Aesop Rock
I believe giving pets 'people food,' while tempting, is generally frowned upon. As a pet owner you want to prioritize your animal's health over the entertainment value in watching your little guy bat around a small piece of chicken.Collection: Pet
I would love for my existence as an artist to be completely about my art - not about my social media, or what I do vs what's cool right now, or even whether or not I sound okay in an interview.Collection: Cool
It's really rare in life that a situation is as black and white as we tend to paint it.
Sometimes comfort zones are the best. Sometimes discomfort is just what the doctor ordered.
I think in your 30s you can still pretend you're in your 20s, or at least maintain some semblance of youth. Forty is when you've got to stop denying the inevitable.
I'd love it if one of my songs became a hit.
I really like 'Game of Thrones.
People will put me in whatever box they feel the most comfortable having me in, and nothing I can do will change that.
Really, my biggest risk was just the initial step to quit my day job to do music. I was packaging and shipping for an art gallery in Manhattan; I went to school for painting, so I always wanted to work around artwork, even though I wasn't really contributing anything to the scene.
I had been using a 4-track and a digital 8-track in the '90s, and it was this huge complicated thing. But GarageBand is right there.
My brother came home from college with a Mountain Goats cassette and I was like, 'What is this?' The lyrics were crazy to me. I'd never heard anything like it.
I don't see any of my records as any more or less conceptual than the others, and I don't really plan some overall idea in advance. The songs all get written under the umbrella of a certain time in your life, and it's natural to find themes that repeat within these periods.
I have been inspired by countless artists over the years, but there's also times when you just gotta make your own inspiration.
Ultimately, I really like to rap, and seeing what I can do to keep it fresh for myself has lent itself to tailoring over time.
Having some decent musicians around you only expands what you can do production-wise, but I make rap - I can't really see myself doing much else.
I was a Kimya fan for a long time, a Moldy Peaches fan, so I got to work on her 'Thunder Thighs' record a little bit and we became friends and just started writing songs.
New York can be a tad stressful.
Honestly, I don't feel pressure to live up to anything I've done because I tend to not listen to my work once a year passes.
I know a lot of people who make records, and when you meet them, it's not their personality or they're not what you're expecting. But El-P is exactly what you'd expect.
I've been able to tour because of my music and I've learned a lot about myself while on the road. I think some of the imagery of my writing are snapshots of where I've been and my feelings about the world.
I always keep my phone on vibrate. Ringtones give me anxiety.
I love a cool cellphone as much as the next guy, but, god, I hate when it rings.
To be honest, I think Chris Ware is the only person whose books I've actively and consistently purchased for years.
After much inner debate, I can safely proclaim that Mungo Jerry's 'In the Summertime' may, in fact, be the best song ever recorded.
I avoided the computer generation for a very long time.
The neighbors prefer I don't do vocals at night. It gets a little iffy when I'm screaming.
When I record in a studio. I know that on Tuesday at 3 o'clock I've got to go be creative.
I guess all that I can hope for is that my songs affect the younger versions of me out there.
Inserting my personal brand of humor is something I have at times had trouble doing - but I feel like I've been learning about it a little more, how to do it, and how it helps my songs.
I always find my emotions all over the map, not so much a single thing overriding the rest.
You think of, like, Justin Timberlake. He does a three-hour performance every night, and it's like, wow, I don't know how that guy does it.
It's a strange position to be in. Not only the fact that I'm trying to live off work that is personal, but how you get the money for that is racing around the country and smiling for people and selling the record, you know what I mean?
I'm not a celebrity or anything.
I've performed in Japan before, as well as many other non-English speaking countries. I find you really just have to be a bit more animated than usual. Call-and-response routines work well, if they are simple. Otherwise, I just dance around like a circus monkey and hope the crowd feels it.
When you're younger, you really care who your fans are.
People's opinions outside of my direct group of friends means next to nothing.
People can label me whatever they like. I don't really care any more.
I've been writing for a long time.
I don't like being away from home for a long period of time.
I don't like to do the same songs every night for a week. I just... it's boring and tiring and frustrating basically.
Performing is fine.
Every record I do does a little better than the last, which in turn makes me more stressed out.
I'm never really comfortable; I think it's kind of natural to feel uncomfortable, and I think if people say they are comfortable, they're just lying.
We're all just cats trying to be original, which is what I think being a B-boy is about.
I just try to reflect the grittiness in New York. I try to protect the grit and the dirt that comes with it, which is a good thing.
I love rap lyrics, I love hearing people rap, I love molding a thought or idea into the shape that fits on a rap beat.
I think I'm always surprised at how much the musicians I meet put weight on things that aren't music.
I guess, for me, the idea of finding an identity through creative means has always been a way to deal with otherwise feeling awkward and uncomfortable out in the world.
I used to do a lot of one-off collabs, features, stuff like that.
I feel like a lot of times, when making a one-song collab with someone, it's easy for one person to not be fully invested. I guess you'd call that 'mailing it in.' But when you say 'This is our album,' then all parties have a reason to make it as good as possible, and the goal becomes seeing what we can do together as a unit.