Dad rap is having another fine year. From Killer Mike to Billy Woods, veteran spitters with things to say keep capitalising on a rising tide of pertinence – kicked off in 2020 by Run the Jewels’ authoritative howl of protest RTJ4 – that hasn’t let up yet. Once a mainstay of the Def Jux label in the 2000s, Aesop Rock (born Ian Matthias Bavitz) has long been one of hip-hop’s more eloquent wordsmiths. His last album, 2020’s playful-serious Spirit World Field Guide, garnered late-career rave reviews.
Integrated Tech Solutions is another assured slam dunk: a loose concept album about our dystopian tech consumerism with bouncy retro production that crackles with vim. Aesop sets out his stall on Mindful Solutionism, an earworm of a track that examines the tech that humans keep building. All City Nerve Map takes up the theme again, to depth-charge bass and frisky electronics. Given both men are outliers with grownup concerns, it makes sense to find Billy Woods guesting on Living Curfew, his calm drawl contrasting with Aesop’s more frenetic delivery. Even seemingly prosaic tunes about pigeons (Pigeonometry), Van Gogh (On Failure) and rivers (By the River) here are exactly the right kind of nerdy.
