Music Banter - View Single Post - Analysis/Breakdown of Aesop Rock's lyrics
View Single Post
Old 05-11-2011, 03:33 AM   #3 (permalink)
Mrd00d
Stoned and Jammin' Out
 
Mrd00d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Northern California; Eugene, OR; mobile
Posts: 1,602
Default

Keep Off the Lawn

Quote:
Most copious,
Brain soaked the opiates.
Notice to the phobias:
appropriately procreate.
Woke up with a ghost farm,
focused on his groceries,
when they aren't telling stories
they are multiplying grossly on the lawn.
Let 'em loiter, never let 'em spawn...
the "abhorritions" have been drinkin' this water for too long.
So when they gather by the birdbath in the morning you can tell 'em:
"I mean no disrespect but you have all outstayed your welcome"
Brain is all high on drugs, because they are readily available. Just... don't be having crack babies. Pay attention that if you're going to have a child/children, don't be doing drugs. Do it right.

Ghost farm, I reckon, is like a ghost town. In this case, it is devoid of crops, or livestock, or anything of value. He's focused on his 'groceries', his goods gotten from elsewhere. I'm seeing from this line a possible parallel to maybe imports and exports in America, ..."when they aren't telling stories"...

When they aren't telling stories (shooting BS usually), they're making more generations.
He follows up with: "Let them loiter... never let em spawn" Let them talk and talk, but cull the baby boom here. I'm seeing possible parallels, this feels like it can refer to anything. I picture here a redneck family with 14 children and more on the way, but I feel he can be referencing government policies, etc. Thoughts?

Abhorritions: Ahbor /Apparitions?
Abhor: v. Regard with disgust and hatred
Apparition: n. A ghost or ghostlike image of a person
Abhorritions: Un-real haters?

Quote:
the "abhorritions" have been drinkin' this water for too long.
So when they gather by the birdbath in the morning you can tell 'em:
"I mean no disrespect but you have all outstayed your welcome
This section I believe is talking about the rap community. They've been doing the same thing, for far too long, and now, it's time for them to move on or step up their game.


Quote:
Interesting in a sense...
Interrupt commiserating phantoms on your picket fence,
how quickly they will lift their heads...
and breathe an ultimatum like the dead don't argue.
Said: "You're living by the bayonet, but how alive are you?"
"****,
haggis, old juice, and bad ettiquette.
Elbows on the table, lobster bib on and on the ready set", he said,
"But how alive?"
"I dunno homie, you decide"
fine
how alive?
too alive
Interesting how these haters, these 'ghosts', make ultimatums, "Like, the dead don't argue". When Aesop tells the mainstream to move over, to step up their game, they ignore him or tell him to get out of the game perhaps. Asking rhetorically to anyone listening: You live by the sword? What's important to you? How alive do you feel? Too alive?? Yikes...


Quote:
And one by one, around the yard 'til each one felt communal pride
like they had done their little part in cleaning up the public...
with a steaming plate of justice for them East Baker stomachs.
(say what?)
One by one finding communal pride. False pride, I say. What's someone else's take on this passage?

Quote:
We the legends at home with the unremembered.
Geriatric lurin' the clutch of the budding censored,
Who snuck around the art police and all related governments
to infiltrate a human lung and hike up off his tongue and lip!
Sitting with the forgottens of yesteryear (I feel he means veterans... Maybe even hiphop veterans that have been left behind) the older folks in power are trying to increase artistic censorship. But there are those doing their best to subvert the system of censorship. Get it through, despite the filters.


Quote:
Ahh, the money's in the market for a mothership;
to double as a vessel to drag its legacy under it.
And who am I to hang 'em out to dry by the heap?
When, if rehydrating fails, we're all dumber because of me...
I'm very unsure here. There's a lot of conclusions you could come to here, but I think at the end, he is saying that he hopes that by trying to restimulate hiphop with good messages and good quality, if it fails, he hope he doesn't turn others away from experimenting with new ideas.


Quote:
Zombies of the antiquated nation chatter quietly,
the too alive channel from the library of rivalry.
And summer is in the mud,
winter is by the tracks,
no story goes untold,
Aes is back!
Ghosts, zombies, all the same. They're BSing around doing the same ol thing.
The 'too alive' group, they live for showing up others, for rivalry...

Quote:
I got a handful rockin' the same poker face
gonna dance around the table like they own the place.
I got the whole world thinkin' it's a holiday
'cause they can smell the chum in the water from miles away.

you look like you've seen a ghost.

how alive? too alive.
Bunch of people going around without any joy, poker faced all the time afraid to show the world they're happy. But they outnumber those who are brave enough to smile. Aesop is back, they better be worried. They were on holiday from Aesop and then he slammed this album down. They thought he was hurt by his less than mainstream, platinum album sales, or critical reviews saying perhaps he was being too complex. He gave a pause in releases. And then boosh!
__________________
Mrd00d's Last.fm

Mrd00d is offline   Reply With Quote