Sunday Music: New Billy Woods, Old Aesop Rock

OK, firstly – there’s a new Billy Woods & Kenny Segal album, it’s called Maps, and on my first few listens I’m very excited to keep listening because I can feel it taking root on my brain. 

I like this. I’ll link to a song or two at the bottom to give you a taste. 

But then there’s this Aesop Rock song towards the end, which is good too, but it made me want to put some old Aes Rizzle on. 

I’ll add another link to a personal favorite I still reach for periodically. 

And that all got me to the song I actually want to highlight here. I never gave Aesop Rock’s The Impossible Kid a listen, apparently. Shame on me apparently for thinking he got middle-aged and less interesting.

The thing I always loved/admired most about his work, was how notebook conversational he could get. I say notebook conversational because unlike just shooting the crap with your friends, there’s this deeper, more creative, playful wrestling that comes from him writing it down and working out his distinct phrases and phraseologies. 

You don’t listen to him for the choruses, you listen like you read Junot Diaz’s short stories. 

I don’t know how else to describe this song, but it’s brilliant. Here are the lyrics to “Lotta Years.”

The kid that worked down at the local Baskin-RobbinsGot a tattoo of a lipstick print attached above his collarI watch him relocating pistachio to a waffleThinking I had lost the plot if not the passion for the novelHe asked me what I wanted. I ordered something daftHe said he liked the tattoo Alex drew me of the bats. ThanksI like it too but modestly confess in present company my coloring is not the main eventLook at that neck. The message is immediate the guy F’s chicksI spent a lot of years making friends with cool artistsSo when they drew me tattoos I could truly feel importantIt’s a 22 year old inside a cube of brick and mortarGot me questioning my morals in a corny pecking orderI should give a sh**lessCherry? No. Whip? YesLotta YearsUh, Lotta Years

The girl that worked down at the local juice placeGot a head full of dread locks down to her waistI watch her add the spinach to the ginger to the grapesMy hair was underwhelming, my juice was fing great Some lady orders Maca, compliments the locks She asked how many years it took the girl to grow the crop “It took a lot of years and then eventually I cut them, kept them, reattach them anytime I want them.” My mind’s fing blownFuture is amazing, I feel so f***ing oldI bet you clone your pets and ride a hoverboard to workI used a folding map to find the juice place in the firstThese kids are running wild I’m still recovering from churchYou should have seen me in the nineties I could ollie up a curbYou should have seen me in the eighties I was bumping New Edition dragging acne into HadesLotta Years