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Blockhead’s 12th Solo Album is Worthy of Being Played Through “The Aux” (Album Review)

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Manhattan producer/DJ Blockhead returning with his 12th full-length solo LP & only 2 years since his last one Space Werewolves Will Be the End of Us All. Notable for being 1/2 of the Party Fun Action Committee, he’s also built a solo career for himself putting out his first 5 albums through Ninja Tune. But when I heard he signed to Backwoodz Studioz for The Aux & called up guests for every song, it was enough to intrigue me to cover it.

“AAU Tournaments” by billy woods & Navy Bluefinds the 2 over some jazz rap production admitting time’s short yet they’ve never taken time off whereas “The Cella Dwellas Knew” by Quelle Chris talks about too many rappers existing in the land of the lost over a groovy, whistling instrumental. “Mississippi” by Aesop Rock hooks up these jazzy horn sections with kicks & snares building upon the concept of counting the name of the titular state just before “Mastering How to Land” by The Koreatown Oddity & Open Mike Eagle has this fuzzy revered rock guitar loop talking about a new daydream making money like Tone-Lōc in FernGully: The Last Rainforest.

Meanwhile, “Lighthouse” by UGLYFRANK weaves this eerie boom bap beat into the picture getting in his hardcore bag lyrically leading into “Hater Porn” by Breeze Brewin’ & Casual finds the 2 over a organ as well as kicks & snares to spit some battle bars. “Give Thanks” by Armand Hammer says it all conceptually over a sample-based boom bap instrumental, but then “Papi Seeds” by Bruiser Wolfbrings this mystically occult vibe talking about how God took his time with this an unnamed adversary.

“God is Busy” by AKAI SOLO goes drumless with this guitar loop admitting that he’s eager to downsize his inventory even though that’s a whole different story of it’s own while “Ponzu Sauce” by Aesop & Breeze has this uncanny groove to the beat with it’s title originating from a line at the beginning of the Syosset wordsmith’s verse. “Sad Vampire” by Brian Ennals talks about puppies not turning into wolves or kittens turning into lions either over a boom bap instrumental with a high-pitched vocal sample while “Gargamel” by Defcee & ShrapKnel goes into cavernous turf referencing a 1-legged evil wizard.

The song “Pink Lemonade” by RXK Nephew brings out his Mr. Been Ballin’ persona accompanied by a shimmery trap instrumental while the penultimate track “1970’s Post Apocalyptic Skin Flick by Creaturenomics & Fatboi Sharif ruggedly talks about the Glock being on fire returning to the boom bap. “Now That’s What I Call a Posse Cut Vol. 56.”, feat. billy woods, Bruiser Wolf, Danny Brown & Despot ends the album with the 4 underground’s emcees over a more psychedelic beat with the best verses going to both billy & Danny.

Last time we saw Blockhead do an producer album with a predominant amount of guests had to be Free Sweatpants at the beginning of 2019, so to hear him recapture that energy & refine it was a great listening experience & has to be my favorite solo album of his in recent memory. The guests’ performances are tight as they spit in their hardcore/abstract styles over his signature sound.

Score: 8/10

Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com

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Aesop Rock & Lupe Fiasco Join Forces for Blockhead-Produced “Pumpkin Seeds”

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Aesop Rock & Lupe Fiasco collaborate on the Blockhead-produced “Pumpkin Seeds”, a single created in an effort to raise funds & awareness for two DIY skateparks in Dayton, Ohio called the Claridge DIY in Central Dayton & the Home Ave DIY in West Dayton. In addition to the digital single, the song is also available on limited 7″ vinyl. The artwork for the song was illustrated by Justin “Coro” Kaufman. Proceeds from this release will go towards funding the two skateparks in Dayton.

Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com

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Aesop Rock & Lupe Fiasco Join Forces for Blockhead-Produced “Pumpkin Seeds”

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Aesop Rock & Lupe Fiasco collaborate on the Blockhead-produced “Pumpkin Seeds”, a single created in an effort to raise funds & awareness for two DIY skateparks in Dayton, Ohio called the Claridge DIY in Central Dayton & the Home Ave DIY in West Dayton. In addition to the digital single, the song is also available on limited 7″ vinyl. The artwork for the song was illustrated by Justin “Coro” Kaufman. Proceeds from this release will go towards funding the two skateparks in Dayton.

Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com

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Aesop Rock & Blockhead Announce Collaborative Album “Garbology”, Share First Video “Jazz Hands”

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Aesop Rock and longtime musical ally Blockhead have announced the upcoming release of the collaborative album Garbology via Rhymesayers Entertainment on November 12. Though the pair’s collaborative relationship stretches all the way back to when they were first starting out in the late 90’s, including Blockhead producing two of the most popular songs of Aesop’s back catalog (“Daylight” and “None Shall Pass”) as well as several features across each other’s releases, Garbology marks their first full length release together. The pair have shared an early taste with album track “Jazz Hands,” a stunning stream of consciousness musical and lyrical sprint bolstered by an accompanying music video by Rob Shaw.

Garbology came together in the midst of Aesop processing the loss of a close friend in January of 2020, which resulted in a creative lull. “The world got really weird during those months,” recalls Aesop. “I knew at some point I had to get back to making something. Make a beat. Draw a picture. Write. Just go. But the idea of making a beat felt like math homework, and drawing is just so hard. Writing is hard too, but at some point I had to pick one.” Having ultimately decided on writing as the path forward, Aesop hit up Blockhead for beats. Initially, there wasn’t any particular plan beyond creating some songs, but as the songs kept piling up it wasn’t long before an album was born.

Garbology musically encapsulates our current moment; a snapshot of Aes and Block entertaining themselves in an era where social interactions are limited, all while “anchored on a goulash of cabin fever, fear, anger and boredom”, as Aesop describes it. As for the title, he explains that “Garbology is defined as the study of the material discarded by a society to learn what it reveals about social or cultural patterns. I find a lot of parallels between that and the idea of picking up the pieces after a loss or period of intense unrest, and seeing what’s really there. It’s information that speaks to who I am, who we are, and how we move forward. Furthermore – the idea of digging through old, often neglected music from another time with an ear tuned for taking in that data in a different way than your average listener would is exactly what Block does. Go through the information and see what you find.”

In the spirit of the album’s theme, the vinyl has been pressed as an “eco-mix”, a 100% recycled compound comprised of trimmed flash and left overs from other color vinyl pressings which cannot otherwise be reused, resulting in every copy of the LP having its own unique appearance while significantly reducing the environmental impact of the pressing process.

Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com

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