Details
Track Listing
1. Labor
2. Daylight
3. Save Yourself
4. Flashflood
5. No Regrets
6. One Brick - (featuring Illogic)
7. Tugboat Complex Pt. 3, The
8. Coma
9. Battery
10. Boombox
11. Bent Life - (featuring C-Rayz Walz)
12. Yes and the Y'All, The
13. 9-5ers Anthem
14. Shovel
| Details | | Contributing artists: | C-Rayz Walz, Illogic | | Distributor: | Caroline Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Aesop Rock, Illogic, C Rayz Walz.
Producers: Aesop Rock, Blockhead, Omega One.
Every once in a while an MC comes along who has the ability to reaffirm listeners' faith in hip-hop as a medium for intelligent, poetic, personal expression. Aesop Rock is one such MC, and LABOR DAYS is his defining statement. A flagship artist of the underground label Def Jux, Aesop Rock brings a style that is blisteringly fast, impossibly dense, and overflowing with metaphors, images, puns, references, and narratives. Rock's voice and attack--a rapid-fire, somewhat nasal monotone--borrows from Kool Keith and Eminem, yet his highly literate rhymes are uniquely his own.
Aesop Rock's music is the antithesis of flashy, R&B-based commercial hip-hop, and his politically conscious, culturally aware lyrics are galaxies removed from the thug/gangster themes of hardcore rap. Intriguing samples, featuring instruments like flute and sitar, flesh out the beats, but this is lyric-centered hip-hop, and Rock gives us plenty to absorb. Absorbing character-based narratives ("No Regrets") and slicing, alliterative tunes ("Daylight," with its infectious, memorable chorus) are testaments to the rapper's sophisticated lyrical superiority.
Industry Reviews
Ranked #45 in Wire's 50 Records of the Year 2001.
The Wire (01/01/2002)
4 stars out of 5 - ...An esoteric and gripping ride...
Uncut (11/01/2001)
...[The] ambient grooves make the Wu-Tang Clan seem tired, while the hyper-enunciated rhymes make KRS ONE sound like a stutterer... - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (09/28/2001)
7 out of 10 - ...Aesop's voice is a rich, flat bass cut with a thin growl....exploring variations within timbre to access a vast emotional range....he purrs contentedly, knowing that his vision will always poke through the haze.
Spin (12/01/2000)
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