Like William Shatner on Star Trek, gargantuan Cannibal Ox frontman Vast Aire specializes in consistently conveying a pronounced sense of wonder. But where Shatner always had brave new worlds to amaze him, Aire's fascination tends to revolve around the unpredictable stream of words, images, and ideas emanating from his own mouth. One of rap's wiggiest wordsmiths, Aire ratchets hip-hop's obsession with aggression and authenticity up to surreal levels of Grand Guignol, boasting at one point that he's "Realer than a redneck on a polar bear." What does that mean? Who the hell knows? What's important is that like nearly everything Aire spits, it sounds incredibly cool, especially when filtered through Aire's excitable cartoon rasp. Everyday MCs might spit endless rounds of gun-talk, but Aire is quick to remind them "it takes more than bullets to stop a zombie."
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