Passing Grades

Aesop Rock
None Shall Pass
Definitive Jux

There was always a problem with my giving Aesop Rock a personal five-mic rating. I know he's one of the best emcees in the game right now, but if anyone were to ask me how I know it, I wouldn't be able to answer them properly. Of course he's got that sick flow that's halfway between a drunk southern auctioneer and a demonically-possessed weed junkie whose last visit from an exorcist is way overdue. But what the hell is he saying? Granted, his content comes so thick and dense you might need a few dozen listens to get about half of what he's trying to say. And his previous beat choices were always hit and miss for me: for every 'Daylight' there was a 'Mars Attacks', even though Blockhead is definitely an excellent lab partner.

But with his latest album None Shall Pass, all reservations melt away. Aes Riddock. comes. with. IT. I got an inkling of how funk-drenched an Aesop Rock track can be when I first heard 'Fast Cars Danger Fire and Knives', but NSP is like the destination. Mad, mad beats. I even like the electro-flavoured title track. Blockhead is back on the boards, plus one track produced by El-P ('Gun For The Whole Family') with Mr. Meline sounding fresh again, post-I'll Sleep When You're Dead, and no less than five beats by Aes himself. 'Citronella' hits you hard over the head, demonstrating Aes's understanding that his convoluted flow needs to be tempered by instrumentation that doesn't get in his way. But my personal favourite is surprisingly the song featuring Cage and Breeze Brewin, 'Getaway Car'. I usually avoid Cage like the plague, but he's nice on this one, and the hook? Damn. I need to stop. None Shall Pass just pulled Def Jux out of art house snobbery status, and I'm glad a label with so much potential - even after almost 10 years of existence - has produced an album that retains its grassroots relevance. Git it.

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

Kanye West
Graduation
GOOD Music/Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam

Okay, I don't think I'm going to write as long for this one as I did for the album above, because most of yall biatches know about this album alerady, unless you've been living on Uranus and/or are totally and completely on Fiddy's dick. Graduation is beyond a doubt Kanye West's tour de force as a musician, the culmination of what he has been trying to make the world understand since The College Dropout - "I'm kind of a big deal". And he is, loathe as I am to admit it. There will never be a day when I'll agree with Common when he proclaimed Kanye "the new Primo", but I don't see myself calling some new cat "the new Kanye" anytime soon either. In an age when rap artists on Billboard are in full-blown denial about the pop nature of their music, Kanye embraces it and crafts urban pop that transcends put-on macho posturing. He's not out for blood, he's just out for awards, and he deserves them.

Graduation is not a perfect album, and I think some of the reviews it's received are a little over the top. 'Champion', for example, is straight up annoying. And did Eminem write the hook for 'Drunk and Hot Girls', featuring Mos Def? But cuts like 'Can't Tell Me Nothing', 'Stronger' (word to Daft Punk) and 'Good Life' featuring a non-irritating T-Pain deserve their props. Even 'Barry Bonds', a nonsensical bragging-rights track featuring Lil' Wayne, sounds good for what it's worth. Yeezy holds back the real emotional content he's notorious for until the last two songs, and he lets loose about two things he really feels strongly about: Chitown on 'Homecoming' (with Coldplay's Chris Martin) and 'Big Brother', an ode to Jay-Z - a rather large blip on mainstream hip hop's gaydar, but fuck you it's a good song, even though it's a little like listening to a very private conversation. But that's how Kanye is, I guess. At least he does it well.

Kanye West - Graduation