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
