Lupe Fiasco & Aesop Rock's Surprising Superhero Team-Up | "Pumpkin Seeds" Breakdown 

Lupe Fiasco & Aesop Rock finally hopped on a track together. IT'S ALL HAPPENING 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿 This track is part of a fundraiser: aesoprock.bandcamp.com/album/pumpkin-seeds-feat-lupe-fiasco Lupe At MIT: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zBHRsYhYb-o.html SUPPORT TBD: LinkTree: linktr.ee/thecompanyman

Pumpkin Seeds came out while I was writing difficult paper for my postgrad degree. After trying to break down ASE and Lu's lyrics, paper wasn't so hard no more.

I heard this track about two hours before this episode dropped. I am still unpacking all of it. I've been a massive Aesop and Lupe fanboy forever because of their nuance, wordplay and complexity. SO this track is truly a year end treat. I need to live with it for a while more to let it ruminate in my brain, no doubt it will be in heavy rotation for the rest of the year and beyond! No doubt I will be punching myself in the face as I work towards desphyering this epic teamup, dare i say, masterpiece.

I been listening to Aesop Rock since the late 90's and is a dope live performer. Glad to see guys like him and EL-P still doing it

First off, what a dope collab. The beat is so freaky and eerie. Thank you for highlighting how big a deal it is! I think Aesop's opening verse is definitely about getting bugged by people when he finally leaves his apartment. It tracks right along with other songs he's written in the past about being introverted and struggling with depression - The Impossible Kid is SO full of lyrics in that direction. The hood D&D classes getting involved in "catechisms and catalytic converters" is a neat connection to that, too - the things you don't want to run into when you're out late at night. I love when he hits those alliteration bits in there - "The apathy is acclimating" is a killer line. The "Oral Coral Reefs" is such a good line! I love the "Word Salad Sandwiches" right before that too - it makes me feel like Lupe is writing his verse about Aesop specifically, while also trying to be just as abstract as Aes usually is. Especially cause there's that line "the never-ending meta-narrative" I wanna know what the intention was with the hook! "Inside the Box is just another box" is such a trippy combo when you have it repeated over that hazy, dark beat. Is it that Aes is trapped, no matter if he gets out of his head or out of his apartment? But then Lupe starts his verse with a Pandora's Box reference, and he later goes "inside of the box is just another shoe" - AGH the imagery is so cool!

It grinds my gears when lyricists such as Lupe, Aesop, Cambatta, etc. Are belittled for their complex lyricism and literal magnetic flows. Because of guys like Lupe, it gave me a much bigger appreciation for the art of lyricism and the mastery of MCing to go on and educate myself with not only vocabulary but also with history and current events that's going on.

Listening to lyricists like Lupe Fiasco and others have helped me improve in learning new words for years. I also appreciate the challenge of trying to understand lyrics that are delivered, it takes some time but I am invested. At times I get upset when my peers or content creators try to belittle complex lyricism over simplistic lyricism and crap on artists like Aesop, Black Thought, Lupe and Common. But those artists are important to me and others.

This is definitely one of the Lupe collabs that are on my wish list. I’ll spend idk how long breaking down Pumpkin seeds. Now we need Lupe with Black Thought, Andre 3k, KA, Mach Hommy, Earl Sweatshirt , Billy woods. I want more Lupe features. I hope this is a sign he’ll come out side with the rappers 1 more time.

Man I’m so pumped about this. Aes makes Shakespeare’s vocal look elementary. I still think his Float LP is one of the most criminally underrated projects of all time.

So knowing Ian " aesop rock" personally though I haven't spoken to him since this release, I could tell you it's not about just hanging out in a convenience store. There's a lot more to it than that brother... But I'm glad you're enthused as well as I am. It's an amazing track and Lupe definitely killed it

Aesop, Lupe, and Company Man, all deserve their flowers over this.

this song was a master class and im so glad you brought p the impposible kid being a classic it is one my favorite albums of all time and when i talk about to people the have no idea. you always make my rap nerd saturdays feel less isolated thank you justin! Also watching lupe breakdown aesop the way do and hes clearly so stoked about it brings a tear to my eye no joke

Aesop Rock's punchlines are like delivering your mail with DHL, you should get it in a couple days

I absolutely love seeing people geek about lyricism. Thank you for always bringing the dope content, Justin!

I've been listening to Aesop since the early 2000s because of my bro-in-law. When I was in the phase of thinking this was just random nonsensical words. I kept coming back because it might not. I love analyzing lyrics. I'm a rock fan that leans heavily on Tool which Maynard is a wizard at structuring stories, metaphors, intent, depth, and is a rabbit hole. My point is, I knew there was an artist I didn't understand and I stuck with it. I discovered The Impossible Kid over Thanksgiving. My son, who can rap nearly every Aes song from memory, had recently introduced me to Spirit World, and I have been deep-diving this incredible artist. It's been a ride. It's poetry to great tracks. And I'm a 55-year old rock dude. Don't give up on Aesop Rock. It's worth the investment!

I’ve been waiting for something like this to come out since Lupe’s Aes video!! Aesops tracks remind me of those iSpy books us 90’s kids grew up loving. Everytime you’d go back to a familiar page there would always be something new to see or some nuance you didn’t notice before. This is exactly the case with aesops music. Each time you find something new even in tracks you’ve heard 15-20 times over. It’s kind of therapeutic for me as I’m adhd and brain chemical deficient so I get this pretty sweet task accomplished serotonin rush from understanding or deciphering a new layer or just reinterpreting his lyrics. It’s awesome.

Lu put me on Aesop. I mean I know the name before but never listened until last year. Aes is a genius. Gotta hand it to Lupe for putting us on dope emcees like Aes and DOOM and Mickey Factz. These are god tier lyricists.

We need that full project by Aesop, Blockhead and lupe ASAP

i’m so happy they collaborated. i remember when lupe said he stopped doing features and here we are.

Lu had a track with Sway (japanese rapper, not the UK one) "Under the stars", almost a year ago.

He's got some bangers too, like wolf piss and drums on a wheel.

Oh man it's such a perfect breakdown. The Gza said, " the dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum," and that's me 100 percent. I start by just getting into the groove of an Aesop song, then months later begin to dissect it. This goes for other genres of music as well, one of my favorite songwriters is from the band "Los Campesinos," and half the fun of listening to them is the long process of dissecting the lyrics. It's a good learning experience too, as we begin to understand the poignancy that people are trying to convey. Anyway, this collabo, *Raekwon the chef kiss* Perfecto.

What's crazy is I just listened to that exact video about Lupe talking about the painter... before The Company Man posted this. Lol now I have to give Aesop a listen, besides Pumpkin Seeds.

There's a current of humor to a lot of Aes' stuff I think people miss as well. Like on Shrunk, in a bar Lupe eluded to. The idea of someone using Japanese honor-suicide to express his grumpiness that the people in his therapist's waiting room are annoying is just inherently funny. The Impossible Kid was really the album that definitively proved he was in on the joke.

In my opinion these are the top 2 greatest lyricists of all time. Both Lyricists infuse so much depth in ever bar while being abstract or Clear as day.

A lot of people say similar things about DOOM and it makes me think some people don't want to, or are just incapable of, interpreting poetry beyond face value. Which is fair to some degree. Not everyone wants to study to understand a song. What is unfair though is saying that these writers are just throwing words together nonsensically just because you refuse to understand it. Also this track is super dope so thank you lupe and aesop.

An unusual unorthodox collaboration, and I love it, Genius will break with fans trying to decipher these lyrics

goes toooo crazyyyyyy. the mario kart/forza line is insane

Wait, waaiiiiiittt!!!! I'm geeking out right now! I love these 2 men so much!🤩🙌🏼🔥

First time I heard Aesop Rock was on Fight Night Round 4 and he had me doing double takes on what he was saying or did he actually use that word in a rhyme. Lu is a dope emcee and crafty author of rhymes that made me do double tasks too. Hearing the song right before you played the clip had me nodding along. I'm gonna have to go on Genius to see the lyrics and go from there. That vocabulary chart is one of the best things I saw on the internet. The first time I saw it, I expected the usual suspects and when I saw Rock at the end, I thought about it for a half second and said yeah that's about right. The one that tripped me out was GZA. That dude's vocabulary is nuts. I think that rap vocabulary might be an interesting piece to do. Is it better to have dense lyrics and clever metaphors or saying whatever comes off the dome and punch you in the face? I don't have the answer to these questions.

Aesop GOAT video when? 👀 Honestly, he definitely has a spot for the argument. Tenure, dense and consistent catalogue, fantastic collabs, all with his lyricism evolving while still remaining unmatched.

The druid, thief, huxter, priest line is a reference to classes in dungeons and dragons, huxter is NY slang as you probably know but it's used in place of the word rogue in context.

Aesop's flow is legendary! Been DOPE frfr! 🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯💯💯

ASE "Garbology" is fun too

Never thought id live to see the day that the goats finally linked up and made an absolute classic.

I can’t wait to hear this song soon & thank you for briefly summarizing who Aesop Rock is. I’ve only seen his name but never heard his music & didn’t even realize he’s been in the game for decades. Then again, it took me years to find out who Doom was. RIP to that king & supreme lyricist. But anyway, gonna be introduced to Aesop with Pumpkin Seeds & then move on to his catalog. Much appreciated for this one.

First, thanks for telling me about this song. I like Aesop because he challenges the listener and expects more out of them. It’s an intellectual exercise.

I’ve been waiting for this for ever. My two favorite emcees

"If you haven't heard of Jackson Pollack, punch yourself in the face!" I'm very happy that today my face remained unpunched

Lupe continues to make supreme magic. Having Aesop as his comrade in arms only makes the sword sharper. Great piece!! As always.

Yo this is the fun of being a fan of hip hop that I've missed. Looking up and deciphering lyrics and meanings. I just saw a video about Lupe's "Shining Down" and there was one line that could be interpreted 3 different ways. 🤯 Goat status!

Probably my favorite collab that could happen current year, so fucking great

That hoodie isn't MIC friendly! Another great piece.

Glad you doing okay brother, my condolences again bro❤, happy to see you smiling and happy bro. Have a great day

Maybe I’ve just been listening to Aes for 2 decades and done something to my brain, but his part of Pumpkin Seeds was really clear to me. He said, outside doesn’t seem threatening until you have to run the gauntlet through the late night neighborhood weirdos at 1 am just to get your snacks. He just wants to be home with his weed and Funyuns but had to go on a whole epic quest dodging traps and bracing for attacks (Druids are old pagan Celtic priests, not catholic, but more important to that bar they are a Dungeons and Dragons player class, along with Rangers, Clerics, and in early editions, Thieves. He’s on a quest for treasure and the treasure is snacks). I find it really funny that in their much anticipated collaboration Lupe’s being all deep talking about the hidden selves we keep protected inside our outer selves and Aesop Rock is just like “it’s dark and scary on my block but I got the munchies real bad, leave me and my pumpkin seeds alone.”

Aes Rock aka the reason people made a website about annotating lyrics because they wanted to nerd out on possible meanings and finding the specific fable he was referencing in one line of a 5 minute track.

One of the only tracks I have ever downloaded singly. This was quite an unexpected team up and the two walking talking thesauruses definitely need to make a collab tape together. 💪🏿

Inside of the box is just another box!

Now I just need the Immortal Tech, Brother Ali and Lupe collab. Man I wish Eyedea was still alive (R.I.P a G.O.A.T) that would've been another good collab

Wow. Definitely caught me by surprise here. Aesop Rock gets high and just writes a random stream of thoughts which, occasionally make sense, whereas Lupe Fiasco actually has pretty deep cultural metaphors with a lot more relevance and skill. Kendrick Lamar is still trying to catch up to Lupe's use of metaphors - that make sense. And that study by Matt Daniels was revised - it is actually Myka 9 out of the Freestyle Fellowship - you know the hip hop artist who literally coined the term "Freestyle" in hip hop history for making up raps off the dome who has the largest vocabulary in hip hop. I'll peep the song though and love your channel

“In a speakeasy wrote peace treaties in war paint” was a bar from Lupe that stuck out to me. Fire track. Obviously still deciphering, but also obviously fire.

“On just Lyricism alone Aesop is the GOAT” Lupe Fiasco 2018

I was on a video call with a bud when the song dropped and I could just stare at the screen for ages...stunned. I have been geeking out so hard over the damn thing. I love that the entire theme of the song just appears to be about layers, which is perfect for both MCs. Inside the box is just another box, so on and so forth

Aesrock’s music is the type that requires repeated listening. The more you listen the more connections you make and there’s ALWAYS a deeper meaning. I believe he’s maybe the greatest storyteller of our time. Love this track and now I guess I need to deep dive Lupe’s catalog.

Just to let you know, there is an updated version of that scale on unique words used. Myka 9 has been placed as the rapper with the most unique words used scale seen on the screen. Just FYI

It’s so nice to see a hip hop team up that makes sense Aesop and lupe are phenomenal artists

It’s good to see Aesop getting some love.

We literally need a album. Both of them killed it and the best goes. 🔥🔥🔥

I didn't even know this was happening! So dope!

always loved both these MCs true inspirations for me

As a long time Aesop fan I don't find him that much difficult to get into. You listen his song a couple of times - > understand some imagery and overall theme - > understand some bars - > come back after a few years - > understand some more bars - > come back after another few years and realize that end point is not important and you were here just for the journey Anyway, song is nice, breakdown is great, sir 🫡 But the most surprising collaboration of the year? Nah, that goes to Backxwash and Billy Woods. That one I couldn't believe it was so out of blue for me

Man I wish the company man did a similar Breakdown for KXNG Crooked. A truly underrated emcee

Your point of view and commentary has always been super helpful and appreciated. That upper echelon rap nerd shit the culture needs! Thank you!

Been waiting for this for ages!!!🔥❤🔥It is fire! I enjoyed this song❤

These always drop just in time for my lunch break and it’s perfect

What’s interesting about Lupe connecting Pollack to Aes, is that Pollack (and abstract expressionism), was directly influenced by the CCA and the directors at the MOMA, who were directly funded by the CIA in order to create a globally dominate American painting culture (check out Guilbert’s “How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art”) Aes, on the complete other end, created underground songs directly influenced and aimed at surveillance capitalism in the early 2000s (check out the “Bazooka Tooth” documentary that features him and El P and the rest of Def Jux), Both Pollack and Aes use abstraction incredibly. but from two completely different ends of acceptance of the greater general “art world”. Pollack became unknowingly a pawn of anti-communist cultural propaganda pushed by the State Department and was eventually elated as one of the greatest modern artists and arguably the father of postmodernism… where as Aesop remains much more less-known and understood, and came from a very much anti-imperial / anti-Anerican stance (especially in his first 3 or 4 projects).

10:36 "Corridor after corridor, a never ending meta-narrative that forever cabbages Inside of your word salad sandwiches, a formal moral beef I don't I call 'em teeth, I call 'em oral coral reefs" Seeing that a cabbage is a form of a plant, aswell as the coral reefs(looking like teeth), I believe he's using the imagery of a cabbage having layers for teeth that he'll never go at a loss for words( or bite weapons) for there will always be another layer or something else he'd say. Being known for their lyricism and and double entendre easter eggs I'd say it works well with their "inside the box there's another box" chorus. LAYERS!. But not being American and a native English speaker, some slangs and references go beyond me when I listen to these 2, so there's a chance I could be way off with the interpretation...

This song is unreal still peeling back the layers

We love you Justin thank you for another fantastic vidjo

I've been dreaming about this collaboration for YEARS!

Literally both in my top 5, unmatched lyricism

BRO WHAT YES I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS THE OTHER WEEK

Thank You A&L, Yall are HIPHOP JEDI’s and I appreciate you 2 for Helping’Out My Birth City Of Dayton Ohio, I left that City before The Snowfall….Still My Birthplace and I was introduced to HIPHOP there from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5…”The Message”….Appreciate You “The Company Man” With The Upmost Respectx…!!! Lupe is by far my Favorite Emcee of Emcees…I didn’t have to “Punch Myself In The Face” for 3 Saturdays In The Row….HIPHOP Is On This Channel….Peace & Blessing’s…I Love Aesop Rock as well, True Wordsmith to Infinity….What IF those Two Greats put an entire Album Together

It's a pretty dope track. I did not even have a clue it was coming out and was amazed by how good it sounds.

I’m really hoping we see more Lupe collabs.

Saw the song dropped and add it to my playlist but forgot til I saw the video title an hour ago, gave it four listens and came to watch 🔥🔥🔥

I think what Lupe is saying is that he is complex like a coral reef is complex, his bars have many layers and his meanings have hidden meanings which have hidden meanings

I heard this right after it dropped and it didn't initially click what I'd heard because I was working. I saw it on my RU-vid feed later while I was gaming and legit shouted when I realized it was ft Lupe. Such a good combo.

All I can say is MORE PLEASE

IT WAS SO GOOD, and for a fundraiser too. Love to see it 😍

this collab was beautiful to see. brought a tear to my eye.

I do understand that Aes' style can dull his edge a bit when he wants to have a message. At the same time though I think there's merit in simply honing something to the finest state possible. Someone's gotta do it anyhow

Lupe going on a J Cole run where he switches his mindset to collabing with rappers he respects got me excited.

I absolutely exploded when this track dropped. Love both these emcees, never knew Lupe was such a big Aes fan. Love the track but it just makes me WANT MORE FROM THEM!!!

the line about druids and huckers is listing tabletop RPG classes, DnD refrences have grown common from aesop as DnD has grown accepted by pop culture via vehicals like stranger things or youtube. Much like his occultism it was something that helped shape him in his early years but he was not comfortable rhyming about initially

I need to listen to more Lupe! I had no idea how educated the man is. Does he have a podcast?

@10:40 'oral coral reefs' is cuz vibrant life thrives from out our mouths AKA words that we speak support whole ecosystems & create evolutionary growth

Aes Rock and Homeboy Sandman preceded the depth of the lyrical titan combo for Aes tho. It's great that lyrical dexterity is still supremely viable nowadays

Lupe will always be in the conversation when real hip hop lyricists are called. Not long ago he was battling with one of the dopest, he dropped a freestyle album that wasn't gibberish, now he's jumping on a track with someone he respects...Probably why he doesn't do features because he realized most everyone else doesn't take it as serious as he does, it's all about the money and hype for many.

Like others here have said, it does seem like Aes' verse is about his mental health issues and specifically why he's so reclusive. "It isn't just a funyun run." It's not just people that have him being happy to be a shut in. "Inside of the box is just another box." You unpack issues to find you have even more issues. Lupe's verse seems to be about Aes as a musician, and why that may relate to who he is a person, and even relating to it. "Inside of your word salad sandwiches are formal moral beefs." Inside of all the dense lyricisms are basically valid criticisms he has about one issue or another. And I think what Lupe means by, "oral coral reefs" is basically, at least before Global Warming started sending everything to hell, coral reefs were among the most dense environments for life. They're filled with all sorts of plants and different aquatic species. Aes' music is filled with life. It's dense. Like a coral reef. Yeah, Lupe's verse feels like there's so much double meaning to it all. Aes' music is dense. Aes as a person is dense. The more you dig deeper into both, the more you find.

The way I've learned litterary analysis, the first step is noticing an element that jumps out of the text, something that might be important. X word is repeated a lot, there's a change in the style of writing, the author just used a metaphor, etc. These are the signs that are left in a text that may give you insight into it. You first notice them, and then you dissect them, it's not done in one continuous reading. So I'll bounce off of Lupe's example. In the song Shrunk, Aesop basically tells the tale of a first meeting with a therapist. At the moment of going to meet his therapist for the first time, he says: "I'm climbing up the stucco, let's get to the seppuku". Evrything points to this line being important. The exotic word, but also the emphasis he puts on it and the way the melody changes at the end of the line; so you're sure it's important. Until then, his flow was pretty relentless, but he takes a little break after saying "stucco". This builds anticipation. As anticipation is being built in him as a patient, because through the track he has very conflicted feelings about the therapy session. Then you get to the line. Seppuku is the samurai practice by which they would cut their stomachs open in ritualistic sacrifice to recover honor. They would spill their guts out literally, as Aes is about to do metaphorically. It also highlights how stressful it is, he really puts you in his shoes when you understand what that means, he feels like he's about to kill himself in a very painful manner. This line serves the purpose of marking an important moment in the song and in the narrative Aes is painting, it draws a parallel between the experience he's going through and that of a seppuku and builds anticipation in the listener, through the metaphor and the cadence, to make them relate to Aes' experience. Not only is it not gibberish, it is overloaded with meaning.

so glad you covered this big bro. Youdaman!

This was on my top 3 collabs to happen years ago.

Ahh, it feels good to scratch this off my "dream collab" list but I hope they do more together in the future! I think FRO has been trying to snag an Aes collab for awhile, that would be dope too!

Another good break down and a good track by these two top-tier lyricists. As far as the "ranger cleric, hunter, thief, druid, huckster, priest" line I believe that is a reference to video game (and novel) archetypes. Like seeing all the stereotypical people we would see when we go out on something as common as a store run. In reality you might see homeless man asking for change, the business man in a hurry to his next meeting, or even the "Karen" making a fuss with the employee. I take Aesop's line as a more clever way of stating such.

I talk to people about this all the time, usually specifically in reference to Aesop. In almost anything that someone can be good at, there's a line at some point that gets crossed where the average person is not going to have the ability or the motivation to understand how technically good someone is at something. When you get up to a level someone like Aesop is on, You basically have to be a student of Hip Hop or an emcee to really understand how good he's actually being. And if you're not like us, where we derive pleasure from being bombarded with a ton of information to unpack, it just becomes work even if someone possesses the ability to do that. It's like what I always say about Devin the Dude, 'He's an emcee's emcee'. This is probably even more true of Aesop. Yes, I like some Gucci Mane. Yes, Chief Keef is nice sometimes. But they aren't challenging me to think too hard about what they're saying. I can see the charge that Aesop is just spouting big words, but its clearly not true if you just take it line by line and look at what he's actually saying. So, yeah, I think the accessibility thing is a hinderance, but not in a bad way at all. It's just a higher level of lyricism that you get to 'unlock' and study once you're up to that point. He's an emcee's emcee, and I think it's important to have those types of people in any medium or profession.

Mindblown 🔥

It's interesting to see how rap collabs, whether for tracks or albums, write the history of the culture

Im pretty sure Lupe is either talking about how theyre both rhyming or his whole verse is a love song to aes..

This guy's house looks pretty sweet