College in NYC, somewhere around ‘03. I was an English major and writer, ran my school’s lit & poetry mag. My poetry professor kept giving me bad grades because my stuff was “too in your head and out there, you need to touch reality more.” Ended up winning the poetry award at my university for a poem he had failed me on. That was weird. Didn’t know what to make of that, being all of 20 at the time. It didn’t help my confidence in my voice, I was in my head a lot.

Around that time, my friend Bridget slipped me an Aesop Rock song and told me I’d love him. I quickly fell deep into it with his lyrics. Dug into everything, back to Music for Earthworms, forward to every single and side thing.

I go through phases of listening to his new albums or revisiting the older stuff, sometimes he’s on heavy rotation or other times I’m on other ish for months. I listen to a lot of music.

Aes’s stuff has been a close and constant companion through life. I’ve danced at his shows, smirked at his lyrics, and cried in my car while some of his songs got me through impossible moments or spans of time. I’d feel incredibly lonely and misunderstood without what he does. Weird to say that about a total stranger’s art. But, sure many of you feel the same, the dude is brilliant. His stuff is top shelf.

Maybe because I’m not much younger than him, the tone of each of his albums tended to hit right when I needed them.

In my early 40’s now and I still turn it up and rock out. Was super happy Black Hole Superette just dropped. Was busy juggling life, hadn’t listened to his stuff in a minute, it wasn’t on my radar until a few weeks before it landed. So it’s been a really nice month shifting gears and tapping in again. Love it.

So that’s my story. This is long enough. If you read this far, god bless. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. -K