Malibu Ken
by Malibu Ken

Aesop's flow over Tobacco's electronic-tinged production is the ideal hip hop sound. And people were really scared away from this because of the silly drawing on the cover! (Edited)

Ace's voice, and proficiency with flow and lyricism fit Tobacco's unique production seamlessly and I doubt many rappers could pull that off. I know nothing about Tobacco but this is among Ace's best work, and that's saying something for the rapper with the largest vocabulary in the game. Theme's vary from disgusting hygiene, to true crime, to eagle's living in an urban environment eating a kitten. "Tuesday", "Dog Years" and "Purple Moss" stand out to me for their smooth nature, but there's honestly not a track worth skipping over. "Acid King" actually made me uncomfortable until I learned what it was about and now it's one of my favorites. The only reason I didn't give it a perfect score is I prefer "The Impossible Kid".

Compared to other Aesop project, I was underwhelmed by the instrumentals but Aesop's flow and lyrics still made this a very enjoyable listen.

Some interesting ideas on display here. Rock's flow is (as usual) near flawless. However, Tobacco's production does become a bit same-same the further the album progresses, particularly when some hooks are little more than Tobacco speaking through a heavily distorted, robot-like filter.
That said, when it comes to the individual tracks, this collab succeeds more than it fails. "Corn Maze", "Tuesday" and "Purple Moss" are all brilliant alt-rap cuts. But the underdog of Malibu Ken is "Acid King". It's a peculiar slow-burner, but once you get the knack of the spacey synths, scatterbrain beats and morbid lyricism you'll see why Rock and Tobacco are masters of thinking outside the box.

musicians missing ... only production