Aesop Rock - Zero Dark Thirty REACTION

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Aesop Rock - Zero Dark Thirty
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• Aesop Rock - Zero Dark...
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Thank you all.

[@dinnerbucket9]

A ton of his songs require revisiting in order decipher them. This is part of the reason I adore him. His songs have increased my vocabulary and influenced my writing style immensely. º•º

[@Happycamper808]

Ayy aesop is good stuff. DAYLIGHT - aesop rock is the jam

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

Dorks or gopher gut are equally dope and a bit easier to understand.

[@seancass1084]

ay man, for someone who is new to aes it's really impressive to even glean that much from 1 listen, props for giving it an earnest listen and not clown it for bein nerdy or whatever

[@seancass1084]

it also really helps to be looking at the lyrics too haha

[@AllGsReact]

Lol I learned too late bro

[@netsuastrebor8413]

Genius.com helps alot

[@Ty91681]

@@seancass1084 I find it also helps to just listen to the beat and not actively try to hear everything he says. The words just fall into place after a few a listens much easier for me. I always have to read his lyrics. I can't believe how good he's gotten.

[@Nicklopez81]

Only thing you can do for most of his music is look up the lyrics, grab a thesaurus and study....Some of his work is easier to understand, ie. No Regrets, Kirby....

[@juiceboxheroooo9752]

Even when talking about Kirby "shots of hot strongid" many wouldn't know that's a vaccine for cats and would think he's just mumbling off words. Every verse is calculated and educated.

[@4ndy4lxnd3r]

This one was a self portrait of himself against the industry; Unsigned hype (he reflects on rappin as a bum on the subways of new york) The moral compass is talkin about other rappers how hes not trying to support the addicts. Check his own break neck pulse over colors in a drain that emote sugar skulls in the rain (he got nervous before releasing his stuff and colors in the drain is him throwin up colors) I wont give the rest away but you can grasp it after realizing the whole self portrait part.

[@strangerde2709]

Aesop Rock is extremely complex

[@Illiyinmusic]

Stranger DE he's a genius

[@hiphopheaven]

Rhymesayers have many talents.

[@rxibot]

Mozart Mozart is it wrong to love a record label?

[@josiahlee1982]

Definitive juxtaposition...def jux had that fire before the Sayers

[@aaronneumann7750]

Rhyemsayers, subpop, def jux, and mello music are the tops. No doubt Rhymesayers carries the best in the game though.

[@juniorthehipster]

Aesop Rock always on some next level shit

[@Sharkraij]

Dope that you checked out Aesop, this dude have the widest vocabulary in the game, a lyrical genius, his tracks are dope

[@sirsmokey710]

I like that in the beginning you said if he's coming from that family I know lyrics won't be a problem

[@thehourman37]

Damn, you actually got the metaphors that you did catch REALLY well. Gj my dood.

[@JordanRA]

You did the best you could lol. Very confusing without the lyrics straight up. But I love his style, a couple other songs I like are None Shall Pass and Mystery Fish in case you want to check those out.

[@Illiyinmusic]

JordanRA coffee is one my favorites

[@oregonize503]

I like this platform. Don’t be frustrated Aesop Rock is one of the hardest MCs to follow. “Roving packs of elusive young become Choke-lore writers over boosted drums In the terrifying face of a future tongue...” he’s even exclaimed that some of the stuff he says doesn’t make sense to him. There was a data scientist that took the first 5 albums of every popular rapper and ran through a program for unique words. The results were incredible. All the most popular MCs were clumped in the middle aroun 1000-1500 unique words(words that don’t repeat. Aesop Rock was on the far right by a mile! Love him. He’s also a protege of El-P(Run The Jewels and Company Flow). This song was about a person struggling with shitty artists...

[@aaronneumann7750]

He has far surpassed El P.

[@SupernovaSteven]

Hey bro, honestly, you did really well in looking into those lines. Keep putting your mind to things like that!

[@aesop2020]

I love watching dudes hear him for the first time cuz I know damn well they’re thinking “wait what the fuck did he say?”

[@sugarhighmegaming5008]

I love rhymesayers but Aesop is a special beast. Not a man alive on his lyrical level. Complex and deep in the best way.

[@Ty91681]

He's the goat.

[@HolloWolf35]

We had MF DOOM NOW WHI STARTED THIS.

[@jalford383]

Aesop comes at you fast, drops Knowledge like a bomb,and seems just as freaked out as the rest of us. Just found out about him about 2 years ago and I am enjoying his catalog. So far even his side stuff is cool !

[@DazsdWTP]

"Im confused" welcome to aseop rock bud

[@denizkendirci]

he uses an increadibly rich vocabulary as his colour palette to paint a perfect picture of his psyche.

[@jeffhaskins530]

Well said

[@TragicPoet]

What you said about Aesop's song being a metaphor pool was a very good way to put it. All his writings seem that way too me too.

[@RavenousCatalyst594]

i still get that feeling of WOW you had with songs i've listened to daily for 15yrs. My 1st 'i can die happy' qualifier was that i even heard his art. he talks as a Creator, a 'tall glass of nauseous', says he "shovels coal for the slick piston benediction"/"SHOVELIN COAL INTO MY EARTHWORM SOUL" he's "gotta be a Big Bang" but he's also getting schooled by Creators Creators...("How to Be A Carpenter") in Dryspell i love when he says "now i'm drowning in a pool of 'why are you here?...hope floats? No! Hope sinks like broken boats" a line like "truth famine pressure" is how his lyrics give ideas/values FORCE. a truth famine is when you're starved for truth or fed only lies and the pressure that comes from that is what "clipper ships are dipped in" ...the line is "loose cannons span the starbored bow of clipper ships dipped in truth famine pressure" THAT'S JUST SOOOO ILLLL WOWOOWOWOWZA

[@TheMisterD00D]

Ravenous Catalyst best Aesop Rock comment Ive seen in 10 years, period

[@deejaybags]

Aes is like that, so much to listen to. Love ya work :-)

[@MOTAvatedHashtronaut]

if you ever get bored and wanna know a bit of orgin to his name.. look up Aesop's Fables. But, Aes Riggity's Labor Day album changed my life, front to back on new years eve about a decade ago...never fully understood his music until I listened to it on psychedelics.

[@MOTAvatedHashtronaut]

btw, you should react to Aesop's "No Regrets" once you get a chance. It's not super complex like this one - and there's a pretty perfect amateur video for it.

[@jason7371]

Kiss the speaker wires

[@kidangel101]

Like Aesop's Fables. . read them in high school.

[@sledgehammersssssquad3624]

Honestly man, I love Aesop Rock and I think I'm pretty good at understanding wtf he's on about most of the time. But most of his albums have one song that's just like borderline incomprehensible. Zero Dark Thirty is that for Skelethon. I think the hook is about inspiring new artists and there's a few things in here that are pre obvious like "brown grass both sides", but yeah idk. Would definitely recommend listening to an entire album top to bottom. The Impossible Kid or Skelethon. Most of the songs on those albums aren't as difficult to parse as this one. Would love to see you react to Shrunk by Aes!

[@GAMESTHATDONTSUCK]

I argue Leisure force

[@sledgehammersssssquad3624]

@@GAMESTHATDONTSUCK it only really becomes clear towards the end i guess but that was definitely about him not leaving his apartment and just working on his album on some isolation shit.

[@spvcs3615]

Never knew you took this request 👍💯

[@Joseph-R]

Aesop is one of my favorites but definitely an artist who takes a minute to digest his music, he's very cryptic in his writing and drops some crazy word play that is hard to understand unless you're staring at the lyrics and analyzing it. If you're ever interested in a straight forward song by him that isn't so difficult to understand, he's got a classic song called Pigs which is simply about capitalistic greed and is very easy to understand

[@rxibot]

Hey brother if Aesop Rock was easy I wouldn't like him as much. I love the fact that I can go back years later and see that I was wrong on what I thought he was talking about.

[@AlexandriaTheGreat]

Why doesn't ANYONE do a reaction to Aesop Rock - Pigs?

[@tonytwotries1162]

also to be fair, its a bit hard to get into him due to his esotericness and verbosity

[@ehmiguel7602]

Jake Morgan G you give a bad name to Aesop fans. Even someone who appreciates lyrical rap can recognize that sometimes Aesop does write very aesoteric to the point where it seems like he is doing it on purpose cause he knows how hard it is to decipher. Some people don't like that. Doesn't mean they aren't smart. Don't be pretentious.

[@counteresperantotangentsab378]

Metaphor pool! Perfect. Damn, I love Aes.

[@wendighoul]

Keep in mind the other spelling and meaning, magnate, as in a rich and powerful person, so it's both immoral magnet and immoral magnate, Aes often uses both meanings of a homonym at the same time.

[@HerbalistGuybrush]

It Aes, pronounced "why us"

[@MiraLove]

Ayyy

[@jeffhaskins530]

Ace- sop- rock

[@Tylertenacity]

Ay-Sop, my man.

[@eyedeasneverdie3348]

You should check out Sadisti, his vocab isnt as extensive as Aesop but hes one of the few rappers who could put in the same bracket as Aesop

[@RavenousCatalyst594]

WAY INSIGHTFUL COMMENTS! tgat Minotaur in the Maze referebce makes the uNiVerse proud it got to the level where it grew cats like Aesop and U aka those who make his art even deeper,wider,more than it was without their take on it...THANKS FOR VID

[@fishfoodrenton1043]

dude i aplaud you.

[@crowpalm]

Good on you for going off the cuff to try to analyze his lyrics, that's hard but thought you keyed in on some good stuff. Metaphor pool is a great way to describe his style.

[@missmaddox]

Queen Pasiphae of Crete birthed a hideous bull-headed beast called a minotaur. King Minos hunted for the finest craftsman he could find to create an intricately designed cage that it could never escape from. Daedalus and his son Icarus began building the Cnossian Labyrinth. The Minotaur was offered sacrifices of young women and children to satisfy its cannibalistic appetite. The Minotaur's name given by his mother was Aterios, meaning "starry one."

[@missmaddox]

Jim Henson's Storyteller - Theseus and the Minotaur. I recommend you watch it's really cool c:

[@RudolfAmbrozVOD]

Honestly for a first listen, you did better at interpreting it than I did at the time.

[@screwylooygaming]

i've heard it pronounced more like Aesop(A-sop) and he has to be listened to with a rewind button to get all this metaphors in one take. You should check out "Babies with Guns" almost a decade old and it will blow your mind

[@theotherbrotherali5923]

As-Salamu-Alaykum Fam. Yo, Aesop Rock is very good at his bizarre wordplay but he's so freaking smart. 9 5ers Anthem is the joint. Bro, what you're doing is worth so much more than 6 bucks a month. I promised myself I'd not get swayed or talked into financially supporting any KZbinr. And you made me a liar. I'm getting on that Patreon tip. You deserve it Akil.

[@AllGsReact]

Bro this guy stump me and that don't happen a lot but I want him in my playlist now I like the it feels to try to figure out what he was talking about

[@theotherbrotherali5923]

AllG'sReact 9-5ers is tha joint. Aesop is the wordplay master everyone thinks Weezy is. Wayne ain't got nuttin on Aesop bro

[@amanSpawn00]

The Other Brother Ali he's also the word bank that everyone think Eminem is. But the most impressive part is that no matter the word or metaphor that requires that word, he always uses it how it should versus just putting big words or tongue twisters for filler.

[@theotherbrotherali5923]

Kalamite You ain't telling me nothing I'm not lucky enough to already know. I've been up on Aesop Rock for alot of years now. Way back before he was on Def Jux and then through the rest of his career up to this point. He's always blown me away. Growing up with a Grammar Nazi mom I can totally appreciate the need to use other words to describe something instead of saying the same 3 words over and over again. Hip Hop is lucky to have Aesop Rock. Real talk

[@amanSpawn00]

The Other Brother Ali Oh, I don't doubt you do, I just wanted to add on for the reactor to understand as well, since he seems new to Aesop(or at least his body of work but knows of him).

[@b1gmaan5000]

React to Aesop Rock Daylight/Nightlight.

[@ChildOfTheMostHigh77]

If you like Load Lux. You will really enjoy AESOP ROCK.

[@jrcartwright21390]

Fairly decent job interpreting some of the lyrics, but as a longtime Aesop fan, I’ve become increasingly good at dissecting the meaning underlying even his most cryptic of work, and believe it or not, in my view, this song sits somewhere in the middle with respect to its level of esotericism, making it not particularly difficult for me to unravel. A few things: “Zero friends, Minotaur-fugly stepchild.” I think you’re actually reading too much in to the Minotaur reference here. The meaning of the line, as I see it, is that he’s become so antisocial that he no longer has any friends, and has morphed into something so unappealing and repellent that it’s not just ugly... it’s fugly-Minotaur-fugly, which is to say as fugly as a Minotaur. The extent to which he perceives himself as unlikable is then further reinforced by the next word in the line-stepchild. He’s a Minotaur-fugly stepchild with no friends. Stepchildren are oftentimes regarded as much less likable and much more disposable by their stepparents than they would be were they to have been their biological children. The extent to which this is actually true is irrelevant, as the common perception is what Aesop was referencing in his employment of the metaphor-just in case anyone is offended by my saying that stepchildren are regarded as more disposable. Lol. But anyway, on to some of the more commonly misinterpreted lines... “No corner cut, no build team, only a particularly menacing angle perpendicular to everything.” I take this to mean that Aesop refuses to ever cut any corners-to take the easy road out. He won’t work with others to lessen any burdens, as he worries about the dangers of group think. He doesn’t want to “build team(s)”. This is among the most common themes in his entire body of work, and he’s been saying similar things all the way back to the beginning. As one example from early in his career: “I’ll be the head-shaker in a sea of nodding novelty dolls.” Also, “I shook the buddy-system wisdom ‘til the similars repel.” And “I take my seat atop the Brooklyn Bridge with Coke and a bag of chips to watch a thousand lemmings plummet just because the first one slipped.” And “Merit-badge marksman or poacher-it’s all the same. So I lay against the wood perpendicular to the grain.” And “I don’t pick teams or administer bans. I’m in the creek with a pick and a pan.” And there are countless other lines from various other songs of his saying more or less the same thing. He positions himself at an “angle perpendicular to everything”-he’s a perpetually discontent and opposed contrarian of the most extreme sort. He rejects everything that comes his way, as he remains forever afraid of the possibility of losing his individuality and merely towing whatever lines exist within the zeitgeist. Still, he recognizes that there is a downside to all of this, especially where his opposition feels more arbitrary, like can be seen within the “rebel without a cause” mentality. He finds this disconcerting, and therefore describes his tendency to oppose as “particularly menacing”. He’s afraid of going overboard, but just can’t help himself. He doesn’t want to ever oppose anything on an arbitrary basis-or conduct himself in such a contrarian way that he ultimately estranges himself from all of humanity-but feels somewhat doomed to do exactly that, and has only come to embody that persona more and more over time. The entire song of “Zero Dark Thirty” is essentially a panic attack, wherein he simultaneously celebrates and laments all that he is and has become. One more for now, the chorus: “Roving packs of elusive young become choke-lore writers over boosted drums. In the terrifying face of a future tongue, down from a huntable surplus to one.” This describes what Aesop views as the trajectory of many rappers. They start out as “roving packs of elusive young”-young rebels that band together in loose pursuit of some sort of purpose-subsequently becoming “choke-lore writers over boosted drums (rap is known for its characteristically heavy bass in many songs)”, and ultimately fade from prominence in “the terrifying face of a future tongue” (up-and-coming rappers they worry will ultimately usurp them and whatever fame they’ve attained in the process). This results in the extreme dwindling of their numbers, whereby they go from being a “huntable surplus” (something so abundant it’s “huntable,” with many rappers constantly taking shots at others early in their careers) to just “one”-Aesop himself. How many rappers can you think of who have managed to maintain anything approximating Aesop’s level of success and ability for over twenty years? Not many. Not many at all. And even most of those who have have fallen far away from their heyday, losing some fair amount of both their ability and fan base in the process. Aesop, meanwhile, is as capable and popular as ever. What he’s managed is truly remarkable, and he’s afraid of one day suffering the same fate as many of his contemporaries, hence the chorus. Against all odds, he’s managed to resist the tide and carve out his own path to victory, but worries whether it will last forever. So there’s that, folks. I’d give explanations for all the lines if I had the time, but sadly I don’t. Nonetheless, I hope this helped, and feel free to ask me to give my interpretation of any others you feel you may be confused on. I’ll do my best to help. Take care :)

[@1t1o1m1m1i1e]

It’s ACE-SOP

[@amanSpawn00]

you should also try reacting to ZZZ Top - Aesop Rock. Oh almost forgot, The Yes And The Y'all is crazy too

[@doognessmonster1625]

Review The Impossible Kid.

[@frogg9835]

A(e) SOP rock ;) but he is a beast

[@lainx3]

You should check out Scroobius Pip if you havent already.

[@apollog7764]

This'll be my last one, please Exhibit C by Jay Electronica!

[@psychokinetics8291]

Google Zero Dark Thirty, it's a start. Top secret government operation blown out of the water and turned into cinema lol

[@logicfreedomz]

music that doesnt push you to think isn't music, just noise. IMO

[@newernewestnew]

React to Michael Jackson- Another Part of Me ❤️

[@brandonhager142]

Seriously...

[@yamch]

do a Brother Ali reaction

[@HolloWolf35]

Do ANY MF DOOM NICE VID

[@bigkarma420]

You need to be some what well read and able to understand lyrical composition to properly break down an Aesop Rock song. Its entertaining watching some of these channels of critics trying to do this. Aesop is far to complex for the average listeners. Start at the beginning to really appreciate the style and evolution of this greatly underappreciated MC.

[@AllGsReact]

+Kelly Maule I was so lost lol

[@Unterhund69]

Kelly Maule you sound like the rick and morty copypasta my man.. might wanna tone it down a bit

[@bigkarma420]

VNC fuck you talking about?

[@Unterhund69]

Kelly Maule i'm talking about you sounding like the rick and morty copypasta as i commented earlier. Get off your high horse your comment is corny as fuck

[@bigkarma420]

VNC dude can't hear this shit. He doesn't know aesop shit in general. Fuck ya self fuck boy

[@arcane24records64]

your mom

[@Deucehoru]

Way off man......