The Impossible Kid Tracklist
The Impossible Kid, Aesop’s 7th studio album, was released on April 29, 2016.
Aesop Rock announced The Impossible Kid and released the lead single “Rings” on February 17.
While creating the album he spent a year in his friend’s barn, escaping his troubles and lingering depression. He sold all his possessions, bringing only his music equipment, a bag of clothes, and his cat.
In early March of 2016, Aesop further teased the release of this album with his 4-part satire-explanation video series featuring himself and animated characters like Kirby and Dr. Izzo. He details his hiatus in a barn, and many other topics on the album in this series.
“The Impossible Kid” Q&A
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What has the artist said about the album?
From Bandcamp:
On the new album, Aesop continues finding new ways to improve on the skills that have made him one of the kings of indie hip-hop. His creative process now includes a newfound willingness to open up about his personal life, going deep on topics like depression, his sometimes rocky relationship with his family, and the turbulent handful of years that culminated in Aesop leaving his adopted home of San Francisco to live in a barn out in the woods, where he recorded the foundations of The Impossible Kid. There’s also moments of levity though, as Aesop taps into the funny side of his persona that he suppressed during the period where being taken as a serious lyricist was more of a priority. Like Skelethon, Aesop exercised complete creative control over every aspect of the album, from the production (which he handled himself, with instrumental help from Philly’s Grimace Federation) to conceptualizing the cover art by his friend Alex Pardee.
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What is the meaning of the album's title?
On the song “Get Out of the Car” Aesop uses the line:
Ah, Watch the Impossible Kid
Everything that he touch turns promptly to shitAesop clarified in an interview with Juxtapoz Magazine what he meant by the ‘Impossible Kid’
I refer to myself as “The Impossible Kid” on the song “Get Out Of The Car” and I liked how it sounded and the meanings I could pull out of it. In some ways it’s about my endless and often impossible quest to just feel OK—with myself, with the world, with my place, with my life, my relationships, my art, my impact, if any. It’s the impossible quest for happiness and satisfaction. I kind of also think it can refer to generally being stubborn, someone who won’t budge within the creative process.
In an interview with HipHopDX, Aesop said that the song “Get Out of the Car” was originally called “The Impossible Kid” and he explains how it became the album title:
The song “Get Out of the Car” was originally called The Impossible Kid. I just kinda came up with the term and used it in a rhyme, but the phrase felt larger than the song for me and it ended up as the album title.
Aes even confirmed this in a tweet:
