hip-hop theme today, and go with an artist I discovered via his beats used by Aesop Rock, Tony Simon, better known as Blockhead. Blockhead is a producer/DJ from New York City, though as a teenager, he started as a rapper. While attending Boston University, he met Aesop Rock, and decided to focus solely on making beats for him and other artists, where he found quite a bit of success. They were both part of the underground hip-hop scene of the early '00s, with Blockhead's beats providing the solid foundation that Aesop Rock could build on top of with his wildly poetic, dense, sometimes impenetrable lyrics and flow. Blockhead has released quite a bit of solo, instrumental music over the years, mostly on his own label Ninja Tune; today's song is from his 2005 album Downtown Science, which was my introduction to Blockhead as a solo artist. I had already discovered Aesop Rock, and loved the beats of course, but didn't really appreciate how integral Blockhead was to the whole enterprise until I checked out his solo work, which blew me away.