Few labels in the {\rap} underground boast the profile of {@Definitive Jux}, and few rappers on {@Def Jux} match the talents of {$Aesop Rock}. So his second record for the label came with great expectations, engendered by the success of 2001's {^Labor Days}, which catapulted him into the first rank of {\hip-hop} voices. As far as the expectations go, {^Bazooka Tooth} delivers on most of its promise. The beats are dense and the bass-lines dark, like street-level {\rap} is supposed to be, with a jumble of murky samples and angled effects coming from every direction. And {%Ace Rock}'s lurching, nasally flow and obscurist rhymes may not carry every lyric across, but do allow listeners to marvel at the few legible lines. With most of the productions coming from {$Aesop} himself (along with {@Def Jux} mainstay {$Nasa}), {^Bazooka Tooth} lacks the catchy, sample-driven flavor of {^Labor Days}, but does set a standard for basement-level beats, with some of the best hashed-and-screwed productions heard on {@Def Jux} since the {$Cannibal Ox} masterpiece {^The Cold Vein}. Bronx bombers {$Camp Lo} stop by for an old-school horrorcore jam named {&"Limelighters,"} {@Def Jux} head {$El-P} guests on a no-biters track called {&"We're Famous,"} and {$Mr. Lif} appears on the highlight, the tag-team rhyme manifesto {&"11:35."} The album does, however, reveal a few problems endemic to independent {\rap} in general as well as the {@Def Jux} label and {$Aesop Rock} specifically: to get and keep the respect of the underground, an artist is forced to push his sound farther, but it soon reveals a trap -- no production can be too difficult, no variation in flow too off-kilter, no topics or rhymes too bizarre in order to keep heads nodding. {^Bazooka Tooth} simply pushes too far. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide