Aesop Rock
All Day

Nike Sport Music 2007

By Hunter Stephenson

Are you on bad drugs or did Aesop “Labor Days” Rock release an album on Nike’s new record label? What’s next, Ghostface dropping Can’t Fuck with Swine on Hormel’s new boutique imprint? Or, El-Producto “just saying ‘hi’” to Diddley and then crying when people call him out on it because he's whined about hip hop’s status since birth? Actually, yeah. Oh, and Halliburton’s relocating to Dubai. Accountability’s a broke bitch, especially when you make yourself the righteous, artistic face of it like all these Def Jukies of the past and present. If you want CliffsNotes while you shudder from pretense, go find some of Aesop’s and Mr. Lif’s on-stage banter from a few years ago.

No, this is not a tangent encouraging anyone to buy trainers made by the sore, cracked hands at Ad Busters. I don’t buy Nike, out of habit and because the House that Phil Knight Built is the harbinger for American Apparel leggings for men. I buy Adidas made in Korea and Alifes made by insanely cool people. But there should be a rule: If you make music that all of the nations’ critics consider to be “dystopian,” and choose to digress on the tour bus about the NWO, working-class slaves and Loose Change, don’t blow it all into the ether by collaborating with Nike. Even if your wife says it sounds like fun and she wants to play some mean guitar on it. I mean, after this Rosie O’Donnell has practically snatched Aesop’s Trophy for Nutso Speaks the Truth.

Everybody’s laid up like entitled princes in the Scion castle these days, placing their Svedka-tinis on Cosmo Baker compilation coasters. Those are some rebel stories to tell your kids. With commercial placement being the norm as the record industry quakes, it’s inevitable that the record labels of the future will be Nikes, Scions and Obeys. But fuck if you’ll find real artists signed to them, just lobbyists with nice watches.

This discourse of Aesop Rock's All Day is written by Hunter Stephenson for ignore Magazine, copyright 2007 .