[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

does anybody here listen to Eyedea? recommend me some albums?

Eyedea & Abilities... white ass alt. rap, but utterly essential.

If you're new to Eyedea (RIP; motherfucker had one of the best emcee monikers in hip hop history) download yourself a copy of "First Born."

I'm pretty sure that's a universally rebound classic for all hip hop fans who aren't just gun toting thugs. I mean, anyone who appreciates the musicality of hip hop, and the art of lyricism, should know and own this album.

Am I right, guys? Let me know if I'm off point here.

So "First Born" is an essential. The rest of their discography is a little more controversial. Their second album "E&A" is pretty widely loved, but I think it's a bit showy. Like a lot of Rhymesayers, Definitive Jux, and Anticon white artists, I think E&A tried to become legitimately inventive rappers, but they didn't have the same kind of flow or production style as the artists they wanted to emulate.
So, they relied a bit too heavily on technical skill (which to white boys seems to mean only one thing: rapping REALLY fast, and slipping bleeps and bloops into their verses), and I for one think the album suffered from that kind of "one-up-manship" and drive to make people say "You gotta hear this new E&A joint, it makes First Born sound like Dj Jazzy Jeff."

"E&A" is still a great album though. And Eyedea was a smart cookie, and knew how to spit intelligent verses that were good by virtue of his wordplay alone, not the speed at which he spat. It's still a classic, but for me it really doesn't compare to First Born.

Their third album, By The Throat, is... Well... I like about half of it, but it tries too hard, pushing the E&A "faster, loopier = better" paradigm to a whole new level, fitting in too many goddamn sounds and styles in all the wrong ways.

Additionally, it makes use of guitars and *singing* just way way way too much. I think it reveals Abilities's weakness behind the boards, which is that he doesn't know when to pull back, and his attempts at textured beat arrangements are (when compared to a God like Dilla, or a legend like Madlib) pretty ham fisted... Or at least that's how it sounds to me on this record.

Really though, I think it was taking cues from Why? and cLOUDDEAD, and other artists who kind of blurred the lines between hip hop and fucking Emo of all things (not that I dislike either of those artists) in an attempt to make hip hop a more progressive genre. But it's really just kind of hard on the ears to hear Why?, who has at times sounded more like super early Modest Mouse than any rapper or hip hop artist ever, shitting all over cadence and the lyrical models we as hip hop fans love, by lisping and spoken-word pseudo-rapping over a goddamn banjo loop or some shit.

So E&A kinda fell into that category for me after their run ended. In retrospect I think of them as two dudes who released one classic hip hop album, First Born, one strange Hip hop/EDM experiment, and then kinda lost it.

Nothing against Anticon, but I just can't see them as creators of genuine hip hop anymore. Which is fine, but the rest of the world seems compelled to put their artists into a genre, and bat genre is usually hip hop.
Basically, It's just not a great experiment, blending rap with anything other than EDM/trip-hop/ house, or jazz. If it's not one of those... It's weird.)

So Eyedea died (OD, I think) and E&A are no more. But you should definitely look into their catalogue.

Also check out their side projects. Micranots in particular are not to be fucked with, and both The Emperor and the Assassin and Obelisk Movements are pretty goddamn dope.

If you're in the mood to hear some thug ass Brooklyn shit, then best save E&A for another time.