 This video was sponsored by Skillshare. The first 500 people to go to skl.sh slash polyphonic 11 will get two months of Skillshare for free There are a few rappers that can compare to Aesop rock while he's never broken through the mainstream his intricate flow and strange Verbo spars have made him an underground hip-hop legend He's always in the discussion of smartest rappers of all time and when Matt Daniels analyzed hip-hop's vocabulary He left all other rappers in the dust Daniels found that Aesop rock used more than 7,000 different words in his songs Nearly a thousand more than the next rapper. So how does Aesop rock do it? Let's take a closer look Each one of Aesop rock songs contains so much density that it would be nearly impossible to look over his entire catalog So to better understand how he makes such unique music I'm gonna look at what may be his most popular song none shall pass Released in 2007 none shall pass is the title track off Aesop's best-selling record It provides a great entry point for the artist because it shows off everything that he does so well in four minutes of music Aesop rock manages to squeeze in an impressive 258 different words if you don't count the hundred most common words in the English language You still have two hundred twenty one different words for some context Bob Dylan is one of the most verbose songwriters in rock history When we look at his masterpiece like a Rolling Stone a dense song by any measure He uses a hundred eighty eight unique words a hundred thirty-seven if you take away the common ones And that's a six-minute song Aesop rock manages to fit nearly twice that in four minutes when you take out the Instrumental passages samples and chorus repetitions you get around a hundred and five seconds of actual rapping That means in each second of rapping Aesop rock fits in more than two Individual words and that's not including the most common words either it things like that now This is impressive But being able to fit a lot of different words in a song doesn't necessarily mean the words make sense In fact both Bob Dylan and Aesop rock have been criticized for how difficult it can be to parse their language With some people claiming there's no meaning just jumbled words in an interview with Guernica Aesop rock denied this though He said these songs are not nonsensical. That's pretty preposterous I'd have to be a genius to pull this many nonsensical records over people's eyes He elaborated in Rolling Stones saying that if people aren't pulling meaning from his songs, then that's on them He said I feel like if people aren't pulling anything from the songs Then they're not really trying to or didn't have an interest in the first place And the fact that you need to try to pull meaning from Aesop rock is part of what makes him so amazing in my book It's an active listening process trying to decipher what he's saying and how it can affect your life and There's a lot to decipher when you look closely the first few couplets of none shall pass give direction for the song It's a contemplation on the state of culture and modern society at the time of its release But the way that ace goes about this is with dense metaphor Buttery gold is a way of talking about wealth and it's dripping with visual imagery But he pairs this image of flaunting wealth with a jittery zeitgeist The zeitgeist is a term often associated with the German philosopher Hegel It means the spirit of an age So what's Aesop rock saying when he says the spirit of our age is jittery? It's a nervous time Insecure and distracted paired with the images of buttery gold it creates a juxtaposition People are flaunting their wealth, but the national spirit is insecure and nervous and that's just two lines You can see why unpacking ace is such an intense process. He speaks almost entirely in metaphor The end of none shall pass his first verse is one of my favorite sections of the song where he discusses the way that Society is played against itself Aesop rock has an incredible way of using common euphemisms and turning them on their head Most people know what a cash cow is and know what beef is in hip-hop Both of these metaphors relate to cows and Aesop rock notices this and ties them together to make a powerful statement Those in power are making money off of people fighting each other This flows effortlessly into the next line condemning police violence and tying neatly back into the metaphor of beef Painting a dark picture of authority feasting on the struggles of the downtrodden The dense verbose verses of none shall pass are paired with a simple pre-chorus and a hook build mostly around instrumentals and samples Aesop rock said that he came up with that idea upon hearing blockheads beat to the song He wanted the chorus to be simple built around a catchy phrase that phrase none shall pass Holds many meanings within itself though on one level it seems to suggest hip-hop bravado But at the same time it could be a reference to a Monty Python clip And this goes hand-in-hand with the rest of the chorus or ace paints judgment by a fun house cast The song is lush with religious imagery and this chorus about judgment seems to Lampoon the idea of people claiming moral authority over each other this condemnation of people in power and authority bleeds into the next verse What Aesop rock says here is actually a common thought especially in hip-hop The privileged can't relate to those who have had to struggle to get where they are But the way he paints this picture is so clever and unique The privileged are referred to as people who have never had a day a snow cone couldn't fix It's a simple image, but a powerful one and from there a soft rock sings of an underground rapper Compares him to a broken motor barely running because he refuses to submit to the standards demanded by mainstream society It's clearly a personal story for a soft rock who has spent his entire career Proudly in the underground and while his music may not have the same mainstream appeal It's still easy enough to listen to Aesop rock without delving into the lyrics and that in and of itself is a feat Aesop told the Rolling Stone that he learned how to fill songs with a broad vocabulary But still make them easy to listen to and perform He said I think I've learned over time to keep the denseness and the lexicon in there while making it something That's easier to perform and maybe isn't working against the listeners ear as much a lot of praise is put on how Difficult songs are to rap, but none shall pass as a simple steady flow laid back and right on top of the beat Part of the reason Aesop rocks music is so listenable is the way that internal rhyme guides his flow This is something he learned from his influences. Look at Eric Sermon's opening verse on coming atcha See how he rhymes back with attack and sharp with Barb Nestling these little rhymes within a couplet It's no coincidence that Aesop rock told Passion Vise that this verse always stuck in his head But Ace takes this to the next level on none shall pass in the middle of the second verse He stacks internal rhymes and pairs them with alliteration Check out how this couplet strings together lines of S sounds followed by lines of C sounds all while the rhymes provide a consistent rhythm And these intricately crafted rhymes contain just as much meaning as the rest of the song They're a condemnation of conformity in an interview with thrasher Aesop rock talked about how he writes his rhymes I'll hear things throughout my day that I'd like to work into a song and write it down Whether I get to it tomorrow or two years from now I know it'll be on that list This comes through clearly in the third verse to none shall pass where he runs common phrases and images together with pop culture and raw human experience He even breaks up his flow into clear thoughts playing with space in the bar so that you can hear each thought both on its own And as part of a wider message Okay The way Aesop rock crafts his bars around the beat is impressive too. He's able to nestle short punchy lines in with long intricate descriptive passages Aesop rock is the full package Not only does he have a vocabulary that many authors would die for he has a command over it He can wrangle it into a flow that can connect with listeners And none shall pass is really just the entrance point Aesop rock has an entire career of songs to prove Why he's one of the greatest rappers ever to live But if you decide to give it a listen you might want to bring a thesaurus When making this video, I really wanted a way to visualize Aesop rock's lyrics So I turned to kinetic typography and while kinetic typography is a ton of fun It's also a ton of work and really challenging to learn if you want to try to figure it out I recommend Skillshare where you can find Jake Bartlett's ultimate guide to kinetic type Skillshare is an online learning community with over 20,000 classes in design music business and lots more Premium membership gives you unlimited access to high quality courses on a myriad of skills But maybe you're not looking to take on something new maybe you're just looking to improve your day-to-day life If that's the case why not check out Thomas Frank's productivity masterclass Which can help you get your life in order and maximize your time and really that's just the beginning There's countless courses you can use to create your best self So why not give it a try the first 500 people to sign up using the link in the description We'll be able to try out Skillshare for two months at no cost That means unlimited access to more than 20,000 classes for free So act now and start learning today