Last week Aesop Rock and longtime ally Blockhead released Garbology, their first full-length collaboration following decades of features across one another’s projects. Today they’ve shared a Rob Shaw-directed music video for album standout “Flamingo Pink,” with a visual treatment that metaphorically hones in on the album’s thematic backbone. “Garbology is defined as the study of the material discarded by a society to learn what it reveals about social or cultural patterns,” explains Aesop. “I find a lot of parallels between that and the idea of picking up the pieces after a loss or period of intense unrest, and seeing what’s really there.”

Garbology is a new apex in the pair’s long-standing collaborative relationship, which stretches back to the start of their respective music careers in the late ’90s. The album came together in the midst of Aesop processing the loss of a close friend in January of 2020, which had resulted in a creative lull. “The world got real weird during those months,” recalls Aesop. “I knew at some point I had to get back to making something. Make a beat. Draw a picture. Write. Just go.” Having decided on writing as the path forward, Aesop hit up Blockhead for some beats and it wasn’t long before they’d amassed an album’s worth of material.