Skelethon is the sixth studio album by American rapper and record producer Aesop Rock. It was released on July 10, 2012, through Rhymesayers Entertainment, marking his first solo full-length for the label. Entirely self-produced, it features contributions from DJ Big Wiz, Rob Sonic, Allyson Baker, Hanni El Khatib, Kimya Dawson, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Grimace Federation, and Blueprint.
Music videos were created for "Zero Dark Thirty", "ZZZ Top", and "Cycles to Gehenna". A music video for "ZZZ Top" features the martial arts master Patti Li.
In the United States, the album debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 with 14,000 copies sold in its first week.
Background Aesop Rock announced in January 2012 that he had finished recording his new album Skelethon and that it would be released that year.
He has described death as a recurring motif on the album, stating:
Critical reception
Skelethon was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on twenty-seven reviews. The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.5 out of 10, based on fifteen reviews.
Accolades +Accolades for Skelethon Publication Accolade Rank Cokemachineglow Top 50 Albums 2012 HipHopDX HipHopDX's Top 25 Albums Of 2012
Track listing
Personnel Ian "Aesop Rock" Bavitz – lyrics, vocals, producer, executive producer Allyson Baker – additional vocals (tracks: 1, 2), guitar (tracks: 2, 11, 14), bass (tracks: 7, 9) Hanni El Khatib – additional vocals (tracks: 1, 12), guitar (tracks: 7, 12, 14) Robert "Rob Sonic" Smith – additional vocals (tracks: 4, 8, 11) Kimya Dawson – lyrics (track 7), additional vocals (traacks: 7, 9) Nicolas Fleming-Yaryan – drums (tracks: 7, 12, 14) Grimace Federation – additional instrumentation (tracks: 1, 7) DJ Big Wiz – scratches Joey Raia – mixing Michael Nazzario – engineering assistant John Greenham – mastering Brent Sayers – executive producer Sean "Slug" Daley – executive producer Aryz – artwork, layout Jason Cook – coordinator Skye Rossi – coordinator Lisa Klipsic – management
Charts Chart (2012) Peak position
References
External links