Consumer Guide: March, 2026
At the top: Aesop Rock, Buck 65, Masaka Kids Africana, and The Paranoid Style. Plus: The Cucumbers, Gogol Bordello, Madonna, Charli XCX, and Abdallah Oumbadougou's desert blues.
Aesop Rock: I Heard It’s a Mess There Too (Rhymesayers Entertainment) Due to turn 50 in June, the alt-rapper christened or at least legally named Ian Bavitz comes bearing the largest vocabulary in all of hip-hop from Montauk Point to my Manhattan living room, self-evidently impressive from “Blood in my hair/Shit on my shoes/Spit on my shirt” to “Friends I hope you find what you need to find/So you can be the people you’re supposed to be/And friends I hope that you talk that shit you talk if it helps you deprogram,” and that’s just a few examples. He’s clearly got the kind of politics that could lead a bystander to hope he comes up with songs that transform rhymes into instruments of social change. But that’s asking a lot, and this is a good place to start getting your hopes up. A