Review: Aesop Rock — Black Hole Superette

Aesop Rock
Black Hole Superette
Released: 05.30.2025
Rhymesayers Entertainment
Aesop Rock = Run The Jewels + Hail Mary Mallon x Action Bronson-isms

Gnawing on the cob of corny white rappers, either end can lead to dissatisfaction. Chew too far right and you’ll get a tasteless, salty (because pepper is way too spicy for this honky) Tom MacDonald, complete with a know-it-all personality and systemic oppression. Chow down closer to the left, you could get some zesty, secondhand material like Macklemore’s older stuff, but there’s a hefty possibility your taste buds will be saturated by the linguistic diarrhea of  Machine Gun Kelly or Logic. Many argue that Logic is actually half Black and doesn’t fit in with your typical “wangster,” but did you listen to Bobby Tarantino III? Didn’t think so! The center is a bit more diverse: You’ve got your candy-coated rap god Eminem, your fine dining Action Bronson, your love-it-or-hate-it Atmosphere and many, MANY more ready to be munched on. However, there’s one white rapper who has dissected the cob to its bare atoms, converted it into a Möbius strip and collapsed the genre entirely to supernova like a dying star. Without taking a breather from the success of his 2020 album, Spirit World Field Guide, the East Coast hip-hop, interdimensional being Aesop Rock took a stroll to the corner store on the other side of the galaxy for whatever astroplaning substance he could muster.

Depicted as a fictional bodega that many late-night souls might gravitate to for drunken sustenance, Black Hole Superette explores mundane life through a more surreal set of peepers. I once described Aesop’s analog style of synthesizer rap as music made for Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, because nothing is quite what it seems. Take the track like “Movie Night,” where Aesop breaks out the thesaurus and liar’s dice, tin cup drums to describe an earthly world of phonogenic sights and sounds. However, listen closely to the topsy-turvy lyrics and funk-ish, tape machine beat, and you’ll realize he’s talking about walking his dog. The truest form of this comes from the rhythmic tractor beam of “EWR – Terminal A, Gate 20.” This alienated pirouette of heart-monitored bass drops and 16-bit audio sweeps like it was pulled from Galaga and details the typical night-owl life of a “vandal.” Hints to tagging black canvas buildings and back alleyway gambling point to our subject’s constant paranoia of independent urges and the schizoid suspicion of not trusting anyone: “Sharpest teeth on the block / Anyone who disagrees is a bot / Yo, anyone who isn’t me is a cop.”

Aesop utilizes all soundbites and musical beats that he can sample and remix to perfection. Disc jockey instrumentals, cult film monologues, slobbered-on sound machine toys from Fisher-Price, all-digital zip or pop from Atari — if it makes some type of pitch, chances are Aesop has snatched it for another hit. Aside from his thick cypher of synonyms and analogies, his spacey experimental beats space-invading the Bronx bebop style is his signature… which I could see a few of his older fans walk away from. Tracks like “Checkers” and “Ice Sold Here” are foreboding, synthwave grooves with that classic ra-ta-ta spit that Aesop projects, but they could easily sneak their way into his 2005 EP Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives. No one would be the wiser to double-check if the track was freshly raw or 12 years too late. “Charlie Horse” blends these types of underground rap cyphers with a jazzy cellblock beat, resurrecting such tomb-resting features like Homeboy Sandman and even the extensively tardied, post-Lasers Lupe Fiasco. This heavy track made me think back to the 2011 Twilight Concert Series, about to be ambushed by a crowd rush during the beginning of “Words I Never Said.” I guess if it’s not broken, why fix it?

When SLUG interviewed Aesop back in 2007, he explained rap music as being what I would call a Swiss Army knife genre for any occasion. “This is party music, fight music, dance music, emotional music, music to fuck to,” Aesop says. “It is all of this and much, much more.” And for someone who’s making music for whatever the day brings, Aesop has fun with it! The no-fucks-given attitude as he walks into a studio to unload heavy retaliation on a minor inconvenience or to tear a hole in the space-time continuum. To me, Aesop is one of the last true rap artists who has survived solely on making the tracks he wants to make. And Black Hole Superette is more than just another album — it’s a journal entry from a veteran who has truly perfected the craft.

By the way: Aesop, if you’re reading this and you’re down for another “remastered” interview, I volunteer as tribute! Thanks again. —Alton Barnhart

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