Blockhead

Hometown: Manhattan, NY 
Genre: Abstract Hip-Hop
Known For: Collaboration with Aesop Rock, Ninja Tune Artist, “The Music Scene” Music Video 

Underground beat maestro Anthony Simon, better known as Blockhead, originally aspired to be an MC until he met rapper Aesop Rock in 1994. It was then that he hung up the mic and focused on producing. Blockhead’s contributions to Aesop’s self-pressed material and his full-length album helped him rise to indie rap prominence during the 2000s.

In  the years that followed, Blockhead garnered his own acclaim as an instrumental rap artist, turning his “sampledelic” beats into brooding, trip-hop-like concoctions. In 2001, Blockhead’s first beat tape, Blockhead’s Broken Beats, was released. In addition to his work with Aesop Rock, he has also supplied beats for Murs, Hangar 18, and Cage. However, for his solo material, he found a home alongside U.K. electronic stalwart Ninja Tune. Blockhead's proper debut, The Insomniac Olympics EP, arrived in 2003 and led up to the more cinematic and downtempo full-length Music by Cavelight in 2004, followed by Downtown Science in 2005. In 2007 Ninja Tune issued Blockhead’s third LP, Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book, which was an altogether  more  uptempo  affair, with 2009’s  release building upon this further. Three years later, Interludes After Midnight honored the simpler sound of the '80s and late '90s - the time of Blockhead's musical upbringing - while Funeral Balloons followed on Backwoodz Studioz in 2017.