Consumer Guide Album

Aesop Rock: ITS: Integrated Tech Solutions [Rhymesayers, 2023]
Now in his late forties, the Suffolk County rapper a/k/a Ian Bavitz has been generating hip-hop albums of notable intelligence, range, and curiosity since he was 21, although they were often dulled slightly by hooks more declarative and ideological than catchy and entertaining. Strangely, this album barely references the kind of postmodern supertech the title conceit would seem to portend. Instead it's like Aes thought it was time for a lookback that honored cruder but also less esoteric tech and pre-tech he can ponder fondly: from rocks/fire/wheel to 12,000 species of moss and the rivers he loves, from Mr. T to Vincent Van Gogh, from onion dip mix to robot limbs to fentanyl, from salt-and-pepper squid to his grandma's pierogi to the tub of margarine she always kept on hand. B+