''The Impossible Kid'' is the seventh studio album by American hip hop artist

Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerge ...

. It was released on April 29, 2016 through

Rhymesayers Entertainment Rhymesayers Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated RSE) is an American independent hip-hop record label based in Minneapolis. History Rhymesayers Entertainment was co-founded in 1995 by Sean Daley (Slug), Anthony Davis (Ant), Musab Saad (Sab th ...

. The production was handled by Aesop Rock himself. The cover art was created by

Alex Pardee Alex Pardee is an American freelance artist, apparel designer, and comics creator writer, best known for illustrating the Used's album artwork. Career He has also done works for Hurley International, Twenty Twenty Skateboards, Bay Area rapper T ...

. To accompany the release of the album, Rob Shaw directed an abridged shot-for-shot remake of '' The Shining'' using small figurines, which was set to the album in its entirety. Additionally, music videos were created for "Rings", "Blood Sandwich", "Lazy Eye", "Dorks", "Kirby", "Shrunk", and "Get Out of the Car"; released eight years after the death of the song's subject and Aesop's good friend,

Camu Tao Tero Smith (June 26, 1977 – May 25, 2008), better known by his stage name Camu Tao, was an American rapper, singer, and producer. Early life Tao was born Tero Smith in Columbus, Ohio, on June 26, 1977. Career Tao was signed to Definitive Jux ...

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''The Impossible Kid'' received an average score of 85 based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Kyle Mullin of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' gave the album an 8 out of 10 and said: "For years, Aesop Rock has been beloved for his ambitious, loquacious lyricism, but on ''The Impossible Kid'', he's reached new artistic heights by using that elaborate wordplay to offer us a simple yet powerful glimpse at his scarred psyche."

Track listing

All songs written and produced by

, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Musicians *

– lead vocals * DJ Zone –

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...

* Grimace Federation – synthesizer ,

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

, guitar , organ * James Lynch – bass guitar *

Hanni El Khatib Hanni El Khatib (born June 8, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer as well as visual director and co-owner of the Los Angeles-based independent record label Innovative Leisure. His 2013 sophom ...

– additional vocals *

Rob Sonic Robert Smith, better known by his stage name Rob Sonic, is an American rapper and record producer from the Bronx, New York. He has been a member of the groups Sonic Sum and Hail Mary Mallon. He is a founder of the record label Skypimps Music. B ...

– additional vocals * Allyson Baker – guitar *

Carnage the Executioner Terrell Woods (born 1974), better known by his stage name Carnage The Executioner, is an American rapper from Twin Cities, Minnesota. He is best known for rapping, human beatboxing, performing live, and teaching. Outside of his solo work, he is ...

– beatboxing *

Kimya Dawson Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American folk singer-songwriter, one half of the anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches. Dawson's work with the Moldy Peaches earned them a cult following and critical acclaim, with their 2001 song " Anyone E ...

– additional vocals *

Chuck D Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D helped creat ...

– additional vocals *

Onry Ozzborn Michael Sean Martinez (born March 25, 1979), better known by his stage name Onry Ozzborn, is an American rapper and producer from Seattle, Washington. He is a founding member of alternative hip hop groups such as Grayskul, Dark Time Sunshine, and ...

– additional vocals Production * Aesop Rock – executive producer * Brent Sayers – executive producer *

Slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

– executive producer, project coordinator *

Joe LaPorta Joseph J. LaPorta (born ) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-laporta-mn000199340/credits/date-asc/ Career Born and raised in New York, LaPorta graduated from New York Univer ...

– mastering *

Joey Raia Joey Raia is a New York-based mix engineer. He is known for his work with Run The Jewels, Aesop Rock, Nick Hook, Mac Miller and El-P. In 2017 he was nominated for the 2018 Grammy Awards in the category of "Best Rap Song" for mixing "Chase Me" b ...

– mixing * Skye Rossi – project coordinator Design * Jason Cook – project coordinator *

– artwork, layout

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Impossible Kid, The 2016 albums Aesop Rock albums Rhymesayers Entertainment albums Albums produced by Aesop Rock