The “most timeless” MC of all time, according to Aesop Rock
New York rapper Aesop Rock is an artist who takes his words very seriously. Renowned for having the most expansive vocabulary in the business, he constructs his verses carefully, and he takes inspiration from other MCs with their own literary flair.
Rock grew up in New York during the ’80s, which meant he was exposed to a lot of early rap music as a kid. While he wasn’t solely a hip-hop kid, he loved punk and metal bands like Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, and Ministry, too, some of New York’s leading early hip-hop artists really captured his imagination.
Growing up, Aesop Rock loved groups like Public Enemy, BDP, KMD, and Run DMC, and they all had a bearing upon the artist he eventually became. But of all the rappers he looked up to, there was one in particular who he considers to be truly “timeless.”
Rock was interviewed by UKHH.com in 2007, during which time he was asked about his favourite rapper. “I don’t know if I have a favourite,” he replied, before conceding that there was someone who’s certainly up there. “I’ve always liked Slick Rick… just because to me he’s one of the most timeless.”
Slick Rick, born in England but himself a product of New York’s hip-hop culture, having moved to the Bronx as a kid, is a hugely influential rapper. His music relied heavily on vivid storytelling and his ability to play characters, which ultimately set the template for artists like Eminem to later follow.
Aesop Rock was also hugely impressed by Rick’s style, which, from his perspective, hasn’t aged at all since he pioneered it. “You can hear a verse now that he wrote a long time ago and it doesn’t sound dated,” Rock said. “Whereas there’s a lot of old-school motherfuckers… who are still dope, but you’ll be able to tell when they wrote the verse. But that isn’t the case with Slick Rick.”
It perhaps stands to reason that Slick Rick was able to produce verses that don’t age. He was, after all, directly inspired by the traditional three-act structure that sits right at the heart of the Western story-telling tradition.
Rick once explained to the Red Bull Music Academy, “When I was going to high school, English was probably my favourite subject, so you know, you study essays, how you write an essay. You have your beginning, then you have your body and your end, like, ‘Teacher, Teacher.’ So that’s pretty much what rap was, it was like three verses, story-style.”
Rick applied this principle to his own songs. “So,” he said, “pretty much it was like an essay. I write essays, stories, mostly positive endings or whatever the case like that. That’s pretty much my style, like that. And humor. Throw in some humor.”