When Blockhead revealed the tracklist for The Aux, it was as if a small volcano erupted. billy woods, Aesop Rock, Danny Brown, Despot, RXKNephew, Quelle Chris, Open Mike Eagle, Koreatown Oddity, et al. had found their way to one single tracklist, and the reactions garnered were in line with the magnitude of the event. “Seeing my name on an album produced by someone I’ve admired since I was 15 would have been enough, but to be on there alongside rappers whose music has saved and/or enriched my life is even crazier,” wrote Chicago rapper Defcee, who appears on the record. Industrial hip hop group clipping simply reacted with “fucking unreal.” A clip from Avengers: Endgame properly articulated the sentiment regarding The Aux; Blockhead brought titans to battle.
Blockhead found notoriety in the early aughts New York rap scene, defined by labels like Definitive Jux, emcees like Aesop Rock and El-P, and records like The Cold Vein and Labor Days. He quickly became one of its most notable producers, making a name through a string of instrumental LPs released on the legendary Ninja Tune label, as well as work with childhood friend Aesop Rock and other Def Jux stalwarts. Blockhead has remained steadfast in nearly every aspect of his career. His production ethos has stayed largely unchanged and his loyalty to New York is unquestionable, which explains his longevity. However, having created a discography filled with instrumental albums and producer-rapper albums, the multifaceted tracklist of The Aux marks a major shift for Blockhead.
Featuring both upcoming and legendary names, The Aux is the record Blockhead waited decades to make. “It’s something I literally wanted to do since I started. Free Sweatpants was the attempt at that,” admits Blockhead. Free Sweatpants, released in 2019, features common collaborators billy woods, Aesop Rock, and Marq Spekt, among others. Half of the record is still instrumental though, an outcome Blockhead blames on how hard wrangling rappers can be. The Aux is a fulfillment of Blockhead’s vision, thanks to one crucial difference: billy woods. woods is credited as an executive producer and his Backwoodz Studioz label is responsible for its release, though woods’ and Backwoodz’ impact on the record goes far beyond marketing and distribution.
Blockhead’s relationship with the New York underground rap maestro goes deep. Having first heard woods’ work through a 2011 compilation mixtape named “Cowardly Threats & Hideous Cruelty; The Best of Billy Woods,” Blockhead reached out to billy woods to see if he wanted to work together. “In that era, I was trying to work with a lot of rappers because it’s kind of my favorite. Instrumental albums are cool, but it’s more in tune with what I listen to. I was just reaching out to any rapper that I like, so woods got back to me, he’s very excited.”
Woods affirmed the sentiment in an Instagram post about Blockhead. “We had never met, and here was a producer that worked with some of the titans of underground rap, signed to Ninja Tune, and he was reaching out to me! I will always remember that moment…as when I first felt that I might have turned a corner.” Their 2013 and 2014 full length collaborations, Dour Candy and Known Unknowns, marked the beginning of their professional relationship, since continued by occasional woods verses on Blockhead releases and Blockhead placements on woods records.
The Aux was conceived with a stronger presence from woods, who filled a role Blockhead initially struggled to take on himself. “It’s weird to be a producer and just reach out to people and ask ‘Hey man will you be on my album,’ like strangers, because with me, I’m rolling the dice. Has this person heard of me? Are they a fan of me? I don’t know what their relationship with me is. They could be like, ‘Oh, fuck that guy’ for all I know. So to have woods do it, because he’s a rapper, he has different relationships with rappers… Quelle Chris is a guy I have wanted to work with forever, whom I’d never met, but woods and him are boys. I had reached out to him about having him on Free Sweatpants, it just didn’t happen at the time. He didn’t blow me off or anything. It just didn’t happen. But all woods had to do was text him and, boom, like that, those kinds of things would happen.”
The matchmaking process also involved woods, who concocted some of the combinations featured on The Aux. “We sat down like writing a script for a movie or something like brainstorming and he’s like, ‘what if this guy and this guy were together.’ His song with Navy Blue was his idea. The Fatboi Sharif and Creature song was his idea, I think, Aesop and Brewin. I don’t even remember whose idea was what, but we definitely were trading these ideas. The only one that kind of just came together as a total accident was the posse cut.” More on the posse cut later.
The Aux is set to be released on billy woods’ Backwoodz Studioz label, and the tracklist feels indebted to its roster. Features from woods’ sphere of influence include E L U C I D, as part of Armand Hammer, AKAI SOLO, Defcee, ShrapKnel, and Fatboi Sharif. The label makes up the spine of the record. “It’s a family vibe. Everyone’s kind of supportive, and it’s a good scene.” And the scene is rapidly growing, woods’ grip on New York expanding alongside of it, a fact Blockhead hopes to leverage. “If we do another one of these albums, he’ll be able to land me a couple of big ones.”
Although it found structure in Backwoodz and New York, Blockhead prides his use of juxtaposition throughout the tracklist. “I liked the idea of a lot of people being like “Huh!” about this album, about the sound and people being surprised who’s on it.” The exemplar is RXKNephew, whose name on the tracklist sticks out like a forehead pimple on picture day. The Rochester-born internet rapper sensation has become somewhat of a legend over the last few years, thanks to his awe-inspiring output and off the wall rapping. Tracks like “Tory Lanez Should’ve Shot His Barbershop Up” justify Neph’s cult fanbase, while songs like “Critical” are creatively invigorated rap tracks that instantly convert any unbeliever.
“E L U C I D put me on. I had a show in Dallas, and the same night, Armand Hammer had a show, so we met up after the show and got food together and E L U C I D, because he knows that I like funny shit, he’s like ‘Have you heard RXKNephew?’ I was like, no, he’s like, ‘Dude, you gotta check out this guy.’ And he put me on to “American Tterroristt,” which is kind of the gateway drug to it. But then you just get overwhelmed by it, and he puts out like, 10 songs a week, and there’s 30 albums. I remember I tweeted about him, and then all of a sudden, all these people are like check this out, check this out.”
RXKNephew’s presence on The Aux is a perfect touch, especially when he begins complaining about how long the beat is (it’s less than five minutes long). It’s the most radical example of Blockhead’s use of unconventional combinations to create an encapsulating record. It covers much ground yet sounds incredibly cohesive. Aesop Rock’s contribution on “Mississippi,” which invokes the same instrumental timbre as their collaborative record Garbology, has little to do with the dark and disturbing beat Fatboi Sharif haunts, but the whole record feels sensible regardless. The stacked feature list can distract from the production, but The Aux is Blockhead’s most sonically wide-ranging work yet, its beats pulling from every corner and era of his discography, presenting a satisfying record to, not just think about, but listen to.
The Aux rounds out with its obvious highlight, “Now That’s What I Call A Posse Cut, Vol. 56.” Featuring verses from woods, Bruiser Wolf and Danny Brown, and rap’s most elusive savant, Despot, it’s Blockhead’s unbridled flex, two decades of impact articulated. Blockhead knew he wanted one big track on the record everyone would gravitate towards, but he didn’t know what it’d be until it was finished. “Danny Brown was a late addition and it happened in a way that could have easily not. He just happened to be in town, and happened to get a studio in town. woods got his verse [for “Year Zero” off woods’ Maps] and my verse at the same time. It’s two in the morning, Steel Tipped Dove’s studio. I was on tour at the time, so I couldn’t be there. I just woke up and the verse is there.” Though Blockhead and Danny Brown had been friendly since Danny’s early career, he’d never found an opportunity to work together. A series of uncanny circumstances later, and Danny Brown is on a track with billy woods and Despot.
How does one get a Despot verse in 2023? The rapper is more known for elusiveness than his actual music, even when his annual verse is better than most rappers’ entire catalogs, so how do you nail him down for a verse? Blockhead’s answer was simple: “Guilt.” He specifies “I did all his early projects. And I’ve been like, “Hey, man, rap for me, come on dude.” And he’s like, yeah, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. But there’s a reason he hasn’t put an album out. It’s not that he’s lazy. It’s because he hates everything he does. He’s very self critical. But I think eventually I badgered him to the point where he just had to do it.” Despot’s presence on the track compelled woods to hop on, in fear of missing out on what’s destined to be a classic underground cut. The result is the most compelling posse cut hip hop, underground or otherwise, has seen in years.
There’s a few rappers Blockhead would’ve loved to have joined the fray, Zack Fox being chief among them. “I was maybe gonna get a Zack Fox verse. I was texting with him. I was so close. And then I’m like, Oh, you’re exceptionally famous now. So yeah, you don’t have time.” Earl Sweatshirt, Mick Jenkins, Akeem Ali, Twista, Boldy James, and Freddie Gibbs all seemed to be names that were floated, but, Blockhead admits, “I was being a little cheap, I’m not gonna lie.”
When questioned about the expected impact and possible legacy of the record, Blockhead responded with a twang of self effacement. “Maybe I’m just a pessimist about things, but there’s a low ceiling to compilation records. I put the tracklist out, and people are like holy shit this is a great thing, but the reality is, I can’t think of a compilation record that mattered. I mean, there’s Soundbombing, there’s those things, but in the last 15 years- I’m sure they exist, and I might just not know about them- I don’t remember the last time one came out and I was like, “This is gonna be amazing.” In a way, I’m hoping this will be one that people set apart from other ones, but I also understand the futility of putting music out these days.”
A more optimistic take reads The Aux as a snapshot; just like how Rawkus Records’ classic 1999 compilation Soundbombing II captured the essence of alternative hip hop at the turn of the century, The Aux is an excellent expression of underground hip hop in its forms right now; the billy woods fronted East Coast, to the quirky West of Koreatown Oddity and Open Mike Eagle, and even into the Internet underground exemplified by RXKNephew. It also frames the great 2020s hip hop dilemma well, where it feels like the rappers at the top ten years ago are still the powerhouses now, even if their young protégé are right behind them. All in all, The Aux is a perfect time capsule, threading together every string of underground hip hop into one complete quilt. When the dust has settled on the era, The Aux may be the first record cited to teach its history.
Check out the interview’s transcript here.
Listen to Blockhead’s The Aux here.