Freedom Finger (Music from the Game)

Either Aes Rizzle’s complex wordplay and verbal cadence are suddenly coming off as more straightforward, or he’s just been around long enough to make perfect sense to longtime fans. In either case, the indie OG’s distinctive style and woofer-busting production remain a gift to hip hop, and this short-play offering pulls no punches or breaks, and pushes the vet’s talent ever forward. Three fresh cuts, their instrumentals, and four weird little snippets of, one supposes, what’s next, tease more of the genius that those in the know have always admired. With game contemporaries like El-P finding world fame after many of their peers went to find day jobs, Aesop Rock in 2020 sounds just that much closer to the breakthrough he’s frankly never given a fuck about.