Bazooka Tooth Aesop Rock Artist

Few labels in the {|rap|} underground boast the profile of {|Definitive Jux|}, and few rappers on {|Def Jux|} match the talents of {|Aesop Rock|}. So his second record for the label came with great expectations, engendered by the success of 2001's {|Labor Days|}, which catapulted him into the first rank of {|hip-hop|} voices. As far as the expectations go, {|Bazooka Tooth|} delivers on most of its promise. The beats are dense and the bass-lines dark, like street-level {|rap|} is supposed to be, with a jumble of murky samples and angled effects coming from every direction. And {|Ace Rock|}'s lurching, nasally flow and obscurist rhymes may not carry every lyric across, but do allow listeners to marvel at the few legible lines. With most of the productions coming from {|Aesop|} himself (along with {|Def Jux|} mainstay {|Nasa|}), {|Bazooka Tooth|} lacks the catchy, sample-driven flavor of {|Labor Days|}, but does set a standard for basement-level beats, with some of the best hashed-and-screwed productions heard on {|Def Jux|} since the {|Cannibal Ox|} masterpiece {|The Cold Vein|}. Bronx bombers {|Camp Lo|} stop by for an old-school horrorcore jam named {|Limelighters,|} {|Def Jux|} head {|El-P|} guests on a no-biters track called {|We're Famous,|} and {|Mr. Lif|} appears on the highlight, the tag-team rhyme manifesto {|11:35.|} The album does, however, reveal a few problems endemic to independent {|rap|} in general as well as the {|Def Jux|} label and {|Aesop Rock|} specifically: to get and keep the respect of the underground, an artist is forced to push his sound farther, but it soon reveals a trap -- no production can be too difficult, no variation in flow too off-kilter, no topics or rhymes too bizarre in order to keep heads nodding. {|Bazooka Tooth|} simply pushes too far. ~ John Bush