Glenn Swagmire
01-23-2008, 11:24 PM
i was browsing SOHH and i clicked it and didn't expect there to be such a discussion and thought it'd be interesting to read your views on what this guy was saying especially yous Draq & Atome ...
full thread;
http://forums.sohh.com/showthread.php?t=964081
Wow... Im confronted again with the fact that theres no accounting for taste...
I have given this dude several chances... and hes been wack everytime and every joint I've listened to.
I wont even get into his MC skills because really he lacks clarity so much of the time that U-God is a better rapper.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942221&postcount=18
Meanwhile Aesop sort of tosses all of that to the wind.
Keep in mind he is pretty unconcerned with: diction, being on beat, clarity, versatility, delivery, etc. In fact he literally is by most anyones standards just babbling on most of his songs. He is unable to maintain a clear or cohesive narrative structure to the great majority of his songs. To call him an MC isnt really being fair. It sure looks like he doesnt even have the necessary skillset. Wack isnt even doing it justice... its more like spoken word. But even then... its not good spoken word poetry.
Plus many of his producers seem give him beats that are not suited for an MC. Alot of his tracks arent even very rhythmically driven, which would make it a challenge for anyone to flow over it. Much less someone who seems to have no concept of what it means to ride a beat.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942378&postcount=19
Aesop strikes me as one of these white dudes that is really believing his own hype. He toys with MC'ing, as if its a joke. He doesnt even respect the art form enough to put together rhymes that make a shred of sense, using an extreme form of nonsensical spoken word type flow that has occasion bursts of clarity, followed by more BS. I mean even ODB and Bizarre made songs that were about something.
So its not even about skills again... He would have to be a real MC first to talk about skills. but hes one of this crop of cornball white dudes like Sage Francis or Slug who think rap is this Jan Brady sing along type stee where literally anything goes no matter how much you lack any type of credibility.
Its like calling that weird Al song "Amish Paradise" a rap song. Aesop is that dude, just a white guy getting his "liberal hipster" on.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942721&postcount=24
Meanwhile I dispute your claim that its the exception for him to be off beat and unconventional. Daylight was a song mentioned in this very thread... a perfect example of how he really seems to have a problem with riding beats. Atrocious example of flow not matching his production. Just straight up sounds like he recorded the vocals for a totally different beat. I wont even get into his off key singing. And furthermore, its another example of how he really is more of a nonsensical spoken word cat, because his lyrics in here are also very lazy and his thoughts dont even logically complete in alot of his lines.
"watching red bricks turn yellow"... come on.
Meanwhile he he makes a very corny, forced line about "Life being a b!tch but you are mad because she wont give you *****"
Etc.
So for you to refer to his lyrics as "esoteric" is again, not correct. Esoteric implies that he is in fact dropping references that are simply too deep or recondite for most listeners to follow.
Excuses. This is clearly not the case in this song. Its replete with lines that arent esoteric at all... they just literally mean nothing. Stop trying to play this cat off like he is deep when factually alot of what he says is just random words and phrases that arent referencing anything.
Example: Im listening to "Night Light" right now, and Id have to say, although hes managing to stay on beat, once again very muddled lyrics and poor cohesion to his narrative. Some parts are obviously meaningless statements. Some line stood out to me about
"the tin man stepped on a hermit crabs shell toe... lifes not a b!tch, life is a biaaatch"
Again, a mockery of MC'ing... its the sort of thing I would expect from kids rapping on Nickelodean
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058943184&postcount=27
Another Aesop song... "Labor"
Okay, another example of how he really does stray off and on beat.
And another one where he seems to use nonsense every couple lines. In fact he doesnt even bother to RHYME alot of his stanzas.
Quick example: (sung off-key) I aaaaam a star really... the big bad bastards back with a one way ticket to beat street"....
and thats it. the following line not only doesnt rhyme, it doesnt even make sense in context. Neither in the context of the song as a whole (why did he even call it Labor? nothing to do with it) , nor the preceeding lines. His diction is unfortunately so poor its difficult to actually tell what hes saying in the next line, but its something like...
"Soil is like relevant, human concept, supply demand ratio"
So again, maybe this highlights my problems with dude. I really feel like on the majority of his joints that I have heard he is in fact being lazy... and an MC whom folk claim is as intelligent and vocabulary driven as him certainly has even less excuse to come so wack.
What does it say that he doesnt even care enough about his listeners to take the time to write actual rhymes? Ones that make sense that is, if this were 100% off the top of the dome I might understand, but if he actually took the time to write some of this I am embarrased for him, and for his fans that are misguided enough to refer to him as a "lyricist"
full thread;
http://forums.sohh.com/showthread.php?t=964081
Wow... Im confronted again with the fact that theres no accounting for taste...
I have given this dude several chances... and hes been wack everytime and every joint I've listened to.
I wont even get into his MC skills because really he lacks clarity so much of the time that U-God is a better rapper.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942221&postcount=18
Meanwhile Aesop sort of tosses all of that to the wind.
Keep in mind he is pretty unconcerned with: diction, being on beat, clarity, versatility, delivery, etc. In fact he literally is by most anyones standards just babbling on most of his songs. He is unable to maintain a clear or cohesive narrative structure to the great majority of his songs. To call him an MC isnt really being fair. It sure looks like he doesnt even have the necessary skillset. Wack isnt even doing it justice... its more like spoken word. But even then... its not good spoken word poetry.
Plus many of his producers seem give him beats that are not suited for an MC. Alot of his tracks arent even very rhythmically driven, which would make it a challenge for anyone to flow over it. Much less someone who seems to have no concept of what it means to ride a beat.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942378&postcount=19
Aesop strikes me as one of these white dudes that is really believing his own hype. He toys with MC'ing, as if its a joke. He doesnt even respect the art form enough to put together rhymes that make a shred of sense, using an extreme form of nonsensical spoken word type flow that has occasion bursts of clarity, followed by more BS. I mean even ODB and Bizarre made songs that were about something.
So its not even about skills again... He would have to be a real MC first to talk about skills. but hes one of this crop of cornball white dudes like Sage Francis or Slug who think rap is this Jan Brady sing along type stee where literally anything goes no matter how much you lack any type of credibility.
Its like calling that weird Al song "Amish Paradise" a rap song. Aesop is that dude, just a white guy getting his "liberal hipster" on.
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058942721&postcount=24
Meanwhile I dispute your claim that its the exception for him to be off beat and unconventional. Daylight was a song mentioned in this very thread... a perfect example of how he really seems to have a problem with riding beats. Atrocious example of flow not matching his production. Just straight up sounds like he recorded the vocals for a totally different beat. I wont even get into his off key singing. And furthermore, its another example of how he really is more of a nonsensical spoken word cat, because his lyrics in here are also very lazy and his thoughts dont even logically complete in alot of his lines.
"watching red bricks turn yellow"... come on.
Meanwhile he he makes a very corny, forced line about "Life being a b!tch but you are mad because she wont give you *****"
Etc.
So for you to refer to his lyrics as "esoteric" is again, not correct. Esoteric implies that he is in fact dropping references that are simply too deep or recondite for most listeners to follow.
Excuses. This is clearly not the case in this song. Its replete with lines that arent esoteric at all... they just literally mean nothing. Stop trying to play this cat off like he is deep when factually alot of what he says is just random words and phrases that arent referencing anything.
Example: Im listening to "Night Light" right now, and Id have to say, although hes managing to stay on beat, once again very muddled lyrics and poor cohesion to his narrative. Some parts are obviously meaningless statements. Some line stood out to me about
"the tin man stepped on a hermit crabs shell toe... lifes not a b!tch, life is a biaaatch"
Again, a mockery of MC'ing... its the sort of thing I would expect from kids rapping on Nickelodean
http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=1058943184&postcount=27
Another Aesop song... "Labor"
Okay, another example of how he really does stray off and on beat.
And another one where he seems to use nonsense every couple lines. In fact he doesnt even bother to RHYME alot of his stanzas.
Quick example: (sung off-key) I aaaaam a star really... the big bad bastards back with a one way ticket to beat street"....
and thats it. the following line not only doesnt rhyme, it doesnt even make sense in context. Neither in the context of the song as a whole (why did he even call it Labor? nothing to do with it) , nor the preceeding lines. His diction is unfortunately so poor its difficult to actually tell what hes saying in the next line, but its something like...
"Soil is like relevant, human concept, supply demand ratio"
So again, maybe this highlights my problems with dude. I really feel like on the majority of his joints that I have heard he is in fact being lazy... and an MC whom folk claim is as intelligent and vocabulary driven as him certainly has even less excuse to come so wack.
What does it say that he doesnt even care enough about his listeners to take the time to write actual rhymes? Ones that make sense that is, if this were 100% off the top of the dome I might understand, but if he actually took the time to write some of this I am embarrased for him, and for his fans that are misguided enough to refer to him as a "lyricist"