Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman – “Catfish”

Way back in 2015, the underground rap greats Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman teamed up to form a duo called Lice, and they released an extremely fun free-download EP. They followed that with two more EPs, 2016’s Lice Two: Still Buggin’ and 2017’s Triple Fat Lice. Since then, Aesop and Sandman have continued to work together. Just last year, Aesop produced Sandman’s Angelitu EP, and the two rappers reunited on the song “Team Lice, Baby.” But Aesop and Sandman haven’t officially done anything with the Lice name in the past five years — until now.

Today, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman have announced that their three Lice EPs are all coming to streaming services for the first time, and they’re also coming out on vinyl. They’ve got merch, too, in case you want to wear a shirt with the word “lice” on it. Along with that announcement, Aesop and Sandman have come out with a new track called “Catfish.” Both of them work the title into their verses, but Sandman seems to be talking about the online fake-identity practice, while Aesop seems to be namechecking the actual fish.

On “Catfish,” Sandman and Aesop take turns tearing into a psychedelic track from producer Cess Less. Both of them get some great lines in. Sandman: “Bastian riding Falkor, trying to spot Artex/ Examining the outlook for the spot marked X.” (RIP Wolfgang Petersen.) Aesop: “Pitched a few snowballs, skipped a slew of roll calls/ Dipped into the sewer, grew his hair out like a Troll doll.” More Aesop: “Doozy after doozy up and brushing off the lab coat/ Cold bath, bo staff, back on his Max Roach.” Listen below.

The Lice EP is out on streaming and vinyl 8/24 on Rhymesayers Entertainment, with Lice Two: Still Buggin’ following 8/31 and Triple Fat Lice coming 9/7.