Aesop Rock EP on the Way

Within months of releasing Float, Aesop Rock had achieved the marker of true underground success in 2000: everyone else's shit was getting incorrectly tagged with his name on Napster. It's hard to imagine that anyone following hip-hop these days would fail to recognize Aesop Rock's distinctive baritone but on the other hand, nobody got much practice back in the '04: Aesop had no album, no EP, and hardly any guest spots or compilation appearances. What happened?

We can't answer that but we don't care anymore, cuz in February 2005 Definitive Jux releases Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives, an Aesop Rock EP with seven all-new tracks. Specifically, these ones:

01 Fast Cars
02 Number Nine
03 Zodiaccupuncture
04 Holy Smokes
05 Winners Take All
06 Rickety Rackety (f. El-P and Camu Tao)
07 Food, Clothes, Medicine

As of late August, when Aesop Rock posted occasional bulletins to defjunkies.com, the record had three tracks produced by longtime pal Blockhead, one by Rob Sonic, and the rest by Aesop himself. And the sound? "If I had to describe it, I guess I'd say it was a bit more contained than Bazooka Tooth, though there is some bugged out shit on there. I don't know, actually. I thought Bazooka was easy listening til it started getting reviewed." In addition, DJ Big Wiz shows up to administer the requisite scratching.

What has us holding our collective breath, though, is the bonus: an 88-page lyric book covering every single Aesop Rock release except his first two self-released records. Titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow, this particular Rosetta Stone may eventually be sold separately from the CD.