ vocabulary. Instead of seeing Aesop’s expansive lyricism as a negative thing, try seeing it as a chance to learn some new words and concepts. He’s a master craftsman when it comes to rap, and I’d rather hear an intelligent song with metaphors and creative multi-syllabic rhyming than hear him dumb himself down so that he is more appealing to the mainstream. He’s an acquired taste, but so is a lot of great art.
Preach
This song is actually one of his more easy to interpret on his discography. This song is about the fact that he used to do visual arts (sketching and painting). He went to a visual arts school, but eventually had to drop out (for financial reasons I think), and eventually gave up on visual arts. This song is about the grief and regret he feels about giving up on art.
A majority of the song is just abstract wordplay about art.
Aesop Rock's lyrics are very difficult to interpret sometimes, but they definitely have meaning. I've been listening to his music for years and I still pick up on new things in some of the songs I've listened to plenty, because his lyrics go extremely deep.
There's no shame in not understanding some stuff he says, but if you're expecting to understand every line on the first listen then you aren't going to enjoy Aesop Rock
100% agree with this. It may just be me, but if I completely understand a song the first or second listen, I may love it briefly, but it will soon be replaced. But, stuff like Aesop sticks with me for a while. Every time I figure out a new lyric it makes me want to listen that much more.
The wordplay isn't abstract. Most lines are just images. The fire he stenciled on his roommates bass, a book that has been littered with so many doodles it looks like the pigskin a tatoo artist practices on, a painting of a person where he gets the perspective right and the fore-arm finally fore-shortens correctly. It's all very visual and concrete.
@@Staunomat *some lines
There's plenty of lines throughout the song (in fact I'd argue the majority) that are not static imagery, but rather abstract musings about the imagery. Largely due to his use of figurative language. But as I said, out of all of his songs, this is easily the least abstract.
IMO he's talking extremely directly about art. Hands dragging graphite, oil paint on canvas, the stuff Staunomat said, lighting, form, perspective...
There are some abstract lines in there, metaphor, etc., but it's definitely only some.
@@toddpertll5502 I'm the exact opposite. I find overly difficult to interpret art to be elitist, and pretentious. I don't feel any satisfaction from breaking down complex things, just tiredness and annoyance.
I far more gravitate to things that are simple but powerfully evocative. This is one of my favourite Aesop Rock songs for that reason. Not only does he manage to convey these emotions well, but it's pretty easy to understand what he's talking about. At most it takes a few seconds of thought.
Aesop is an incredibly private person. He says he doesnt go out of his way to be complicated, however he has admitted that since he's very private, when he talks about personal issues he can hide behind his lyrics. So the more personal something is, the more complicated his lyrics can get so you dont see the full picture, but he's not talking nonsense.
For Rings he's actually being literal and direct. I think you might be overthinking his lyrics here or might not have enough experience in traditional art, but after 2 listens I was able to pick up what he was talking and able to relate to it as someone who also did art. he's using a lot of art vocabulary in his rhymes showing his love for art is still in him but regrets walking away from it out of fear and his own insecurities.
I would normally not do this, but I think this song is easier than reactors give it credit for. So, while I expect others might provide more specifics, I'm going to try to explain his lyrics so that they generally make sense. Urban Experience, if you read this, I hope it helps you take it in.
First verse:
"Used to draw; hard to admit that I used to draw..." It's not easy to admit that you no longer do something that you did (and still do) love.
"Portraiture... muse from beyond..." Doing silly things like drawing a fusion of human and unicorn (the muse from beyond) was a thing that calmed and centered him in who he was as a person ("it was soothin'")
"Even if it went beautifully wrong... youth who refused to belong..." It was a way he created identity apart from the people around him, created distinction for himself.
"No name nuisance... gray scale ungluing his world..." Enjoying time alone in his bedroom creating his own new language of expression (hence reference to cuneiform, a type of writing in early civilization), hardly ever going out because he's too busy with gray scale, an art form that only works with monochrome like a pencil.
"Might zone out... black ink after a Bristol to baptize..." While he's drawing with his graphite he's just got the birds behind him to listen to. Then some art terms where cross contour is the outline of the shape, backlight helps define it's three dimensions, and then the ink "baptizes" it in liquid, making the lines permanent.
"You can't imagine the rush that ensue when you get three dimensions stuffed into two..." Getting a three dimensional object to look right on a page provides an emotional rush of satisfaction; artists love seeing their work turn out right.
"Then it's off to a school... observed by a capable few..." Went to art school, observed by the teachers who train you in the art forms.
"Back in New York... distractions free to maraud..." Out of school, living in New York in a two bedroom apartment with four other guys and a dog working low pay, stealing, writing rap lyrics, the new environment provides huge amounts of distractions that ensure you never actually do the thing you were trained in - your art.
"I left some years a deer in the light... my skill deteriorate..." Got scared of whether he could do his work well or not, took excuses to leave it alone, left it long enough that he lost the skills he had and regrets having lost them
"Haunted by the thought... with an ID crisis..." He'd loved the craft for twenty years, thinks he never should've let his will to do it die, and its hold on how he defines himself still causes him to doubt who he really is.
Chorus:
I'll be honest, the only thing I can say here is that he believes people will kill you just to see what it was you learned and survived throughout your life; they'll prevent you from living to learn about your life.
Second verse:
'Used to paint... stenciled fire on his roommate's bass..." Once again, the regret that he doesn't paint any longer. Reflections on the wonder he felt trying to capture natural light on a canvas. The stenciled fire would have been a decoration on his friend's bass guitar.
"It was blooming addiction... book like a tattooed pigskin..." Painting became an obsession, his books were covered in doodles and drawings, anything he could draw on he would.
"Pinhead kids of the minute drank Kool-Aid from a tube of acrylic..." Acrylic is a kind of paint. But the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" refers to indoctrination because of the cult leader who caused the mass suicide of his followers through drinking spiked/poisoned Kool-Aid. He'd given himself wholeheartedly to the art of painting in his youth.
"And it grew up into linseed oil... stay tuned for the spooky adventures..." Here he's describing the process of editing and reworking a design until it looks real, until it looks plausible, rearranging the position of the anatomy until he has a figure decorated fit for something like a cartoon panel (spooky adventures)
"You can't imagine the stars that align... reads as warm and alive..." If you don't draw, you don't understand how difficult and rewarding it can be to see a figure on a page go from lines and color to a person you could look at and imagine to be alive.
"Routine day with a dirt cheap brush... you beat yourself up..." He always told himself that he'll get back to it, he'll finish it up. But as time goes by and he neglects his art, the desire to go back and finish that piece of art diminishes. Eventually, you grow to hate the sight of it because it reminds you of how long you've left it alone unfinished, but you also hate the fact that you haven't ever gone back and completed it.
"I left some seasons eager to fall... I let my person curl up and die..." Told himself he didn't want to do it anyway, stuffing down the child inside crying at the way he was losing a thing he loved so much. It makes you grow hard, to curl in on yourself in secret pain you won't admit to anyone.
"Eating up his innards... trials of the anti-Midas..." The loss of his art kills him inside. The reference to Midas refers to the ancient story of King Midas who asked for the Golden Touch... that everything he touched would turn to gold. By saying "anti-Midas", he's effectively saying that everything he touches loses any value it once had, turning it from gold into trash. It's a negative self-talk, and that sort of thing is self-reinforcing.
For those of you who read through this whole thing, feel free to correct where you think I'm mistaken. Hope you have a great day.
Here’s a tip for listening to Aesop: listen to the song, read the lyrics, and then listen again and focus on the imagery.
And then when he breaks back into the typical form of first-person narrative, really listen to it.
Discounting an artist because you don’t get it isn’t a reflection of them; it is one of the audience. Cheers
Edit: oof. Just got to the end and realized you didn’t even catch the full-frontal reference to counting a tree’s rings.
The dictionary reads Aesop.
I looked it up he's officially the rapper with the largest vocab. I remember at one point GZA from Wu-Tang once had it but he lost it and slid down to fourth place which is still impressive.
Three Wu-Tang members was on that list actually GZA,RZA,and Ghostface Killah. Then they gave Wu-Tang as a group in general as an entry.😂
@@tyqwanmills03 wu tang is for the children 👐
@@gurrier3877 Souuuuuuu!!!!!
Yeah aesop and bus driver really stretched the top numbers on that list and created a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd where the numbers were already impressive.
He doesn't have the largest vocabulary.
In case it wasn’t said. “Used to draw, hard to admit that I (used drugs) to draw.
The rest is about how he went to art school. “Unseen hand dragging his graphite” is the creative muse that moves your hand when you draw. Then he mentions being a clod, distractions free to maraud (being on his own let him fuck up and not get through art school) I left some years a deer in the light (not doing shit), I left some will to spirit away (lost motivation)
All heart but we would have made cowardly kings (we were good at heart but were too apathetic to make hard decisions)
They will cut you down just to count your rings (like a tree, you count the rings to see the age and can see historic rain levels by the thickness of each ring) so they will break you down just to see what you are made of
It sounds cryptic but it all is actually pretty succinct, it just might take a few listens or even a trip to the dictionary every so often.
"stenciled fire on his roommate's bass"
If we're assuming that the previous line is connected (although it may not be), then he's painting his roommate, who is holding a bass guitar. The bass has a fire graphic/design stenciled on it, similar to how many hot rods have fire designs, and Aesop is currently painting that design.
I took it as he is literally painting his roommate's bass. When I was a young musician I asked a super talented painter friend to paint a Vargas girl on the back of my upright bass.
I mentioned him before. He's one of the most vocabulary advanced rappers of all time.
He is definitely the most lyrical artist out there.. but the thing is the more you listen to him the more you'll understand him, you'll have to learn a lot of new words though and think of it like he's narrating a dream or explaining an emotion.
This song is about how he lost his ambition do his favorite thing which is art.. he gave it up for rhyming as a career.
"You can't imagine the rush that ensue
When you get three dimensions stuffed into two
MF DOOM is another great recommendation. One of the best that ever done it and a great producer as well. R.I.P to him. He earned the nickname of Your Favorite Rappers Favorite Rapper. Madvillainy and MMFood are two amazing projects.
@@tyqwanmills03 Remember, all caps.
@@Isosyth I fixed it.
@@tyqwanmills03 I just love getting to reference that line. Now I gotta go binge DOOM.
Couldn't have said it better even If I tried
Two words, DEEPER ANALYSIS. Aes can't be taken at face value or on the first listen, he's living in the year 3000
Aes might have to have a reading level disclaimer on his releases. This one is obviously difficult for some.
bahahaa
Stencil fire on a room mates bass. He’s drawing flames in a bass 🎸
Aes will forever be the underground (and all time) Goat.
The whole thing makes sense a lot of it is art jargon but he’s expressing artistic frustration and create a frustration to the artists in the creators who are listening
Aes was a visual artist. That was his passion, that's what he went to school for. When he devoted himself to rapping, he set aside all of that, so he could focus 100% of his creative energy on his music. This song is about the regret he feels over losing something so precious to him, and lamenting how his skills as a visual artist may have progressed, rather than gathering rust, had he continued to pursue that path. As he says on another track, 'My dude, I walked a million miles away from my original muse.'
"Roomates bass" line.
He's describing how he "used to paint" and it's hard to admit bc he doesn't do it anymore and wishes he did.
"Natural light on a human face" - Hes painting a picture and putting "natural light" on the face
"Stenciled fire on his roomates bass" - Another thing he painted, a flame on his roomates bass guitar.
Hes just naming a few things he painted.
"It was blooming addiction
amiss in the pushing of pigment
book like a tattooed pigskin, look"
Recalling when his love of art "bloomed" "Pushing of pigment" is just coloring/drawing and his notebook looks like a tattooed pigskin (tattoo artist practice on pigskin before they tattoo people, so his book is his practice like a pigskin is a tattoo artist practice)
"drank koolaid from a tube of acrylic" He "drank the koolaid" was obsessed, cult like with art. A tube of acrylic is acrylic paint. So he's drinking the koolaid when it comes to painting.
Why do you count rings ? Only in a tree, to find out how long it’s lived. But to do so you have to chop it down…. Kill it. But the song is about regret, he use to draw/paint and spent several years realizing that the he lost his love for it at some point.
"it was blooming addiction, amiss in the pushing of pigment"
he got addicted to losing himself in the act of painting
"book like a tattooed pigskin"
his book is filled with drawings and doodles and shit
"pinhead kids of the minute drank koolaid from a tube of acrylic"
not entirely sure what the pinhead kids part means, but he and his friends "drank the koolaid" of becoming artsy types, basically
Started listening to Aesop over 20 years ago. I stopped checking for him around ‘05 or so & finally tried him again a couple years ago. Now he’s by far my favorite rapper of all time.
Aesop Rock literally has the widest range of vocabulary and his entire catalog of music than any other MC there's a literal chart online if you look it up it shows Aesop Rock Way in the lead with the most unique words used out of any of them
He's talking about having the fire to create when youre young, the life gets in the way and you lose your fire. the chorus is about the critics and everyone that judges you as soon as you slip once. "they will cut you down just to count your rings" is a reference to the rings of a tree, saying they'll cut you down and count your accomplishments like rings on a tree and then judge you on them. But all he wanted to do was create art and hone his craft. Aesop writes in metaphors so you gotta come into his music with that mindset. Like abstract word flows.
The funny thing is, the album this song is on was criticized when it came out for being his most straight forward and easy to interpret 😆
which was mental when i got into him. then i got back to appleseed and labor days then i saw why
Well it kinda is
this confirms that the mass “music” industry does indeed idiotize people
He makes absolute sence he speaks in parables and analogy
He's an acquired taste. You really gotta dive into what he's talking about. I interpreted this song as being about regret which another commenter have already stated.
In the hook, Aes is explaining that just as you have to kill a tree to count it's age, people are so invested in understanding what he is saying and truly feeling that they would "chop him down" or destroy the mystery in his art to do so. Part of what makes Aesop rock so good is that he can't be understood with a single listen, and his lyrics require work to unpack. If we could truly understand just by listening, the music would lose its magic. They will chop you down just to count your rings. They will also destroy that magic just to know what is really going on.
Stenciled fire on his roommates bass. He’s painting a picture of a bass guitar that has flames painted on it. Also, the easiest line to understand “chop you don’t just to count your rings” is reference to cutting down a tree and counting the rings to see how old it is. But he says they do it just for that, no other purpose.
Stenciled fire on his roommate's bass (he drew a neat fire design on his friend's bass guitar). it was a blooming addiction (drawing and art became his new passion). Amis in a pushing of pigment (he got into doing tattoos) book like a tattoo pigskin (pigskin is what tattoo artists use to practice on) Drink koolaid from a tube of acrylic (he's referring to those little kids bottles of koolaid they sell in packs at the store.)
listening to aesop is putting together a puzzle. it isnt immediate victory. but its catchy enough and has enough brilliant one liners to stick around and wanna figure it out. for me anyway. holy smokes is probably the most immediately understood. buuuut its also bound to offend a lotta people. my favorites are probably low tide or gopher guts. none shall pass is probably his catchiest, and actually ended up on the radio. but its so dense youll need 3 tabs open to figure out whats going on. haha
Catch you on the apology video
I get it sometimes people don't get it but the bar when he was saying drank coolaid out of a tube of a acrylic is him saying he painted that scene with acrylic paint and a stencil is a set tool to replicate an image bass is an instrument so he had a flame stencil that he used on his roommates instrument to give it flare I get some people don't understand metaphorics but you just gotta think a little harder on it
Kirby is a simpler song. It's about his cat.
I really want to break every single line down for you. A lot of this is referencing art material and the struggles of being an artist in an addict and a young man growing up from the perspective of the writer
Dude he memorized it and reorganized😂
Art school. Observed by a capable few, like teachers or master artists.
Here's Lupe's video about Aesop Rock. ua-cam.com/video/p01lG66MWbA/v-deo.html
Zack De La Rocha,KRS One,and The Last Emperor-CIA
KRS One is a legend in hip hop. He's seen as an all time great by the hip hop community. He's one of those guys that other rappers talk about and usually ranked pretty high on all time. He never went mainstream like that but he's technically profound.
KRS is apart of that Rakim,Big Daddy Kane,Kool G Rap,etc generation.
He makes perfect sense! You have to listen 100 times and break everything down. You’ll have to look up about 100 words
He’s talking about being an artist and growing up as a creative person sometimes shoving away those creative impulses and how you regret itWhen you don’t seek to fulfill those creative urges
I literally hated rap in high school cause of the radio. I accidentally heard "Aesop Rock - Daylight" and I immediately saw rap music differently.
He made dollars of his sense 😊
No captions "we ain't cheating"
Me who has listened to alot of aesop: bruh, you have a full guide to the song available its still not cheating
Either way sorry for 3 comments but one of his songs that’s pretty easy to follow is “blood sandwich” the video paints the picture well. So maybe check that one out. He’s the middle child and has an older and younger brother. It may mean more if you had siblings. I am obviously a fan of his but I think you should do a few more before you close the book on him.
Got ya...i will!!
blood sandwich's story telling is insanely good. the way he makes everything rhyme when he's talking about the Ministry concert is mad
Rolling Stone did a study a few years back and Aesop Rock's vocabulary is 4 TIMES as big as ANY OTHER RAPPER. He writes in straight metaphors and shit. He has been on another level for straight 2 DECADES. And asap rocky stole his name.
Anytime I listen to an Aesop song I learn at least 6 new words 😂
On the one hand this feels pretty obvious to point out but if he simplified the lyrics he loses the entire beat baked into the lyrics. He's not just picking words for the rhyme,but to build patterns with the stressed and unstressed syllables, alliteration, etc. He does that while using every word correctly, rarely throwing one in for filler, and usually staying out of the Word Salad territory.
Damn, I know it's hard to decipher on the first listen, but I feel bad for this guy. A lot to learn young fella.
He's just a poet trying to get in the art of rap. Stick the poetry!!
Taking about art
It's about his regret for not having kept up with his old creative outlets. This is honestly one of his easiest songs to decipher ha.
OK now I will explain the song for you. It's a existensial expression of self reflection. Your response is exactly what he is talking about. How critics who don't understand art with cut you down in order to try to understand you because they don't understand why you would draw things like a "two headed unicorn" There is tension because he wants to create art that is appriciated but at the same time people do not have the ability to appricate and its disheartening for him. It's kinda like the story of the goose with the golden eggs which is an Aesop Fable in which they wanted to get the gold out of the goose and so they chopped it in half and killed the goose loosing the golden eggs and to find there was no gold inside. The idea is just because you can't understand something doesn't mean you can't appreciate it. The bars you are having a hard time understanding is when he tells stories as examples of his artistic creative process. He is also a visual artist and when he talks about painting and drawing he is really talking about drawing and painting. You are not an honest person you are an impatient ignorant person who thinks oppinions are honesty. But you are funny.
All the art references are fabulous!✌️😊
Aesop Rock: I used to draw. It was cool. Went to school. I got scared.
This Clown: WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT I HAVE NO IDEA.
Aesop Rock: I used to paint. It was coo-
Clown: I AM SO CONFUSED, WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN???? TOO LYRICAL OMG SEND HELP.
No disrespect or negativity here at all man but this really is one of his most easily understandable songs he’s basically talking in plain English about how he used to draw and paint and how he essentially regrets giving it up
For your Sunday:
Bizzle - The Gospel
Andy Mineo - You Can’t Stop Me
Hoping Christian rap equates to gospel for you.
Asap Rocky isn't a mumble rapper. What songs have you been hearing? He came out before the mumble trash.
“You can’t write 24 bar versus
You can’t talk in 3rd person
They wont purchase
& Why You call Yourself a dream merchant?
You’re too deep.
You need to call Yourself a sea urchin.”
-Homeboy Sandman-
trees have RINGS that indicate their age. you can only see that if you chop them down. hes not talking about rings that go on your fingers.
It’s likely Brooklyn or any of those north east Meccas
Its an experience thats what his fans like. The journey of his story. Too lyrical? Thats a matter of opinion 😊
He ain't for dummies. I was an artist, still am, so I relate. Aes is the 🐐. You have to be knowledgeable to translate barz.
Gotta think about it. Art isn't always straight forward.
USE CAPTIONS WHEN THE LYRICS GET INTRICATE!!!!!!
he makes perfect sense.. you just don't understand
Dude, he's cryptic at times but this song was extremely straightforward. Everything here makes perfect sense, nothing is rhymed just to rhyme, he just likes to tell very detailed stories.
"Stenciled fire on his roommates bass" could mean two things: he literally took a stencil of fire and stenciled the bass (bass guitar) or, he stenciled something extremely cool as is in, "that design is fire". I think you just misunderstood the key word here and the whole point of the song.
I honestly think there’s enough context clues and comprehension mixed with heavy metaphors that you could pull out that he’s speaking on his lost of interest in drawing and paint when it was something he loved to do for years.
I personally believe that most hiphop has remained shallow in lyrical content and most have become susceptible to it for so long that-along with Aes remaining exclusively underground his entire career-when a rapper uses more than “___ like a ____” metaphors, its deemed too lyrical or counted as nonsense.
Its a shame, because guys like El-P used to use this style but flipped it for RTJ to get big, which is a topic Aes briefly covers in Dorks.
Good reaction though, just wanted to say that.
A bass is kind of like a big guitar but has bigger strings.
He’s talking about art school
Search no further 🤟🏼
lmao he's talking about drawing and painting, how you not able to make sense of it is beyond me. if this was any other song of his I'd get it, but this song is simple as fuck
lol “too lyrical” Aesop’s whole thing is cryptic lyricism.
Screaming at the tv* "HE'S TALKING ABOUT ART FFS!!!🤬" this is one of his most straight forward songs he has. There is literally ZERO complex ideas in this song😂
Your def from NY!!
Ras Kass-Interview With A Vampire would be a great reaction. Also in honor of MLK you should do Glory by Common and John Legend.
Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it doesn't have meaning.
So you stated that this song has many areas that make no sense, and that the video is useless...
Let me explain how interpret this song.
First off "rings" is referring to tree rings... you can count the rings of a tree, to see how old it is.
In other words "they will cut you down, just to count your rings" is saying that many people will often tear others down, just to see how much they can take... to see how rooted and experienced you REALLY are...
Second verses I'll explain (as to how I interpret and what the lyrics mean to me) ... regarding the "I used to paint" bars... so he's basically saying that he used to be a visual artist with his hands... i.e. "I used to draw", "I used to paint" ... he was totally sold out to it e.g. "addicted" ... then he had things happen in his life that lead him toward music, he references his "roommate's bass" as a nod to hip-hop having an influence on his life... he goes on to say that became his new "unicorn" i.e. dream / something that one strives after, that's nearly mythical or rarely seen or achieved ... remember, he states in the beginning of the song that it's a "two headed unicorn"
The song is largely talking about the inner struggles he's dealt with being an artist, and longing to feel normal in a society and industry that often will "cut you down, just to count your rings" ... I'm other words, as many artists over the decades have expressed having to deal with, where the industry executives, and even the fans at times, will push the artist to the limits, just to bleed them dry, of all their creativity.
That is just one part of the song, he also references his struggles with drug addiction, loss of close people in his life, and a few other intense subjects... i hope that helps to open you up to why these metaphors he uses, make a lot of sense, if you dive deeper into the artist himself... which is exactly the reason he speaks almost entirely in metaphor and symbolic phrasing, in most all of his songs, to force the listener to think of what he's saying on a much deeper level.
Sorry my guy but him “not making sense” is absolutely on you. There isn’t anything overly complicated in this, it’s just dense. I can understand you not wanting to do the work to “get” it, everyone isn’t for everyone, but this isn’t about him doing something wrong just something you don’t vibe with. From the first line he makes it clear. “Used to draw, hard to admit that I *USED* to draw” is about him having regrets that art is something in his past. The song is about his love of creating art is something he gave up on as he got older.
A lot of the references to art (drawing and painting, specifically) are absolutely easy to not catch if you also haven’t been exposed to that scene, but that doesn’t mean it is meaningless. A line like “It was blooming addiction Amiss in the pushing of pigment, Book like a tattooed pigskin” could be meaningless to you but if you knew that tattoo artists use pigskin for training because of how it simulates human skin accepting the ink then you see it is just a reference to his own collection of practice sketches.
Yeah…this song isn’t all that hard to digest. It’s about looking back in regret that you didn’t pursue your dreams.
You’re overgeneralizing. Just cause you miss it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t get it.
No disrespect.
But to say a man who puts this much care into his lyrics, doesn’t make sense, is just shortsighted 🤷🏽♂️
Read between the lines man
Not too lyrical just too complicated for minds not willing to increase their vocuabulary.
Homesty is fine but think, don't just react man. "They can hop you down so they can count your rings." What do you chop down that has rings ???? A Tree man....a Tree !!!!!!
Step YOUR Mind Skills Up Before You Go Throwing Shade On Aesop… Like Straight Up son.
&
It’s
Sa-Roc (For the back of the class🗣 Its pronounced like SAAA - ROCK 🪨)
Not saroc like some cheap alcohol❗️
Respect The god enough to say her name right❗️
React to Mural by Lupe Fiasco