If any musician knows what it�s like to work a day job, it�s Ian Bavitz aka Aesop Rock. The Long Island MC is an underground sensation, but unfortunately that doesn�t appear to pay the bills. His literate, verbose style and confrontational subject matter don�t fit the mainstream�and major labels have little space on their roster for experimental music. He has to work the 9 to 5 and he�s pissed about it. So like Dolly Parton, he has recorded a song about it.

The pinnacle of Ace�s career to this point has been his 2001 hip-hop concept album Labor Days about�you guessed it�working for a living. It�s a cryptic, oppressive album, full of crashing beats and cascading wordplay. The cover art conjures up visions of an industrial nightmare. Clearly we are not being treated to a utopian vision of work leading to freedom.

While a lot of the album tracks approach the topic of labor elliptically, Bavitz�s thesis is most clearly set out in the track �9-5ers Anthem.� As the title suggests, Bavitz takes the listener through a survey of the lives of ordinary workers and works it into a call to arms, all set to Blockhead�s hopscotch-of-the-sugar-plum-fairy beat.

Aesop Rock makes nothing short of a declaration of independence. �Now we the American working population / Hate the fact that eight hours a day / Ss wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn’t us.�

There�s nothing more insufferable than filthy rich artists complaining about their vision being compromised by the corporate giants (Prince anyone? Fred Durst?) but Aesop Rock is in the same situation as you and I (unless you�re independently wealthy and just sit at home reading Stylus all day�which is a possibility, I admit). He�s speaking on his own behalf as much as ours and thus avoids the phony voice-of-the-oppressed pretensions favored by other richer musicians.

The simple fact that Aesop Rock has hit on is that work takes up a lot of your time. Forty hours of your week at the very minimum is given over to earning a living �nothing more, nothing less. You are probably tired when you get home. Your job probably bores you to the point of stupefaction. It is unlikely that you will leave behind any kind of legacy from the work you do. These are not ideal conditions for the free rein of a creative mind. As our man says here �we’d rather be supporting ourselves / by being paid to perfect the pastimes / that we have harbored based solely on the fact / that it makes us smile if it sounds dope�.

This is a problem that has existed at least since struggling artists kissed the Medici�s butts for patronage. Art doesn�t pay and work doesn�t leave much energy and time for art.

Hearing a brilliant track that offers real insight rather than �follow your dreams� platitudes can be inspiring, but unfortunately we aren�t given a solution here. So be warned. Download this track at work and you�ll probably hate your job even more than usual.

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