Aesop Rock Part 2

Aesop Rock, photo by Chrissy Piper
 
[Yesterday we ran Part 1 of Darcy’s Q&A with Aesop Rock, playing tonight at Corona. Here’s the sequel.]

Aesop Rock’s aesthetic has always played more to subway tunnels than surf spots, so his move to California from NYC a couple of years back came as a bit of a shocker to fans, friends and even family. In Part 2 of our interview, the MC/producer elaborates on packin’ it up and switching coasts.

Darcy MacDonald: Do you feel like the West Coast influences you at all, or does that not matter when it comes down to it?

Aesop Rock: Well, it matters more to me just, like, moving — uprooting and going to someplace you don’t know. I think people who ask me that question are just looking for, like… I dunno what you’re lookin’ for, but I always get the feeling that people are goin’, “Hey, you’re gonna go make G-Funk sounds!”

DM: Nah, I meant it more from a personal place, I didn’t mean it beats-wise.

AR: No, no, I totally know, I’m just saying I’ve gotten that pressure before. I think people assume the regional sound is what’s gonna affect you or something, as if we don’t get that on the other side of the country. But ya, I think that moving and shaking up your environment, it shakes up everything else too.

When I got to California, I knew very few people out here, and I still don’t know that many people, which is kinda my gift and curse in a sense. But I do put a lot of time into working on the music.

DM: You mean when people see a forearm tat that says “Must Not Sleep” up the sleeve, they don’t go, “Oh, that’s Aesop Rock over there”?

AR: Ah, I mean like… a little. I’m not that famous of a dude! I’m like, quasi-famous in a corner of a music world. Enough to brush my ego if I go out, but not to the point where I have to be dodging anyone.

It’s just shaken up. I coulda moved to Guam and had the same thing. I just gotta be around unfamiliar shit for awhile. Long enough to just get over the hump of being like “I hate this shit!” like Rick Ross, or whatever, and focus on what is important musically.

DM: But I can’t really tell from what you’re saying – do you find it liberating or constricting not having that around you?

AR: Well, I dunno that I can tell either! It’s intense. It’s more intense because anyone just uprooting to that degree and throwing themselves into an unfamiliar situation is a weird thing to go through. And it’s something that a lotta people choose to not do, ever, you know what I mean? Why leave [the] familiar?

But at the same time, I did it, and in hindsight, that was like the best thing ever. At least as far as writing and trying to be creative is concerned, just to sorta delve somewhere new and deal with it. Deal with the positive and negative aspects of fully fuckin’ uprooting.

DM: In terms of taking a step back from writing — as you put it before, not putting out a new project every year — has it been good for you?

AR: If anything, what I got out of not putting out a solo record for five years was not putting out a fuckin’ solo record for five years! It just reflects that it wasn’t just bullshit!

Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz play Théâtre Corona tonight, Tuesday, July 31, 8:30 p.m., $26.90