Aesop Rock doesn"t try to contend with rap music"s commercial villains. Instead, on Labor Days, his first release for the Def Jux label, Aesop ignores the mainstream and displays an unshakable confidence rarely seen in independent hip-hop. Although a staccato, Dadaist delivery is his trademark, subsequent listens reveal his storytelling gifts and rhyme structures to be thick with purpose. There"s also a sensitivity only hinted at on Float, his first mass release. On "Daylight," he informs, "Life is not a bitch / Life"s a beautiful woman," while "No Regrets" tells the life story of a woman who only communicated through her drawings until her death in a nursing home. Thanks to production by Omega One, Blockhead, and Aesop himself, Labor Days is built upon strings, loping bass lines, nodding beats, and expert programming. Surely, this is a fine example of hip-hop"s formidable underground. --Arno Kazarian