Commencement (At the Obedience Academy)

Once again saying 'Fuck Conformity'. My favorite Aesop Song of all time.

Greatest Aesop song ever.

this is the lyrical version that is included in the living human curiosity sideshow, the lyrics booklet that aesop released with "fast cars ..."

i fell asleep again; i wasn't ready for it. the harvest appeared less plentiful than last season. i imagine sloppy seed handling evoked a stroke of tardy planting, and the crops we'd have harnessed mid-november had only brushed the blossom bracket, then soon sacrificed lives to icicle jackets when the frost hit. i sunk to find the warmth beneath the mosses with a plan to tunnel past after the rains had run their courses, but alas, the portraits of these frostbit corpses tortured in the grass offered this torch supporter one tall glass of nauseous, and i'm asking you: why's the spy supply hiding in strangers when they know atop the food chain i could spot biters for acres? now be gracious, these minstrels turned the bully cycle civil by dissolving the candy coated image down to the pixels. the upbringing of self-styled freedom brigade investors and their studies connecting one-hit wonders with dust collectors puts it down. it's down beneath the sappy sing-alongs, let's take it further down, we'll let dante decide which ring i'm on. nova. the elders took positions and the fans marched, parched, plain and steamed hawking the rain in my canteen. now i'm like point: i guess i could spare a splash for a couple of heads. counterpoint: during my famine i never got broke your bread. well, equation of intrigue, yes yes. let me fence-sit for a bit. these tense lips need soaking before i hand out tokens. shut the fuck up. drama like kabuki with a heart of dirt, skull fucked crossbones, hence my birth. it hurts. check, check, check. must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i milk my habitat for almost everything i want. sometimes i take it all and still can't feel this pitfall in my gut and i'm like must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i'm tryin' to walk on top of sunshine but it's ridiculous at times. that's why i'm touring with this warning. feel it, it's like crowning the glory of our advance. fire ants to water beetles. freemasons adjacent to pacing on pins and needles. pupil turned pedagogue, benediction to my dream, beaming a billion bottle rockets off the golden mezzanine. check it, i'll pluck the petals off a classic blood rose one at a time, gripping the stem in right; invite the thorns to dig up in my lifeline. it's a metaphor for nighttime. ante up the slight cost of exhaustion to salute the moon above paradise lost, and you're a spectator, scrinching. inch by sacred inch shoveling coal into my earthworm soul. burrow up through the dirt with bloody digit, lick my knuckles clean, noting the corporate clusters holding hands around the abode of the damned. now what's your poison? starlight in a maser with a nicotine chaser. sip it clean, savor the taste to sit and dream later. the eyelids pivot back upon the hinges twenty miles across the glassy eyed window of wonders to passersby. now i'm six foot four with a six-floor walk up just to recline with no free time. the alarm storms at nine. my daytime's on some "yes, sir. okay, sir. right away, sir. sir, do you mind if i breathe, sir? oh you do? well excuse me, sir, fuck you." i breathe slow. i run in with these fantastic amalgams painting casket-bound careers to peers gunning with plastic albums. security's the javelin, catch it. labor. clocked in at '76, and haven't clocked out ever since. must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i milk my habitat for almost everything i want. sometimes i take it all and still can't feel this pitfall in my gut and it's like must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i'm tryin' to walk on top of sunshine but it's ridiculous at times. that's why i'm touring with this warning. feel it, it's like must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i milk my habitat for almost everything i want. sometimes i take it all and still can't feel this pitfall in my gut and it's like must not sleep. must warn others. trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers. i'm tryin' to walk on top of sunshine but it's ridiculous at times. that's why i'm touring with this warning. feel it, it's like that.

The beat to this one was done well. I love the smooth blending of the saxaphone riff into the rest of the beat, especially at the end.

God this song is good. Mm.

My favorite Aesop Rock song. Love the Blade Runner sample.

This song is about working 9 to 5 and how it sucks.... one example: now i'm six foot four with a six-floor walk up just to recline with no free time. the alarm storms at nine. my daytime's on some "yes, sir. okay, sir. right away, sir. sir, do you mind if i breathe, sir? oh you do? well excuse me, sir, fuck you." i breathe slow.

he climbs six floors with no time to relax and then he's up at nine the next morning only to say "yes, sir. okay, sir. right away, sir. sir, do you mind if i breathe, sir? oh you do? well excuse me, sir, fuck you." Sir being his boss.

Hmm, maybe I'm the only one but I always thought of this lyric as a reference to The Inferno.

"Puts it down, and it's down beneath your sappy sing alongs So stick it further down let Dante decide which ring I'm on"

In a sense you're right that it is about shitty 9-5's. But I think the larger point Aesop tries to make in a number of songs (9-5er's anthem, big bang, labor days, tugboat complex pt. 1,2,3 etc. ) is similar to Marx's "Alienation of Labor" (its a short essay with a lot of great points.. check it out) which is that the modern and post-modern societies are brainwashed into thinking that 9-5 and wage labor are ideal for most people which is in fact quite questionable. Also, check out Ishmael by Daniel Quinn which is literally a book version of Big Bang (on Float). The point being that since the agricultural revolution ("fertile circle turned fertile crescent, via bad investment") civilizations have been building without considering their ultimate direction and similarly workers produce and produce for capital which is ultimately valueless. Sorry if this sounds like my philosophy, seriously if you listen it's in tons of Aesop songs though.

this is my favorite Aesop song. He's the only rapper i've found who lays it down with such depth, insight, purpose and meaning.

Keep the discussion up! I want to hear what more people have to say because i can't figure out all the lines, especially in this song.