Heavy Rotation Part V

Back once again......
So the track for this week comes from the Prometheus of Hip Hop, Aesop Rock.
If you don't know Aesop Rock, he's pretty much the bastard spawn of Bob Dylan, John Milton & Biggie Smalls (Now there's a vivid image...)
But yeah, he is good. Crazy stream of consciousness multi-syllable rhymes good.
Night Life is taken from the Daylight EP, the follow up release to Labor Days (if you don't own it, go out and buy it. Don't download it though, you slack bitches. Spend some moolah, the governments about to drop us nearly a whole stack, so spend the 20 spot on a dope CD). The track itself is a lyrical reworking of a single from Labor Days called Daylight.
Unlike a standard remix, Night Life takes the lyrical structure of Daylight, and by reworking the words pretty much completely changes the meaning and feeling of the track. Where Daylight is positive, Night Life is negative. Where Daylight is uplifting, Nightlight is.... well, you get the point.
There is good reason for this though. During the making of this EP, Aesop went insane. Not the kooky, wild, "my mom is just so craaazy" kind of insane, the real kind of insane. And it shows through on these lyrics. Observe the change from Daylight (Still relatively sane)
And I'm sleeping now, yeah the settlers laugh;
You won't be laughing when your covered wagons crash.
You won't be laughing when the buzzards drag your brothers flags to rags,
You won't be laughing when your front lawn is spangled with epitaphs,
You won't be laughing.
to Night Life (total Nut Bar)
And I can't sleep now, Yeah, the police'll laugh,
You won't be laughing when your covered wagons crash.
You won't be laughing when you're hosted by the ghost of Christmas past,
You won't be laughing when your blow up doll's got a headache
and won't give up the ass,
You won't be laughing.
So as we can see, losing your mind is no joke. Even the chorus of the track goes from mad positive:
All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day,
put the pieces back together my way.
All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day,
put the pieces back together my way.
To scary. Just plain scary.
All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day,
Swallow up the pieces,
Spit 'em at your species.
Reachin' the city of lost barnacles and leeches,
Night-light got me when the daylight went to evening.
Yeah.
But Aesop got better, and returned from the abyss to the edge of sanity where he built a cottage, which allows him to write crazy epic poems without wanting to die. And the world, and Hip Hop is better off for it.
So here's both tracks, for your consideration and comparison.
Daylight
and
Night Light
Peace, Kiddies