If you’ve been hanging around this site long enough waveriders you’ll likely know that I am a fan of what the kids may still call the hip hop. I’ve reviewed quite a few hip hop albums over the years, and I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with the genre. In recent times my love and enjoyment of this music has dwindled, but there are still brilliant artists and albums I latch onto when they enter my listening orbit. A prime example is Aesop Rock & Tobacco Are Malibu Ken.
Aesop Rock is an emcee who previously appeared on The Ripple Effect when I reviewed his album The Impossible Kid. He is an incredibly dexterous and verbose rapper. I’m a fan. Tobacco is a producer/artist who I was completely unfamiliar with until obtaining this album. The soundscapes he produces for Aesop Rock to rhyme over are distinctly at odds with what I hear from other modern hip hop songs. I would describe the sound of his music as retro-modern. There are modern sounding electronic drums, but they are layered over beds of synthesizer parts that could have been taken from any number of classic 8 or 16-bit video games. I grew up playing said video games, so these sounds are the equivalent of a warm and welcoming embrace from an old friend.
Malibu Ken is 35 minutes of zany goodness! While I have no trouble recommending this album as something you could enjoy while multitasking, I would be remiss if I didn’t state that I get the most enjoyment when I’m paying close attention to the music. The reason goes back to what I mentioned previously. Aesop Rock’s lyrics are absolutely outstanding, and they come at the listener in an insistent stream. His vocal delivery is not overwhelming or oppressive, but I want to catch all of his unique references and story points and I can’t do that when I’m listening and doing something else at the same time.
Hey, how about a couple of lyrical samples to demonstrate what I’m referencing. Here is the first verse of the song “Tuesday”:
There's something you should probably know before we go too far
My neighbor found a mushroom growing inside of my car
She called me up on tour, sounding emotionally scarred
Although it may have scared her more that I wasn't really alarmed
The dandruff in a shaken globe is fit to gild a manger
The pizza face is pepperoni, carbuncle, and caper
I'm bunions and contusions, bumps, lumps and bruises
Discoloring, and other things I can't reach with a loofah
Not a butcher, not a baker
Pick a booger with a basic evolutionary failure
I do not open mail, I do not answer phones
The fridge is pretty much a home for mayonnaise alone
Watch a pocketknife surgeon cut a cyst out in the kitchen
It's the cousin to acutely removing his own stitches in a pinch
Kool-Aid ooze out his toothache
Mushroom growing in the car; it's just another Tuesday
And here is the third verse from “1+1=13”:
Ayy, when you wish upon a barn star
Deliver us from "nyuck, nyuck" and "hardy-har-har"
Deliver shady Lady Luck from the dark arts
She turn a basic straight shooter to a card shark, quick
I'm writing from the plight of the godless
Where pagans swap piety for shinier objects
And pretend to be a perfect pile of science and logic
Though it hasn't got us any less divided and conquered, look
The rock shock still knock on wood
No shame, still aim for the top of the food...chain
My lucky sevens only ever make it up to six
Every three tries, Satan kind of wins
Untied shoes alive on a wild goose
The winter is unrelenting, the kindling is fireproof
Got a face for radio, break a mirror every morn'
Turn seven years into seven more, it's yours
Not exactly the kind of wordplay you run into on the regular, am I right? Yeah, me neither. And the rest of the songs are all lyrically killer as well!
Waveriders Aesop Rock & Tobacco Are Malibu Ken is one heck of an album! If you enjoy hip hop and are looking for something off the beaten path you can really dig your teeth into, this is it! If you don’t listen to hip hop but are looking for something to experiment with that won’t insult your intelligence, boy howdy Malibu Ken is that too! Press play and take the plunge! I think you’ll dig what you hear.
-Penfold
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