It’s been a decade since the gravely voiced Aesop Rock released his debut Music For Earthworms, and while his vibe sound have evolved immensely, his approach hasn’t. From the inception of his career Aesop has stood aloof from the rap pack, transforming detailed abstract visions into words with a bizarrely pleasant delivery. While the word unique is often over used in relation to artists, Aesop fits the definition perfectly. There isn’t another comparable, and over the course of five albums and three EP’s he has continued to experiment and enhance his music.

For his latest offering, None Shall Pass, Aesop splits production duty with long time collaborator Blockhead, with additional joints by El-P and Rob Sonic, resulting in a very comprehensive and fluent album. Love him or hate him, you’d be hard pressed to deny his artistic prowess and that to me is as hip-hop as it gets.

Photo Credit – Jeff Shaner

TSS: What’s going on man? They got you doing press all day?

Aesop Rock: Yeah, for the next three hours. You got me early on so I’m not that grumpy yet.

TSS: Alright, well I’ll make it quick and hopefully keep it interesting. First off, I wanted to ask what you think the biggest misconception is about you personally or musically?

Aesop Rock: Uhmm….I don’t know, I guess musically people tend to throw in the term, and I literally just read this a minute ago in a review, but they always throw in the term “stream of conscious” in reference to my writing. I always thought that meant that I just kinda put the pen to the paper and write whatever comes out in this vomitous outburst. But everything is really crafted over a long period of time and every word is individually selected very carefully. It’s kinda the opposite of stream of conscious. I don’t know, that just tends to be something I’ve heard for many years and I never really got it.

TSS: So it’s not like you sit down and write a whole song, it’s more of a grueling process that you shape and mold?

Aesop Rock: Yeah, it’s just not something that I sit and like whatever comes to my head comes out, which makes it this big abstract thing. People tend to make it seem like it’s this one sitting, and I just throw it all out there, and some of it is gibberish and this and that. I never really did anything like that (laughs). It’s just a weird thing I always read.

TSS: Okay, glad we cleared that up. Writers should take note. Next, I wanted to ask what album affected or influenced you most artistically?

Aesop Rock: In general in my life or most recently?

TSS: In general, you know like what album flipped your outlook on music?

Aesop Rock: I don’t know, I don’t think it would be any one record, but being from Long Island, I was very big on EPMD and Slick Rick. I mean it’s most early East Coast stuff, late 80′s or early 90′s. That’s my era. Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back was a big one for me. I can’t say there was just one album, but there are a handful of those earlier East Coast albums. I was trying to take it all in. When you’re that age and your listening to music you’re like a sponge, just taking in as much as you could get your hands on. It seemed like there was an endless supply…Every record that was dropping was just sick, and it was rare for someone to put out a totally wack record at that time. It seems like it didn’t happen until the mid-90′s.

TSS: Do you remember the first wack record that you heard?

Aesop Rock: Oh geez. First wack record? It wasn’t the first wack record I heard, but I remember being shocked because I thought “Flava In Ya Ear” was such a hit single, and then thinking ‘wow, this Craig Mack album is fucking awful.’ That obviously wasn’t the first wack record, I don’t know what year that was, but I remember being shocked like, ‘how is this single so good, and this record so not good?’

TSS: (Laughs) Alright, back to the original question. The reason I asked about the album that influenced you most is because there wasn’t anyone with a style like yours before you. Was there any album that made you think it’s cool to go left and come with this completely bugged out style, or anything that inspired you to go that direction?

Aesop Rock: The thing that I liked about all the records that I was talking about was you take a Slick Rick, a BDP record or EPMD and they’re all equally dope but none of them sound alike. That is why people are always screaming about the ‘golden era’ because it was just a variety of stuff. When you bought a record from a guy like Slick Rick, he didn’t sound like anyone. He had his own thing going on, his own style and image that went with everything he brought to the table, and that was a large part of what I admired about him. The same thing with someone like KRS-One or Chuck D, they brought this entire thing to the table. It wasn’t just a rap record, if you bought a Public Enemy record you were buying an entire movement. The fact that these dudes were all equally on their own shit, but equally dope, that’s what inspired me.

Early on when I was starting to write rhymes I was basically biting everyone I could, just learning how to rap. I wouldn’t think to myself, ‘would Erik Sermon say this?’ Eventually you start realizing that you want to be dope, but you want to be equally as unique as you are good. So you end up finding this way to flip these things that you’ve heard, and turn something from an influence and filter it through what sounds cool to you, or what’s your take on things and how are you gonna flip it and make it original and put your own spin on it. It’s sort of the lost art – putting your spin on things. Putting style in…there used to be style involved with rap music, it was kinda the main element but it’s sorta been forgotten. I don’t know, I guess I just tried to do my own thing.

TSS: What would you say has been the most important lesson you have learned throughout your career?

Aesop Rock: The one lesson I keep trying to learn – and that everyone I’ve met is trying to learn – is to just not let critics and reviews and magazines shape you in any way. You always read through reviews even though you say you’re not going to and then you end up being pissed off or something. It boils down to you can’t listen to that shit, or even be affected by it because then you start letting those opinions filter into what you’re making. Meanwhile, you got to where you are making your own shit by yourself.

The one thing you always have to go back to is that if you did achieve any success at all, you did it on your own terms. So the way you should continue is on your own terms as well, not letting others opinions play into it. The fans have their opinions of what’s your best work, the critics have theirs, and you have your own. At the end of the day you have to listen to yourself more than anyone else when it comes to the creative side. The creative side all started in my bedroom, from me trying to make songs in my bedroom, and that’s kinda how I still do it. That’s what’s most important, make it a one or two man operation, and don’t let other things affect you to where it will affect what you’re making, and how you’re making it.

TSS: What are your feelings towards journalists and critics?

Aesop Rock: Well, it’s necessary. It’s hard to hate something you know…My records are 100% me, without trying to be influenced by anyone else. Once I know I’ve done the art side of the record, the creative side, to the fullest of my potential, I let the label and the publicity do their thing with it. They push it how they can and I’ve sorta accepted it as part of the process at this point. It’s not the fun part. I mean I got in this because I like to make music, period. I don’t think I’m a good public speaker. I’m not good at sitting and answering questions, or whatever. But I think I’m pretty good in the studio, and maybe I can rock a show on a good day. It’s necessary, and I realize that if I’m going to try keep doing this music full time, these are things I have to be part of also. I just take the good with the bad, and run with it.

TSS: Let’s talk about the album for a second. Where were you at mentally during None Shall Pass, and where do you think it stands in your catalog?

Aesop Rock: Well, I’m biased because I always like my newest shit best cause I’m the least sick of it, but even outside of that bias, and to use a journalistic term, it’s my most realized stuff. I feel like it’s the most thought out and focused material I’ve put out, and it really has a theme that runs through it and a sound that goes with that theme. Blockhead and myself did most of the production, and El-P and Rob Sonic each did one beat. And even though all the production is done by different people, we managed to weave it all together so that the whole thing, in my opinion, sounds like one coherent piece. I feel like the writing is better. Some of the stories I was able to pull off are just…I don’t know, I’m not one to sit here and say I’m the man. But I feel like I did a good job. I definitely finished the record and stood back, and thought I might have done something right here. I guess it’s up to the sharks now and see if they like it. I don’t know where it stands, but it’s definitely the most complete package I’ve put out there.

TSS: You mentioned the stories, and this may be a weird question, but do the people you tell the stories of, do they have faces, like are they more than just faceless concepts?

Aesop Rock: Yeah, during the time I’m writing them. It’s funny cause some of the stories, there were a couple I started a year ago, like I would write the first half and didn’t have an ending so I would put it away. Then at some point, I would pull out and had to dig up their faces again and recreate things. But yeah, during the time the stories are being written and recorded these people are realistic characters in my head. Nothing is directly biographical but it’s all sort of based on things that I’ve experienced, or people that I know have experienced. I want to pull stuff from real life and make it as believable as possible so I pay attention to detail and treat it as an author would when writing a story, like staying in a third person point of view and describe a situation as much as you can where you pull from real life and stuff in your head.

TSS: Alright, cool. That’s gonna be it from me. Anything else you wanted to add?

Aesop Rock: Not really. It comes out the 28th, and I hope people like it.

Aesop Rock’s None Shall Pass is in stores now. Go cop that!

Listen to Aesop Rock’s “Citronella” and “None Shall Pass” from None Shall Pass (Def Jux).

For more on Aesop Rock, visit www.myspace.com/aesoprockwins and www.definitivejux.net.