I think you interpreted this with about 95% accuracy, actually delving into the meaning behind his poetry rather than just going "woah, he must read the dictionary" like most other reactors. This is probably the best breakdown of this song on KZread I will say you were a bit off the mark on two aspects. It wasn't just about his childhood, Aes pursued his passion past his basic education and went to art school. He got a classical art education and could probably hold a conversation with a museum curator on art history and various dates of an artist's life. His music often has a lot of classical art references in it. But that's not on you for not knowing, you have to already know Aesop's history for that. Also, "foreshortening" is an art technique describing needing to shorten an object as it moves into the foreground. So if the left forearm in a painting was pointing towards the viewer while the right one was at rest, you would need to make the outline of the left limb shorter than its twin. This gives the illusion of proper depth of field in the painting. Hard to describe a visual technique in text but if you google an example you'll understand immediately.

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this. I appreciate the feedback on this... I have 5 more reactions to him coming soon.

@Tracer_Sweat

10 ай бұрын

Hey you fuck with some Aesop so you must like some Hail Mary Mallon right? (Aes and Rob) .. My favorite song is Jonathon, but like, Grubstake, Breakdance Beach, Dollywood, Whales...so many are just great.. the lyrics are to crazy xD like what you do fablesphere keep it up 😇@@thefablesphere

Aesop is hands down the greatest rapper there is. Eminem cant hold a candle to him. Hes too dope for human consumption. Please do more of him. Daylight/nightlight is an absolute masterpiece. Cycles to gehenna is a heart wrenching story about tempting death

@_Jake.From.Statefarm_

Жыл бұрын

Oxygen has always been a personal fav 😁

@werd_yo

10 ай бұрын

100%

@curtisholsinger6023

2 ай бұрын

Different goals and different strengths, no need to elevate one by chopping the other down

Aesop Rock might just be the most important lyricist in the game. He is the musicians musician.

Foreshortening right is also like when you draw an arm that has the hand closer than the body so it gives a 3d type perspective that is much different than if it wasn’t a hand that was just to the side.😊

Aesop was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day.

Still my favorite lyricists of all time, been listening since high school in the late 90s, got to see him live in Chicago years ago.

@hodgesjake

Жыл бұрын

High praise from someone born on Jupiter

@Octagonecologyst_mythos101

Жыл бұрын

@@hodgesjake lol

You just opened pandora's box my friend. Welcome to 20 years of Aesop to catch up.. Wait till you see his older songs.. GOAT

This is really about Aes seeing himself as a visual artist for the first 20 years of his life, and going to art school to pursue that passion...and then walking away from drawing and painting, to focus on rapping. It's about how he regrets losing that part of his creative life.

@shaneraz

11 ай бұрын

I love his music video for Rogue wave and seeing just how talented he is.

@dadaluma13

10 ай бұрын

Yes, but like all good art it's about more than that.

@Weed4daSoul

8 ай бұрын

Its really not though. He literally said himself that what james said is what this song is about. There is nothing to read between, he is just talking about how he feels he lost his abilities in drawing over the years because he stopped practicing.@@dadaluma13

@knutt81

20 күн бұрын

He still can look at 'Landscape with Snow'. He made the right choice, rapping was his calling.✊🏾

This is one of the best breakdowns. You're catching nearly everything. Btw, Ungluing is just un-glue-ing, like to remove adhesive from something or separate something into two that was once one. Please react to more Aesop! I think you'd enjoy "Aesop Rock - Pizza Alley" which is about an Ayahuasca trip in Peru. The way he uses that indirect 'around the bush' language to describe the scenes and settings of Lima, Peru and his journey into the jungle is incredible. It's pretty hard to catch all of it without lyrics pulled up however as some of the references are specific to Peruvian culture.

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks man.. appreciate it. I was such an idiot, when I went back to that word it was ungluing... So simple but I was making it out to be something else. 🤦

Aesop Rock is so good. He literally has the biggest vocabulary of any rapper ever. And he has a song that's about his cat. I love this dude

A little bit to touch base on for the "the stars that align when a forearm starts foreshortening right". Foreshortening in art is the way that we capture the size vs distance in art. For example, a picture of someone reaching towards the viewer would require the artist to use foreshorteninf, making the hand bigger in proportion due to its close proximity. He's basically saying "you can't believe the feeling of elation that you get when you finally create that perfectly accurate illustration". Similarly, the line that talks about flesh "hung on a warping spine starts reading as warm and alive" is a continuation; "you can't believe the elation you feel when you draw a human form that feels real and alive rather than just a drawing"

@apatternedhorizon

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. It's a difficult technique to master.

@itsaUSBline

Жыл бұрын

Yeah was going to point this out in my comment as well, but looks like you got it covered. The misunderstanding is understandable given it doesn't seem like he's all that familair with artistic techniques and terminology.

I love the breakdown! Dont feel bad for pausing every few seconds because he really packs a lot into a few lines. I love seeing people take a crack at his songs sometimes he references stuff that i just dont know about and others' inputs add to how i see it. Definitely recommend more from Aesop, anything from this Albums Skelethon, The Impossible Kid, or Spirit World Field Guide are excellent choices

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

definitely agree with the pauses, the more breakdowns for Aes the better.

you really nailed this breakdown and caught a whole lot, I really recommend reacting to more of his stuff. His discography is huge. Some of his best writing is daylight/nightlight.

I'm really glad you enjoyed breaking this down. I'd watch every Aesop breakdown you do guaranteed. I have plenty of recommendations if you need them!

Wow an outstanding breakdown ..Top Tier ..this was absolutely incredible ..layers here you really did amazing ..an amazing request ..l9ve spending time here thanku so much love an God bless always x always from Cyprus x

I've just subscribed in hopes that you do more Aesop Rock! This is by far one of the best Aesop reactions/breakdowns I've seen. You get it. Great work!

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks very much. Really appreciate it. 🙂

@Giganfan2k1

9 ай бұрын

@@thefablesphere Indeed I am here for the Aesop break downs. You are doing an awesome job.

You did great analyzing the song. I'm a big Aesop fan but I'm also not a native speaker so I love to hear other people's thoughts about his music to better understand his work. I will be looking forward to more of these.

One of my favorite aesop rock songs. ❤

As soon as I heard run the jewels I knew the guy knew… EL-P is one of the founders of Rhymesayers the record company responsible for some of the best goddamn hip hop I’ve ever heard.. one of the progenitors of independent hip hop, he’s so goddamn underrated and well known at the same time it’s hard to reconcile lol

@julienmgastonmercier

Жыл бұрын

Also thanks for this booming mix! Wow!

@aonutsihasnouith

Жыл бұрын

El-P was def jux, atmosphere was rhymesayers.

@julienmgastonmercier

Жыл бұрын

@@aonutsihasnouith holy hell did I get a messy memory or what lol I just got flipped up over all those EL-P appearances on Aesop records.. thanks for the re-education!

Subbed. You have one of the best reactions to Aes. Hope you continue to do well bro. Love your work. EDIT: don’t ever apologise for pausing on an Aes song. It’s what makes your reactions so good.

Brilliant reaction and great job breaking everything down - you grasped the message right away! Aes is a fantastic writer and I truly believe he's unparalleled, easy. He's been around for 25+ years and each era represents a different side of his. He has been dope since day one and hasn't stumbled yet and his discography is flawless.

"They will chop you down just to count your rings" "They will destroy what makes you special to quantify your talent"

Fil, great breakdown of this poetry ❤‍🔥. Love, love, love this. The imagery is sublime, extraordinarily and transcendently impressive. #QcumberSquad #AesopRock - Fil, I'm off back to the study.

Small detail, but when he repeats "used to draw," he places a heavy emphasis on "used" the second time, to imply that it's the fact that he once did but doesn't anymore that's difficult for him. I love how with just that little opening line, Aes manages to convey a great deal of meaning. Also, when he says "off to a school where it's all that you do, being trained and observed by a capable few," seeing as that follows the line about stuffing 3 dimensions into 2, which is essentially what drawing with perspective is, and knowing that he attended an art college, I tend to interpret that as him directly referencing his formal training in drawing at art school. Though I do also like your interpretation, and I think there could be a double meaning there as well, both literally referring to him going to college for art, and also the way that schools condense the world into "2 dimensions," figuratively speaking, by way of their necessarily imposed structure. I know many who go to an art school have the experience of having a damper placed on their creativity when they study it formally. Though I can see how you came to your interpretation because you were thinking of the lyrics as relating to a child rather than an adult in college. Additionally, when he says "drank Koolaid from a tube of acrylic," he's using a common American English expression. "Drinking the Koolaid" essentially means to buy into something that's not real and implies manipulation from some outside influence. It's a reference to the Jonestown Massacre where a cult leader had over 900 members of his cult drink Koolaid laced with Cyanide and commit suicide en masse after some of the members of the cult shot and murdered a visiting congressman. It's a pretty wild story if you're not familiar with it. But in any case, that's the origin of the expression. Aes is obviously using it in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner here, essentially likening his passion for painting to being in a cult. That along with the way he refers to it as a blooming addiction a few lines prior characterizes his affinity for creating art as something outside of his full control, like it was something he just had to do.

Man, i just want to thank you for breaking or interpreting this song very well. As non-native speakers it is truly hard to understand what he's trying to communicate with me but you know I'm trying so hard to understand and need more idioms or any talking dolphin to explain to the student like me. Anyway amazing job you do man, thanks a million! Hi from Indonesia!

I always assumed the line "You can't imagine the rush that ensue when you get three dimensions stuffed into two" was about drawing. The three-dimensional world being the one we live in and the two-dimensional world being a sheet of paper. I figured that lyric was about his excitement when he got a drawing to look exactly the way he wanted it. One thing to remember though is that he will never explain his lyrics. If you met him and asked him about what any given verse meant, he would ask you, "What do YOU think it means?"

@Giganfan2k1

9 ай бұрын

It is both at the same time. A lot of his lines can work three or four different ways. Literally you put 3 dimensions stuffed into 2 in a drawing. Listening to an art school dropout doing a lyric video he goes into Art School is "just there to make you a product". Then you have heard the song a dozen times. The juxtaposition of both meanings makes a sin wave of meaning, because it is both at the same time. Aes' Song almost always have extradimensionalty. Freaking brilliant.

Highly recommend more Aesop. This is one of his easiest to understand tracks. It gets so deep. Edit: forgot to mention this is a perfect breakdown. I'd love to see how well you break down some of his other more understandable tracks (like None Shall Pass) or some of his harder to break down tracks (like Jumping Coffin)

@TheN9nth

Жыл бұрын

Both great songs! I second this.

If you chop a tree down and look at the cut surface it has rings as it grows slowly in layers with the seasons, 1 ring is roughly 1 year for most trees. You can tell how old a tree is by ending its life ironically. Thats what he is talking about.

You've found where we reside. It's all deep in Aesop's mind.

Aes is such a deep dive. I love this guy

I've loved your Aesop breakdowns so far. Very insightful and informative, even to someone who has been listening to him for many years. I think his older stuff is even more of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I'm talking Appleseed/ Float / Labor Days. But, if I can make a request, it would be from his album None Shall Pass. The song is called Keep Off the Lawn. The entire album is fire but I think this would be a great intro, and, fittingly, it's the opening track

All respect man, you have a great breakdown of what this man's artistry means to all of us. Please do Coffee whenever you can, personal favorite.

Such a dope breakdown, man. Love what you said throughout it, keep em rolling brother. Great job!

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks very much. Really appreciate it. 🙂

Great stuff! Aesop has so many awesome gems he has crafted like this through the decades. I struggle with suggesting just one so here we go, if you want something tough to analyze, check out "Cycles to Gehenna". If you want to start a little 'series' of three songs that is about the death of his friend, Camu Tao, and the spiral that sent him down and his struggle trying to come to terms with it etc, check out "Get out of the car" followed by "Shrunk" followed by "Kirby". If you want to check out something from his newest album, I'd suggest "Flamingo Pink".

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks very much for this.. appreciate it... Going to jot these down now.. very keen to do these!

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

Haven’t finished the reaction yet.. but don’t worry Cycles to Gehenna is going to be my next request haha

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

So yeah I was thinking of doing Shrunk and Cycles to Gehenna next. Then maybe None Shall Pass or Blood Sandwich. there are so many though, i’ll be sure to request as many as possible. Keep coming back for more!

@losxdescabezados

Жыл бұрын

@@campbellcravens8944 I think Shrunk is best taken in with its companion pieces. Granted, it can be taken as individual songs but the little "trilogy" together is fun!

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

@@losxdescabezadosYeah okay I agree, I am requesting the full 3 part series

For access to additional daily content subscribe to The Sphere: www.thefablesphere.com/sphere You can also join the Fable Community by becoming a site member, this is completely FREE: www.thefablesphere.com/fablecommunity

Aesop Rock is the Dark Souls of rap

Aesop is not asap rocky. Though there is a video of them meeting. Keep going. Try Dorks, None Shall Pass, Jumping Coffin, Gopher Guts, Water Tower, Bring Back Pluto, 39 Thieves, Pass The Cup, Sick Friend, Kirby, Food Clothes Medicine, Homemade Mummy, Rogue Wave... I could go on. Also his side project with Rob Sonic, Hail Mary Mallon. Foreshortening is when something is portrayed as jutting out towards the viewer. Shading and proportioning that is kinda difficult. And the torso hung on a warping spine line is reference to drawing realistic bodies and it actually looking correct. But your interpretation is valid.

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

gopher guts and kirby are coming soon

He’s got the biggest vocabulary in rap music

What i enjoyed about this aong is that it speaks in terms as a artist but it has a double meaning. " backlight" is a term we use to talk about secondary light but it means more than that.

Really impressed with your breakdown man. It took me a few listens to get to what you got from one. Aesop is my favorite rapper. He's a legit poet, he just makes you work a bit to understand his poetry. You cant really understand how brilliant he is unless you take a little bit of time to break stuff down. Definitely gonna check out yoir other breakdowns of Aes.

genius..the craziest thing is this is one of his relatively more easily understandable songs lol.

🔥breakdown…if this was truly your first listen through, then im terrified of you 😂

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

On god... This was genuinely my first listen and I was all over the show with this. The subtitles helped a hell of a lot. 🙂

@gillathegilla3949

Жыл бұрын

Awesome reply…its A-Sop Rock (no Enat the end) now do one of mine 😏

Love seeing someone react to Ian Bavitz for the first time. In my view, he’s the greatest living rapper.

If you’d like to see some of his drawings, check out Rogue Wave. It pans across a whole bunch of his sketches throughout the music video. I don’t think the paintings at the end of the music video belong to him, but he claims the drawings

Epic reaction and review. By far the best I have come across. New sub.

"They will chop you down just to count your rings..." Beyond the rings-on-fingers meaning, it also refers to the means of measuring a tree by counting the annual rings of its trunk. The tree can be measured but only by killing it. "Cowardly kings" probably has a couple meanings, too. It could be a reference to the King of Hearts card, sometimes called the "suicide king" because he's stabbing himself in the head with a knife. It might also refer to Eunus (2nd century BC), a slave who led a slave uprising and who promised a better world for everyone who followed him, but ultimately ended up hiding in a cave until he was captured.

Best reaction ive seen bro 🔥✌🏾

Its funny.... I interpret the song much different in a lot of spots. I was going to tell you where i thought you were wrong, but after some introspection, i think that's the most brilliant thing about aesop (and art in general) is that we can interpret these things differently and it can still be true for all parties. Good video my man ❤

I take the "unseen hand drag in the graphite" as being left handed and dragging my heavy hand

More aesop

All heart but we would've made cowardly kings is my favorite line in the song. He's saying that it takes a lionheart to pursue your passion in opposition to the world, but by given into your fear, you're the cowardly lion. You go from being King Richard, someone you could've been proud of, to King John, someone you loathe and detest.

A$AP Rocky is also good but Aesop is the GOAT

I highly, HIGHLY recommend listening to this entire album! Then listening to the rest of his stuff. Amazing lyricist

Say Aesop rocky one more time.

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

I know, I know... my bad

11:21 nah, he's talking about drawing 3D sht on a piece of paper. Hence the ''rush that ensues'' after such dimensional alchemy. That being said, you hit the nail on the head with the ''around the bush lyrics''. I've been saying for some time that Aesop is the grandmaster of beating around the bush.

This is the best aesop rock reaction ive ever seen

@thefablesphere

10 ай бұрын

Thank you

Love this song. Love how you break down the lyrics. I would maybe not pause the actual song quite as much and let it play for longer then go back and do it in segments. It would work better on multiple levels… 1) hold the attention of the viewer. 2) get the whole feel and flow of the song that maybe would make some of the early images make more sense in the full context 3) nothing wrong with listening to it twice!

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this feedback 🙂

please do Cycles to Gehenna. In my opinion its one of the best rap songs ever written

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

it’s coming soon!

I find it hilarious that you have phenomenal insight into the lyrics of this song... You literally taught me a few things about one of my favorite songs... but you totally missed the tree metaphor, "They will chop you down just to count your rings". They don't chop you down for any coherent reason. They chop you down, for numerical research, that you can't understand. They don't even know you're living a life, and trying to be an artist... To them, you're a tree.... What's interesting to them, is how many years you lived... You're a data point.

IF you would get a dollar for every time you said "that's fire" while going trough Aesops full discography you'd be rich.

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

💯💯💯😂

To me he’s in the morgue not the hospital lol

The hidden irony in this song is that is having regrets about stopping his art. When in actuality is he is still creating art with words instead of paint and pencil.

Great breakdown! Love what you did here but it's super duper extra funny to me that your channel name is The FABLE Sphere yet you have absolutely no idea how to pronounce Aesop considering Aesop's FABLES are arguably the most well known FABLES of all time.

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

😂😂😂 and I said "Rocky" like a moron. 🤦 Don't know why the "rocky" stayed stuck in my head.

Good reaction. Wish you would pause less and just react but I'm being nitpicky lol thanks man!

@thefablesphere

Жыл бұрын

What I will actually do in future is react to it first, let it play out and then do the breakdown. 🙂

Tugboat Complex Vol.1

Naw he found himself.

Its hard to do an Aesop Rock reaction and breakdown without pausing every few seconds. There are no wasted bars in his music, every single thing he says on wax deserves and demands examination.

A$AP rocky isn’t terrible. But Aesop Rock is on another level.

3 dimensions stuffed into 2 is something I always interpreted as drawing something in the real world (3d) onto paper (2d)… I think you overanalysed a bit… him being analysed by a capable few is literally him in art school being judged not by the workforce but by teachers since they’re only ones who could be more capable than him as a young man

It doesn’t look like my comments are going through, hopefully i’m not sending the same thing over and over. Gonna try breaking up into smaller comments.

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

I think this is your best video to date. INCREDIBLE job. I’m so glad to see you resonated with it so strongly. Aesop Rock (yes not A$AP Rocky haha) is truly a one of a kind lyricist. He’s so intricate and verbose that it actually puts off alot of casual listeners. His music is for people like you who love to breakdown every single line. I promise every Aes fan will LOVE this video.

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

Not only does he pack incredible punch lines, but sometimes just the literal word choice feels like a punch line. So often I will have to look up what a word means that he uses, and then once I do the line hits so hard. it’s a feeling no other rapper can illicit. Once again amazing video Fil, im on my honeymoon in Africa (Kenya not South Africa, but still over in your neck of the woods) and I think i’m gonna rewatch this whole video again now haha. Can’t wait for you to hear more!

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

ah okay I think it was the link I was trying to send

@campbellcravens8944

Жыл бұрын

Just google “Rappers with the Largest Vocabulary” and read the article I think you’ll enjoy it. It analyzed rappers unique word usage to determine who has the densest vocabulary, and i’m sure you can guess now who won.

@MrTombre

Жыл бұрын

@@campbellcravens8944 was it sixnine ?

I think you misinterpreted the "three dimensions stuffed I to two" line he's just talking about the process of taking real life inspirations or subjects and communicating them onto paper with a pencil or other tool

love the reaction but I gotta push back on the 2d/3d thing. Hes saying just imagine the rush you get from finally being able to make your 2d piece of paper look like theres a 3d object on it. Like finally being able to actually draw something that looks 3 dimensional and the excitement you would get from it. Then, you go to art school and get judged by the professors that are way more talented and capable than you. Just saying, that's what I think at least

I wonder if this is regret he is speaking. Unable to live up to the expectations to Lucy? She had no regret. She never had a dream in her life. She just did it remember?

Umm. Did you call him ASAP Rocky?

@thefablesphere

11 ай бұрын

My bad.. don't know why I kept doing that.

Just listen to the song once instead of trying to infer everything line by line. This is just an odd way to consume this kind of music. Line by line comes later...

@Vivacomunismo

4 ай бұрын

Very true

A$AP rocky is actually really dope. Just in a much different way to Aesop lol

Rock not Rocky

ROCK bro ROCK. not rocky.

3rd time calling him aesap rokky..... I'm done

Used to draw… hard to admit that I used (drugs) to draw…

For a fella giving a reaction, you're awfully quick to pick up each line. Hmmm.

ugh Jordan Peterson in the background? You're better than that. Unsubbed.

@menasouvlaki3595

4 ай бұрын

Cmon man be cool. We all can't be the same, that would suck