Aesop Rock – ‘Skelethon’

A distinctly average record

Some truly great MCs have served time in the New York experimental rap supergroup The Weathermen – the likes of Cage, Tame One and Yak Ballz are present members, and Copywrite and the late Camu Tao have passed through their ranks. By the same token, at least two truly terrible MCs, El-P (great producer and all that, but on the mic? PLEASE) and Vast Aire have made up the numbers, like weakling kids picked last for the football team. Aesop Rock is the group workhorse, in footy terms a capable holding midfielder of an MC, a solid 6/10 performer who is now bestowing upon us a solid 6/10 album in ‘Skelethon’, his sixth (for all you number six fans). His tendency is to try too a little too hard with his off-kilter lyrical gush – sometimes, as on the Divine Styler-esque ‘Racing Stripes’ or the hefty, clattering ‘Gopher Guts’, he achieves a kind of inebriated poetry. Other times, he sounds like he is talking bollocks. Named after a fabulist, yes, but still not quite fabulous.

Pete Cashmore

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories