Black Hole Superette, Aesop Rock

New York rap legend Aesop Rock released his 11th solo studio album on Friday, Black Hole Superette, featuring 18 tracks of exciting production and Aesop's signature lyricism and delivery, with features from Armand Hammer, Open Mike Eagle, Lupe Fiasco, Homeboy Sandman and Hanni El Khatib.

As a big Aesop Rock fan, I was hopeful that this album would give me something to write about, and while my initial impression was unenthusiastic, something extra to bite into came along later that made me want to write this post. My first experience with Aesop Rock was on Busdriver's Ego Death, and then Aesop's 2020 album Spirit World Field Guide, a concept album about a narrator's experience in another world, with an exceptional album cover spread.

The album cover for Black Hole Superette was created by Justin "El Coro" Kaufman, who had created the covers for Aesop's recent albums, Integrated Tech Solutions, Garbology, Spirit World Field Guide, and collaborative album with Rob Sonic, Hail Mary Mallon's Bestiary.

The Black Hole Superette cover features the front facade of a convenience store in the dark (superette being a New Zealand term for a convenience store, according to Wiktionary). There's an ice cooler, street sign, trash bin and chalkboard in front of the store on the curb. The orange roof of the store reads "Black Hole Superette", the sign reads "Aesop Rock | In association with the law of universal gravitation and the space/time continuum | proudly presents". Above the door is a neon open sign, on the windows are neon lights and posters, and above the window is graffiti that reads "Stay a while".

The back cover shows the opposite side of the building, with a dumpster and trash bins piled up, and an exit, with graffiti on all of bins, dumpster, wall and door. The roof lists all the tracks on the album. Physically, this creates an effect of the front and back of a building flattened onto the record. El Coro mentions that the front and back concept was inspired by Ice-T's 1988 album Power.

The vinyl copies have more goodies, including a spread that showcases the inside of the store, with each song featured next to a food item, often named with references to past Aesop tracks, with production credits for each song. Furthermore, the covers of the deluxe edition enables someone to open the doors of the store and the ice cooler, revealing more artwork and a scratch-off lottery ticket, which unsurprisingly is a loser.

Altogether, this forms the whole concept of the album, a surreal, late-night convenience store with nostalgic items and design, not grounded in space or time, possibly taking the listener or visitor as a prisoner. Some of the production has a nostalgic feel as well, with crumpled samples and some old feeling drums and synths. The album could also be lightly commenting on capitalism as a black hole, being inescapable, making us prisoners.

Could you go to the Black Hole Superette, please? And can you grab me any, anything that has a warning label on it that says something bad's gonna happen to you from the product, can you bring me one of those?
— Homeboy Sandman on track 2, Checkers

But there's also a bit of humor that can't be ignored in Aesop's work, with all the easter eggs and references on the cover and funny (though still introspective or exploratory) tracks like John Something and Snail Zero. The night setting with neon lights at a gas station convenience store is an experience many people can relate to, being alone, out late at night with a bit of wind passing and faint cricket noises all around.

Now, the extra bit to bite into mentioned earlier is that shortly before the release of the album, the Black Hole Superette Experience was announced, which allowed fans to enter into and explore the Black Hole Superette in 3D, listen to snippets of every track, and purchase exclusive merchandise.

It's an incredibly fun idea, to invite the listener in, like a black hole, have all sorts of interesting bits for fans to explore. This creates a totally unique album experience; in my opinion, Aesop has really gone above with his recent albums, expanding on these concepts he builds for his albums.