Bavitz was born in Syosset, New York and grew up in Northport, New York. While attending college, Bavitz initially recorded and released two self-financed efforts, Music for Earthworms (1997), a full-length featuring underground artist Percee P on two tracks. Bavitz also released a music video to "Abandon All Hope", which was one of the tracks on the CD. The album sold over 300 copies, largely from a grassroots internet-based promotion at his website AesopRock.com and then-popular web portal, MP3.Com. It was a success. With the money he made from his previous release, he then released his Appleseed EP in 1999 which received critical acclaim in the underground hip hop circuit.[citation needed] Both of his early records were produced by long-time friend Blockhead, and underground producer Dub-L. He completed these albums while also working as a waiter.
After his breakthrough success in the underground hip hop and indie rap community, he was eventually noticed by the Mush label and obtained his first record deal in 1999, just a year after he graduated from college. Aesop released his first major album, Float (2000), with guest appearances from Vast Aire, Slug, and Dose One. Production was split between Blockhead and Aesop himself, with one track by Omega One. During this time, Aesop worked at a photography gallery. In August 2001 tragedy struck when Bavitz had a nervous breakdown. The song "One of Four" on his Daylight EP documents his struggles.
Shortly after releasing Float, Aesop Rock signed to Manhattan-based label Definitive Jux (commonly shortened to Def Jux), where he released Labor Days (2001), an album dedicated to the discussion of labor in American society and the concept of "wage slaves". This album was most well known for its single "Daylight". Because of its popularity, Daylight was re-released in 2002 as a seven-track EP, including an "alternative" new version of the song "Night Light", whose paraphrased lyrics simultaneously refer back to, and stand in stark opposition to, the original's. The song "Labor" (from Labor Days) was featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4; it also was the first album in his catalog to break through the Billboard charts, peaking at number 15 at the United States Independent Charts, giving Aesop Rock more recognition.
Labor Days was followed by Bazooka Tooth in 2003. For the first time, production was mostly handled by Rock himself, with three tracks from longtime collaborator Blockhead and one from close friend and Definitive Jux label CEO El-P. Guest appearances include Party Fun Action Committee, El-P, and Mr. Lif (all Definitive Jux labelmates) and Camp Lo. With this release Aesop hit a higher level of recognition, releasing "No Jumper Cables" as a single and music video, then another single, "Freeze", shortly after. A remix of "No Jumper Cables" was featured on Tony Hawk's Underground 2, furthering Aesop's recognition. In 2004, He released Build Your Own Bazooka Tooth and created a contest in which you had to create a remix of an Aesop Rock song using the a cappellas and instrumentals.
In February 2005, Aesop Rock released a new EP, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives. The first pressing of the EP included an 88-page booklet with lyrics from every release from Float until this EP (the lyric booklet is titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow); later pressings of the album come without the booklet, but with an additional bonus track, "Facemelter". In addition, a limited number of albums were available direct from Def Jux with Aesop Rock's graffiti tag on them. In response to demands from his fans, Rock did less production on the EP: three songs are produced by Blockhead, three produced by Aesop, and one by Rob Sonic. During this time he was asked to join The Weathermen to replace Vast Aire.
Aesop Rock was commissioned to create a 45-minute instrumental track for the Nike+iPod running system, entitled All Day. It was released in February 2007. Distributed via the iTunes Music Store and featuring his wife Allyson Baker on guitar and scratches from DJ Big Wiz, Aesop has described the release as "something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes."
All Day was followed in August of the same year by Bavitz's fifth full-length album, None Shall Pass released in 2007. The album also contained original artwork by Jeremy Fish. About Jeremy Fish, Aesop Rock said: "Man that guy is my hero. We have a friend in common who hit me up a while back saying that this guy Jeremy Fish had an opportunity to pitch a cartoon to Disney and wanted me to be involved in the music side. I flipped out cuz I was also a fan of his, and owned some of his work." Aesop Rock also teamed up with Jeremy Fish again in a project called Ghosts of the Barbary Coast. Aesop Rock made a song called "Tomorrow Morning", to go along with a slideshow of drawings that Jeremy Fish drew. This was displayed in San Francisco, but was also made available for download online. None Shall Pass had positive reviews from critics and fans, applauding Aesop for his change in sound.
In 2011, Rhymesayers released "Are You Going to Eat That?", the debut album from Hail Mary Mallon, a collaboration between Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz.
On July 10, 2012, Rhymesayers released Aesop Rock's sixth studio album, "Skelethon". Its first single, "Zero Dark Thirty", was released four months earlier on April 10. A second single, "ZZZ Top", was released on June 29.
In 2011, Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches formed the duo The Uncluded. The duo's debut album, "Hokey Fright" was released on May 7, 2013.
In 2018, Aesop Rock teamed up with TOBACCO to form Malibu Ken
Tomorrow Morning
Aesop Rock Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Nickelodeon showed scandalous moving pictures
The coast was described by one indignant critic
As "that sink of moral pollution, whose reefs
Are strewn with human wrecks
Here, blear-eyed men drink vile liquor
Smoke offensive tobacco and engage
In vulgar conduct. Here are:
And hell, yawning to receive its putrid mass."
These are the unregulated rabbit holes
Barrack homes and taverns built for devil's acre
Opium enthusiasts and baritones, marigold
The garish allure of the burning Barbary
Underbelly born of 40 thieves in whorish harmony
Hammering for the dark and heartless
Harpy, shark and harlot argue breathing room
Do not let the arson jeeper-creeper you
If we elect the scenic route see it as greener grasses
Like morphine after snatch help you forget diseases matter
Not to mention 15 cents for either weakens cheaper gamblers
Down for hell inside a melting pot
No one's ever melting they just yell a lot
Stab each other, drink and eat and belly-flop
Murder Point, your thoroughfare at 12 o'clock
Is hell and back, EMB to Chinatown
Kearny clashing cutters out the netherworld
Sydney ducks to pistol fuck the centerfold
Every cellar iniquity, pretty killers and pistol petes
Might wake up with horses tearing at your limbs symmetrically
Tomorrow morning when the wharf is finished warping
You will wash up on the shore and wonder what was so alluring
Tomorrow evening when the leeches finish feeding
You'll regret the ownership of an aorta that is bleeding
The volunteer firefighters
Competed with each other
Before a later bay was calm, disreputable hangers on
Would rumble for the hungry like Montgomery's little Genghis Khans
Who plain as day would operate in holes where no patrollers go
Groggeries that host the most ignoble dog and pony show
Francis of Assisi in his grave alone to roller-coast
His opus now a cove where all the lowest lows can grow and grow
With no sign of a holy ghost
More the polar: horns and rosy cloven toes
Bunny-hop claims, fold and overthrow
Gangland anchors hit the harbor down for hangman
Shuffle fifty two and slip the chew behind the fang-span
Greenhorn, he just wanna help his hammers harmonize
Stowed in hell's cargo by the spark in those Wells Fargo eyes
And famine wasn't featured in the pamphlet, neither were the cancers
Camp was smoking chimney, mantle, taxidermy antlers
Now the sourdough is lifted out the honeycombs of kitchens
Satan out on broadway and pacific blowing kisses
40 winks, pissy at the grizzly, no lullaby
Clark's point trollops off the docks to flood and multiply
Until a brilliant golden mother-load in the bank
She said between her legs that other gold's pink
Sold it for cheap along the waterfront, wretched little clusters
Push a fuss of smutty huffing plus some itching and discomfort
Little wonder you, in public for the buck, it's rugged
Rusty cutter gut any cutty drunkard who want it
Hellcat Maggie, aggie, move to the music
She had learned to spoon pollution in a climate pruned for losing
Thousand more like her in the cow-yards moo-ing, ooh-ee
Beneath the brutal harvest moon and UV
Note it's the very same foundation on which you and yours sleep
Layers of players over debaucherous troubadour speak
They puff the pathogens and never let the humidors breath
That's why you grew up on stale tobacco and juniper trees
The song "Tomorrow Morning" by Aesop Rock is a commentary on the dark and seedy history of the Barbary Coast district in San Francisco during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Barbary Coast was notorious for its lawlessness, fueled by the massive influx of people seeking fortune during the Gold Rush. Aesop Rock paints a vivid picture of the district and all its vices and depravity, from the scandalous moving pictures shown in Nickelodeons to the opium enthusiasts and pretty killers lurking in every cellar. He describes the area as a sink of moral pollution, where men engage in vulgar conduct and hell is yawning to receive its putrid mass.
Throughout the song, Aesop Rock highlights the violence and lawlessness that characterized the Barbary Coast. He references volunteer firefighters competing with each other and the disreputable hangers-on who would rumble for the hungry like little Genghis Khans. He describes the gangland anchors that hit the harbor, and the trollops off the docks who flood and multiply. Ultimately, he warns that those who dabble in the Barbary Coast's vices will regret it come morning, as they wash up on the shore wondering what was so alluring and regretting the ownership of an aorta that is bleeding.
Overall, "Tomorrow Morning" is a powerful commentary on the dark and violent history of the Barbary Coast district, painting a vivid picture of a place that was a far cry from the idyllic California that many people imagine.
Line by Line Meaning
In the district called the Barbary Coast
The area called the Barbary Coast
Nickelodeon showed scandalous moving pictures
Nickelodeon displayed risque and scandalous films
The coast was described by one indignant critic
An irate critic once described the coast
As "that sink of moral pollution, whose reefs
He labeled it as the moral sink, whose reefs
Are strewn with human wrecks
Where human wrecks are abundantly scattered
Here, blear-eyed men drink vile liquor
Men with tired and bloodshot eyes drink disgusting liquor here
Smoke offensive tobacco and engage
They smoke pungent tobacco while indulging
In vulgar conduct. Here are:
They engage in rude and obscene behavior. Here one can find:
Debauchery, disease, insanity, blasphemy, death
Depraved actions, diseases, madness, sacrilege, fatalities
And hell, yawning to receive its putrid mass."
And a hell, open wide to take in all its vile inhabitants.
These are the unregulated rabbit holes
These are the uncontrolled and unrestricted dens
Barrack homes and taverns built for devil's acre
Houses and bars constructed for the devil's land
Opium enthusiasts and baritones, marigold
Here you can find opium lovers, baritones, and marigolds
The garish allure of the burning Barbary
The bright and flashy appeal of the fiery Barbary
Underbelly born of 40 thieves in whorish harmony
The root of it all stemming from the 40 thieves in a whore-like accord
Hammering for the dark and heartless
Striving for the gloomy and cruel
Harpy, shark and harlot argue breathing room
Harpy, shark, and harlot battle for space
Do not let the arson jeeper-creeper you
Do not let the fire-raising creep confound you
If we elect the scenic route see it as greener grasses
Should we take the picturesque road, we should view it as greener pastures
Like morphine after snatch help you forget diseases matter
Like morphine disorienting from the pain, helping us forget the gravity of illnesses
Not to mention 15 cents for either weakens cheaper gamblers
Moreover, 15 cents each weakens those who gamble for cheaper stacks
Down for hell inside a melting pot
Hastening towards hell inside a melting pot
No one's ever melting they just yell a lot
No one ever melts, only shouting and screaming ensues
Stab each other, drink and eat and belly-flop
They stab, drink, eat, and belly-flop onto each other
Murder Point, your thoroughfare at 12 o'clock
Murder Point, your pathway at high noon
Is hell and back, EMB to Chinatown
A total inferno, from EMB to Chinatown
Kearny clashing cutters out the netherworld
Kearny's clashing blades from the underworld
Sydney ducks to pistol fuck the centerfold
Sydney ducks pistol-whipping the centerfold
Every cellar iniquity, pretty killers and pistol petes
All basements filled with sin, beautiful killers, and pistol-carrying petes
Might wake up with horses tearing at your limbs symmetrically
One might wake to find horses chewing symmetrically on their limbs
Tomorrow morning when the wharf is finished warping
When the dock finishes warping tomorrow morning
You will wash up on the shore and wonder what was so alluring
You'll wake up on the beach, wondering what attracted you here
Tomorrow evening when the leeches finish feeding
When the leeches are done feeding tomorrow evening
You'll regret the ownership of an aorta that is bleeding
You'll regret this moment of owning a bleeding aorta
The volunteer firefighters
The firefighters that offer their services voluntarily
Competed with each other
Rivaling for superiority
Before a later bay was calm, disreputable hangers on
Before the bay became calmer, unsavory hangers-on
Would rumble for the hungry like Montgomery's little Genghis Khans
Would fight for the hungry like Montgomery's little conquerors
Who plain as day would operate in holes where no patrollers go
Who would run plainly visible in areas where patrollers wouldn't
Groggeries that host the most ignoble dog and pony show
Low-class bars that host disgraceful performances
Francis of Assisi in his grave alone to roller-coast
Francis of Assisi buried and alone to ride the roller-coaster
His opus now a cove where all the lowest lows can grow and grow
His masterpiece, now a harbor where all the seediest behavior persists and thrives
With no sign of a holy ghost
Without any indication of a divine presence
More the polar: horns and rosy cloven toes
More like the opposite, horns, and a rose-colored cloven hoof
Bunny-hop claims, fold and overthrow
Claims of bunny-hopping, folding, and overthrowing
Gangland anchors hit the harbor down for hangman
Gang-affiliated anchors settle down in the harbor waiting for the hangman
Shuffle fifty two and slip the chew behind the fang-span
Deal the fifty-two deck and slip the tobacco behind their teeth
Greenhorn, he just wanna help his hammers harmonize
An inexperienced person just wants to assist in syncing the hammers
Stowed in hell's cargo by the spark in those Wells Fargo eyes
Placed in the inferno's cargo by the spark in Wells Fargo's eyes
And famine wasn't featured in the pamphlet, neither were the cancers
Famine wasn't included in the pamphlet, and neither were the cancers
Camp was smoking chimney, mantle, taxidermy antlers
The camp had smoking chimneys, mantles, and taxidermy antlers
Now the sourdough is lifted out the honeycombs of kitchens
Now the sourdough is removed from the kitchen's honeycombs
Satan out on broadway and pacific blowing kisses
Satan on Broadway and Pacific giving kisses
40 winks, pissy at the grizzly, no lullaby
Forty winks, angry at the grizzly, and no lullaby
Clark's point trollops off the docks to flood and multiply
At Clark's Point, trollops exit the docks and begin to proliferate
Until a brilliant golden mother-load in the bank
Until there's a shiny golden motherlode in the bank
She said between her legs that other gold's pink
Between her legs, she said the other gold was pink
Sold it for cheap along the waterfront, wretched little clusters
They sold it cheaply along the shore, in awful little clusters
Push a fuss of smutty huffing plus some itching and discomfort
Making a commotion of vulgar huffing, along with itching and discomfort
Little wonder you, in public for the buck, it's rugged
No surprise that you publicize such a rugged image for profit
Rusty cutter gut any cutty drunkard who want it
A rusty cutter guts any inebriated person who desires it
Hellcat Maggie, aggie, move to the music
Hellcat Maggie and Aggie, dance to the music
She had learned to spoon pollution in a climate pruned for losing
She had learned to tolerate pollution in a place shaped for defeat
Thousand more like her in the cow-yards moo-ing, ooh-ee
Thousands more in cow-yards, moo-ing, ooh-ee,
Beneath the brutal harvest moon and UV
Under the unforgiving harvest moon and UV rays
Note it's the very same foundation on which you and yours sleep
It's the same foundation upon which you and your loved ones sleep
Layers of players over debaucherous troubadour speak
Numerous layers of decadent musicians speaking
They puff the pathogens and never let the humidors breath
They smoke disease-causing substances and don't allow the humidors to breathe
That's why you grew up on stale tobacco and juniper trees
That's why you were raised on stale tobacco and juniper trees
Contributed by Grace C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
maccamellia
These are the unregulated rabbit holes
b h
@Jeffery Sherwood pp
Jeffery Sherwood
🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
Robert Kennedy
This is so sick, after years of listening and so long this song still kicks like it’s some new heat. Classic for sure.
Joey McPartlin
How this never made it to any of your albums is something I'll always wonder. This song is so dope, Aes.
Joey McPartlin
@Weston Holmes I know, that's where I found it. I'm saying it's a good enough song to have been on a more official release IMO. I guess it doesn't matter much.
Weston Holmes
its track 6 on b-sides and rarities vol 3 2007-2009
Mordecai froehlich
Might’ve worked well on skelethon
erikm12
aesop spits wicked lyrics like always, but this beat is extra awesome. Thick, heavy, and bewildering like a lead brick to the skull.
DarkMattervideos
Aes is just too good with lyrics, hes several layers deeper than anything i can write.