Conversation: "No, I said Aesop Rock, not A$AP Rocky."

it's fascinating as hell to hear a great artist describe the remorse of abandoning a previously loved art form.

This is where I send people who accuse Aesop of peddling word salad. It's a touching personal story, coherent and poetic, with tons of original phrasing, perfectly executed.

As an artist who procrastinates, I got chills from this song

"Used to draw, hard to admit that I "used" to draw. Used to paint, hard to admit that I "used" to paint." Those are some powerful lines. So simple but sends such a strong message. Automatically gets you thinking about all the things you used to love and why you may have stopped working on them.

I don’t know if it was in this video but one hilarious comment was “only Aesop Rock can make it sound like only the hardest OGs paint and draw”

I can't be the only one who feels literal chills run all over their body listening to this.

This shit struck a nerve with me. I can't even listen to it without my whole body going numb. Haven't picked up my trade since I graduated art school in '09. Life took a very different turn than I thought it would. Just started to pick myself back up along with my artistry, and Aes sends out this. I'm going for top MFA program in the country, and this shall be my theme song while I hustle. Appreciate it, Aes.

When he got hit by that car, I honestly thought a bunch of rings were gonna come out of him like Sonic The Hedgehog...

After 8 years, this song still hits me hard. I used to stay up all night as a kid drawing, writing, playing guitar, and enjoying my creative outlets. Then it came time to go to college and I decided to put my creativity to use and went to college for film. I wrote scripts, drew storyboards, built sets, designed costumes, made films, won awards but each semester it became more about performance and getting scholastic appraisal. After I left college life became about adult life and I had totally lost my creative drive. That was in 2016. I haven't been able to create something purely from passion since. I'm fighting to get it back but I honestly regret ever going to school for an arts degree. My advice to other creatives is to think long and hard before going into a place where your work will be institutionalized, graded, and evaluated. Consider going to school for something else and protect your creative releases, your escapes. Don't abandon them by any means, foster them deeply and pursue them. But don't let the world's ideas of creative evaluation turn your work into something you resent. Go be impossible.

Such a powerful song, it carries a lot of meaning for any artist. That's some deep personal stuff, and it's huge just to say that out loud.

To everyone who has watched this repeatedly, as I have, thank you. It's nice to know that there's others who live Aesop's work like I do. Aes saved my life many times with his music. I'll never forget the day I stumbled across Float. I'd never really heard of Aes but something told me that I needed that album. Needless to say, it changed my life. How to be a Carpenter is my favorite to this day. Thank you Aes!

This song picked apart the day and put the pieces back together his way.

Christ. He's just so nice with it.

Aesop Rock is one of the best lyricists and artists of all time. I hear new meanings and catch things i didn't before listening to his tracks. Oh man...the layers!

To all the creative people on this thread...PLEASE don't give up on yourselves. You create new worlds and you matter, whatever the level. And if you have given it up, I hope you rediscover and rekindle your lost love.

I swear AR's talent with the quill just get sharper with age. The fuckin illest. A living legend.

i have never been able to relate more to an aesop rock song..

Aes is a lyrical genius doing his own thing with his riffs that are his riffs ... Nothing recycled here boys and dolls, just fresh, new, unadulterated, genuine genius

"They will chop you down, just to count your rings" sent chills down my spine

I can't believe how hard Aesop kills it every time. That kind of heavy synthesizer reminds me a lot of Black Moth Super Rainbow, I love this.

3:23 - damn that line and flow

...after about 8 or so years of not drawing, i've picked up the pencil again. ♥ aesop

I will consider my level of english as a foreign language as sufficient for my needs the day I will understand a whole Aesop Rock song.

Good lawd who did that beat? Props to Ace Rock on a new banger.

As a graphics artist this is probably the first rap song that has really hit me in a soft spot. Aesop Rock, you have my respect. Absolutely.... beautiful.

Aesop Rock is a legend. I love this song, so I added a 3rd verse. Used to write Hard to admit that I used to write Thought distilled in a crystal state Mind immortal on a sandstone slate It was pneuma affirming A new inner meaning emerging Passage for all that needs purging Conjure a world with the flick of a wrist Ending a sesh in the mid-morning mist Dialogue darting about like its ping pong Drawing some shifty eyed looks with the sing song Sidewalk lost to the mental projection Lidless manholes beyond your perception Half of a day sacrificed to a sentence Only to nix it as lyric repentance A Jenga of notebooks and crumpled up post-its Diet abandoned, subsisting on Hostess You can’t imagine the thrill in your chest When your storybook hero’s pursuing their quest It all comes together, those phantoms made real The second draft printed, the wild-eyed zeal But out of the murk the quotas encroach Your cubicle life, your boss’s reproach Those radiant vistas get set to one side And all that remains is to say that you tried I left some timers ticking to nil I left some promise thumbing a lift I let my fiction dry on the quill I let my sonnet cease and desist Bungling the war with doubt, imposter syndrome setting in He’s wondering if every kindly word he got was counterfeit Now navigate the future like a no-wing pilot Nap in the photons, look up in the sky, it’s- Words falling out of the fringe All heart, though we would've made cowardly kings They will chop you down just to count your rings Just to count your rings, just to count your rings

The greatest MC of all time. It’s always cool to just hear him spit.

If you are an artist working in physical mediums like drawing, painting, print making, sculpture etc you understand the importance of leaving "tangible" art and artifacts. Your legacy.

This is going to be fire to listen to in Forza Horizon 3, soo happy to see Aesop Rock's music in the game!

This video fits the song so well

If you're working a job you don't love. This hits so hard the tears are automatic and you can't stop em.

Big bad bazooka tooth is back

The best rapper ever...havent heard anyone who can take me on journeys like this..continue to inspire and expose the fakeness by being so real..impossible

I swear his lyrics contain synchronicity esoteric type stuff . It's like hearing a mystic ..

Honest truth aesop is not just a rapper. He is a true artist.

This shit is even hotter than Skelethon... he just keeps outdoing himself. Really looking forward to the new album.

My therapist showed me this ... I'm one to learn lyrics quickly And yet this isn't that easy. I'm quite impressed with his lyrics, his flow, and how this was presented. The poetry and rhythm. The R.hythm A.nd P.oetry. Notice R.A.P. is an ACRONYM? Not just simply a genre?

I just wanted to tell you what a very special human being you are. Not just musically, but your mind.

I have never heard of aesop before. I must admit, this could be addicting! Good beat, lyrics are on point and video was also entertaining! ♥️

I've just been hitting refresh over and over. The flow on this is insane, and he's taken his lyricism to another level.

This might be one of the all time greatest tracks ever orchestrated. I know how that is ridiculously bold to say. Thanks for your music AES, can’t wait for more of that ITS.

I just graduated highschool a couple months ago. This song made me remember when i was in school and all i would ever do is draw, never paying attention to anything else. This struck me so hard when i actually listened to the lyrics that i nearly cried because it resonates so hard with me. I just started listening to aesop rock and now i think im never gonna stop Edit: one year after finding this song and falling in love with it and leaving this comment, I figured out the hook (they will chop you down just to count your rings) is actually a metaphor for loggers cutting trees and reading the rings inside to count it's worth. Absolutely beautiful storytelling at its finest

Goat. Thank you for feeding the need to read and continuously grow one's vocabulary. Thank you for your contribution to the pantheon of the great,great, great lyric.

Album of the year on the way

I have been a fan of Aesop Rock ever since I first heard him in THPS.

"Used to paint, hard to admit that I used to paint." 11 words have never hit me so hard.

The mixing and the keyboard synths beeping through the snare are making the song for me. So captivating.

so, so, SO underrated song... a masterpiece! i get goosebumps whenever i hear this song and concentrate on the lyrics

Man, this is SO GOOD

I feel like an earthworm and this is just for me !

I HAVEN'T FELT MUSIC LIKE THIS SINCE GOOD KID MAAD CITY

Aesop's rap is such a treat to listen to, but when you add in this video, the art becomes infinitely more apparent.

just ordered mine, shit martin skrelli sleeping on this one, so hyped,

The beauty in this man's third eye is otherworldly. What a gift to the world he truly is.

Wish I could like this to infinity.

I'm speachless. This is a masterpiece.

My jaw dropped and stayed that way for the entire video.

We won't let it die. many people have regained hope because of this.

where's that one guy who comments the lyrics?

forever my favorite mc

FINALLY this dude gets the recognition he deserves.................... Ive been rooting for this guy for 2 decades now and finally he's where he belongs. AESOP

Aesop Rock will continue to make dope music until he's a hundred.

OK I understand this music video now. When he falls on his back and cracks his head open, it symbolizes his entrance into school. Then the surgery part symbolizes his transition from a person with a passion for creativity to a person brainwashed to think a certain way because he has all his artistic and creative drive removed. Then, he discovers he is "ok" and he walks out into the world again (which symbolizes graduating high school/college) and he realizes he is empty without the creative drive that was taken out of him during surgery/schooling. Dude, I didn't realize this had all that symbolism the first 10 times I watched this.

Thank you Aesop.

This songs gives me goosebumps. It's amazing how many people, based on the comments, started drawing and painting again after hearing it.

I should've never stopped.

This isn't just a song its a poetic masterpiece filled with vivid imagery and landscapes

Ugh yessssss

This song is the reason I went back to school for music.

this is a man who struggles with his narcissistic fantasies, I feel that in the feels

No matter how many times I hear this in a single day, I never get tired of it.

This song plays in the back of my head all the time.

what i get from this is that people will try to control you for the potential you have, and exploit you're talent just to throw you out when they are done with you.

Most creative rapper I've ever heard/seen on so many levels

his flows are so balanced and controlled on this album, IMO Aesop's best work, possibly one of his best songs ever

my favorite is 1:13 using forceps to extract forceps analyzing how analytical he was in his college (visual arts) years

Aesop rock has returned with his most eloquent and poetic track since None Shall Pass. Contrasting to his earlier work like Labor Days or Float, the lyrics are strikingly coherent, a toned down of the more cryptic side of his lyricism. I will definitely listen to this again.

this song really does a good job of making it feel like the artist is drawing a picture in your mind.

This is about how he drew and even painted all the time when he was younger. Got out of it to pursue other things and 15-20 years later tried to get back into it and proved difficult at first.

Used to draw. Hard to admit that I used to draw. I can't describe how hard this rings for me.

This song hits home on a level I didn't think anything could to me anymore. Love drawing, done it since I was 4, and up until this point it was mostly a hobby, albeit one I've been more than ok at as some would say. I, of course, would think different. I lost the will to do so in these past several years. Aesop's words here feel as though they've been taken from my very thoughts, and have pushed me to pursue what I've always loved seriously. Thanks, Rhymesayer.

Seeing this kid come back is like watchin the gods return.

It's been more then 5 years. And I still love this song.

Props to 'sop's for providing a hiphop blues track for those that left the visual arts behind, but still miss 'em.

This reminds me that I haven't listened to Labor Days yet this week

Perfectly sums up the struggle to balance being an artist while still being marketable. Being in an industry that demands originality and expression but within the confines of contractual obligation, where you constantly have to defend your work and its worth is exhausting. You can very easily lose your way and your will to keep honing your craft if you can't find someone who understands your thought process. People with a genuine gift and talent for the craft can become discouraged, while those who do it for fun and recreation always put their own work down when compared to others. It's frustrating to find people who want aesthetically pleasing pieces or who demand graphics that further their own image, while refusing to pay for that artist's work. No wonder so many artists fight to keep their passions alive, be it drawing, painting, sculpting, writing or singing. It's a ruthless industry that people don't put much stock in developing. To my fellow struggling artists, I say, press on. And for those who have avoided picking up their pencils and brushes for years, like myself, there's no time like the present to start again.

I just realized that the 'missing' poster he drops in this video is the same he receives in Blood Sandwich. Love you Aes.

Fucking killed it. Thank you Aesop.

What a fucking sick video. "I let my fears materialize, I let my skills deteriorate." Good lord.

"then two then three then a month// then the rest of your life you beat yourself up" aes you are truly and unequivocally the best.

Happy birthday Aesop

Been relating to this song hard lately. I started college going into computer science, but discovered acting in my first semester and loved it. Got some big roles in a few plays and found a second family in my castmates. But then my major kicked into gear, I had less time to go to auditions and old castmates are quickly forgetting me. More and more I have to choose between a talent I love or a skill that I can assuredly live off of, and I'm terrified of looking back ten years from now and wondering what could have been.

his lyrics are always incredible

He's been playing this song for YEARS at his shows. Glad he finally put it on record

Damn been aware of Aesop rock for awhile now. Just woke up turned it on(finally understood his views and messages), and this guy is a genius.

Holy shit this song is awesome. I wonder if his other stuff is this good...

i can relate, as an animator who quit art , maybe ill try again

This mans allways been on a different planet of hip hop. shit makes my head spin and my tongue tired just thinkin about it..

This might be the best song ever created.