Appleseed

Appleseed was Aesop Rock's second self-issued release, following his sought-after 1997 debut Music for Earthworms. Like 2000's Float, his first album with proper distribution, the EP's tracks were produced by Aesop himself as well as frequent early collaborators Blockhead and Omega One, although they only handled one track each. Even at this early stage, he'd pretty much established his signature style of ultra-dense, acutely descriptive rhyming, requiring numerous attentive listens to decipher his multidimensional brain barf. Easily a step up from the demo-like Earthworms, this is a much tighter, more focused set of tracks, even as it seems like Aesop is going off on a thousand tangents, following every strand of a thought that crosses his mind. The EP begins with a brief intro in which Aesop describes challenging his previous viewpoints, as well as those of people who blindly follow religious leaders. The Ornette Coleman sample used throughout "Dryspell" is relatively calm compared to Aesop's whirlwind rhymes about self-doubt, clashing emotions, and whether his drive for success is worth it. The sinister "Hold the Cup" details his frustration at not gaining recognition for his hard work (at least not yet), while alluding to a drinking problem. "1,000 Deaths" has one of the EP's more upbeat backing tracks, but the lyrics vent exasperation about Aesop's day job as a waiter while subverting several biblical references. "Odessa" finds him trading lines with (and sometimes overlapping) the even more abstract Doseone of the Anticon collective, with both emcees sticking up for fellow underground rap weirdos, in their own roundabout ways. Appleseed's lyrics are more introspective than they might seem at first, even if they're not quite as autobiographical as later Aesop albums like Skelethon and The Impossible Kid, and he hadn't developed his knack for storytelling yet, so the songs are less narrative and closer to aggravated bursts. Musically, the tracks are relatively laid-back and uncomplicated, barely hinting at the grand leap Aesop would take with the more polished production of his 2001 breakthrough Labor Days, but they serve as a neat time capsule of the late-'90s backpacker rap era. [After Appleseed was initially released as a CD-R in 1999, Aesop Rock re-pressed the EP and made it available during some of his subsequent tours. Rhymesayers officially reissued Appleseed in 2021.] ~ Paul Simpson