Track Listing

1. Bazooka Tooth
2. N.Y. Electric
3. Easy
4. No Jumper Cables
5. Limelighters - Aesop Rock, Camp Lo
6. Super Fluke
7. Cook It Up - Aesop Rock, , Party Fun Action Committee
8. Freeze
9. We're Famous - Aesop Rock, El-P
10. Babies With Guns
11. Greatest Pac-Man Victory in History
12. Frijoles
13. 11:35 - Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif,
14. Kill the Messenger
15. Mars Attacks

Product Details

• Released on: 2007-05-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

From Amazon.com
The MC Paul Barman-friendly raps flipped by Aesop on his acclaimed 2001 Labor Days release generally didn’t register on most hip hop traditionalists scales. And Bazooka proves that he’s even less interested in appeasing the boom bap crowd. On "We’re Famous", Def Jux label head El-P and Aesop go after the, ahem, critics who might not view their futuro sound collages as legit hip hop. El-P raps "I laugh at critics claiming, 'Hip-hop’s over'/ F*** you, hip-hop just started." This being the first release where he handles the bulk of the production, Aesop intentionally goes all Def Jux, programming as many ultramodern found soundscapes on "NY Electric" and "The Greatest Pac-Man Victory Ever" (peep the sampled sounds from the classic video game) as is alienly possible. While his wordy and nearly incomprehensible verses on "Freeze" or "Mars Attacks" will either grate on the nerves or rate near genius, middling they’re not. It’s just a shame that the lack of soul in his rotating rap deliveries tends to undermine his masterful storytelling capabilities (like, who else writes brilliantly random songs about goings on in their life at 11:35 P.M. on January 21st ("11:35")). Fabolous fans run for cover, this is extreme backpacker rap at its grimiest. --Dalton Higgins

Customer Reviews

Every hero dead and it's making you forget...
This is my second review of this CD, and I felt it had to be written. Eh, here goes...
To start, this is an angrier, sharper, and much more incisive Aes Rock than Float or Labor Days. Bazooka Tooth is the polar opposite of these releases. It's hard, grimy, glitched to hell and back, and to be truthful, everything I wanted from Aes that he never gave until now.
Most of the complaints about the album have focused around the production work. It's stark, heavy, very electronic, and sounds NOTHING like anyone has every done. This has been a major turn off for what seems like a bunch of people. I say this stuff is as fresh as you can get. If this was an instrumental album, I'd bet all of my money on people drooling all over it. EVERY, and I mean EVERY track is on point. Just check the LSD crawl of "Greatest Pacman Victory in History". The background noises always grab my attention everytime, until I'm more interested in the beat than what's being said. I think I might be the only person who thinks that the beat of "Super Fluke" is genius. The smooth jazz instrumental being strangled by a clumsy beat just slays me. Who thinks of stuff like this? Aesop Rock gets my vote for greatest producer EVER for this one.
Others have complained of his delievery on this CD. Frankly, his delivery on this album would have sounded like a joke if he kept the sound of his previous works. Aes has turned his voice up a few notches, and his words have more flesh on their bones. I mean, damn, this stuff is on edge. Some of it is pretty impenetrable, but over time, you'll catch what he's saying. And you'll be floored. This isn't fridge magnet writing, despite what anyone says. No fear in placing what's in his head on paper. 10 months later, I'm hearing some of his lines for the first time.
I decided to write this review after listening to "Kill The Messenger". I'm suprised how few people have commented on how good this song is. In one song, it seems to sum up the whole album: We're all lemmings running with scissors to the closest open jaws, I'm confused as hell, and the whole ship is coming with me when I go down.

Bazooka Tooth
So much has been said already in these reviews, I just wanted to chip in with a few points I think need to be made.

There seem to be two camps of people writing here: those who want to dismiss the lyrics Aesop Rock writes as gibberish, and pretentious jerks who dismiss the former as just "not getting" the music. I fall somewhere in between I think; I enjoy the lyricism alot, but I would certainly not claim to fully comprehend the essense of every song. I like the wordplay and rhyme schemes alot, as well as the interesting images played on in the verses, and I think these, as well as the persuit of comprehension make Aesop Rock's music worth listening to.

As for the production, which many have griped about, I used to share this opinion, but after sitting down and cranking my speakers and listening to the whole album from beginning to end, I really started digging the beats. I had heard Labor Days before, and loved it, and my initial reaction to Bazooka Tooth was disappointment at the difference in production, but it grew on me. Seriously listen on a good sound system before you become judgemental.

I guess, in summation, I'd like to say that Bazooka Tooth is a great album, definitely worth picking up, but best listened to with an open mind, and LOUD.

peace

Lost Aesop verse discovered under pyramids
Absurd long-words perform surgical intrusions,
Impeding the brain with cranial confusions,
Convoluted metaphors create pompous delusions,
Leaving cyberpseuds with paranoid illusions