CLOSED - 750: Round 1: The Devil Made Me Do It v. Skelethon

[Precedent]

Captain: RepoMan

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

The Devil Made Me Do It by Paris

v.

Captain: Borejko

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Skelethon by Aesop Rock

[undefined]

Aesop Rock is responsible for a couple of my favorite hip-hop albums of the 2000s, but I feel like at this point in he's just becoming everything his detractors accused him of since Labor Days: running words through a thesaurus, using big words for the sake of big words, and occasionally sounding like a rhyming dictionary in a washing machine. I adore Labor Days and None Shall Pass, as well as his most recent weird-as-shit-but-somehow-endearing album with Kimya Dawson as The Uncluded, and while any number of Ace Rizzle's hyper-literacy fests could've taken this round for me, Skelethon is not one of them

[Hayden]

Aesop is the better rapper without a doubt, but Skelethon is one of his weakest albums imo.. It never seems to pass 'average'.

The Devil Made Me Do It gets my vote. Also in the hopes that other people give it a chance.

[Precedent]

Skelethon

Not crazy for either and I'll admit that The Devil Made Me Do It ended up being much better than I anticipated, but eh, not really into much Political Hip-Hop.

[Skinny]

I actually think Skelethon is Aesop Rock's best. It just feels more focused and cohesive than previous efforts. Anyway, I once heard rapper Nocando compare Aesop Rock to Chief Keef, in the sense that you kind of let both rappers' respective voices just ride the beat and wash over you, not necessarily paying full attention to what they're saying (Keef because it's just empty aggression, and Aes because it's so dense). Whatever, I neither love nor hate Aes - he's undoubtedly talented, but I don't really connect with what he says very often. Also, his beats are white as fuck. Anyway, The Devil Made Me Do It is dope too, if pretty top-heavy. It just struggles to maintain the momentum it comes bursting out of the traps with, and at times it feels a little too generic and a little too dated, though I do enjoy the dank, suffocating production, particularly where Paris' vocals sit in the mix. But yeah, it just loses too much steam for me to really put it among peers like Road to the Riches or AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, whereas Skelethon is my favourite representation of Aesop Rock's unique style. Vote to Skelethon.
_________________
2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[WindowAbove]

[Norman Bates]

Going for Skelethon as well, must say The Devil... was quite the discovery though. Thanks to Repo for this very good rec indeed. A very difficult matchup.

[sp4cetiger]

That's a big no on Skelethon. Aesop's rhythm is great, but I just can't look past what he's saying. It sounds like a bunch of words from pop culture arbitrarily pasted together. The best comparison I can think of is Billy Joel on "We Didn't Start the Fire".

The Devil Made Me Do It

[WindowAbove]

Skelethon, even though I'm not that much of a fan of Aesop Rock. I didn't like the Paris album at all.

[meccalecca]