Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock, one of underground hip-hop’s most enduring and illuminating talents, recently released Spirit World Field Guide via Rhymesayers Entertainment. The collection, arguably the most expansive and ambitious work in the verbose MC/producer’s storied career, is a concept album of sorts; a guide to an upside-down world illustrated across 21 insightful chapters of firsthand know-how of the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe, rife with hallucinatory images of killer eels, magic spells, and people on the run, peppered among anecdotes, recipes, survival tips, warnings, maps, drawings, and more.

(Photo Credit: Ben Colen)