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

ok so i checked out "E&A" and found it interesting, but didn't really like it.

then i tried his final album "By the Throat" just in case and guess what, it's amazing. sounds really influenced by In Utero too. wow.

will listen to his first two albums later.

I always liked Eyedea (RIP) but never really loved any of the albums. The first Oliver Hart album is cool. Firstborn I didn't really get into. I liked E&A a lot.

A lot of times I found his guestshots more outstanding. Like "Embarrassing" that he did w/ Sage Francis and Slug.

dude was talented. just heard his acoustic EP "When in Rome, Kill the King" on youtube, impressive.

i listen to new mainstream hip hop than ever before. the production now is just so giddy and danceable than ever. wicked synth lines and drum machine sounds. it has finally drank and smoked the gansta shit out of itself.

mine you, it's mostly in my car or at work.

http://www.complex.com/music/2013/05...ential-albums/

^^^^ Ghost names his fav songs from his essential albums. great article.
shockingly he doesn't seem to be fond of Pretty Toney and Fishscale.

honestly, I think Fishscale is a little overrated. But I love Pretty Tony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ6Ha0p9ZUM

11:50 - his message to the youth, gave me chills.
"everybody is not a gangster, i'm a poet.. i write this for me, then for the fans.. we gotta stop this violence shit, there's too much violence".
then everything he said about god and spirituality, wow.

not only one of my fav rappers/musicians, but also such a great man.

Listened to the new Mobb Deep album finally and it's a letdown. The disc with the extra Infamous stuff is incredible though.

Fishscale used to be my fav for the longest time. but these days i prefer SC.

1. SC
2. Fishscale
3. Ironman
4. Pretty Toney
5. Bulletproof

SC2 was supposed to drop last summer.. still waiting. :(

Pretty Tony
Ironman
12 Reasons
Supreme Clientele
Hidden Darts

...probably

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.

dat shit dem white trash hoes be listening to. like trailer trash kardashians with no teeth. but, fuck it. they got no teeth so dats more fantasy cureably to me.

blowin blunts in these bitches babies faces makes dem wet. Kna what i mean? slappin dat hoe like i'm crackin that cracker whip.

i whip dat shit on dat fluffy lilly white pussy heard? like dem white girl geek tube socks too. bitch.\

white boys get dat horny fire in day stomichs when day seee dat shiitt!!!


c we all alt in 2014 like those pumkins in 96 wit 79 vid. we setting treads and making history. like MJ

btw, I always liked Why? a lot.

I just made a playlist of these 12 tracks.

What y'all know about that Mausberg??

hey NR, new Lana Del Rey single:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=o3SqUUoJjW8

i like it.

yeah pumped for new Lana album.

Ok, dude, this kind of bugs me. Illmatic XX is a reissue I've been longing for. Drops tomorrow. Great. But that bonus disc... I'm torn. Half of me is so excited for like "I'm a Villain" or the Bobbito freestyle, and some of the remixes I haven't heard. But why didn't we get the 6 tracks from the 2004 reissue included here? Why isn't the song from the Street Fighter soundtrack included? (Cuz it's owned by Priority that's why). I mean, there's enough material from the Illmatic sessions that a real definitive edition of the album could be close to 3 discs. I just kind of wish that XX made 10th Anniversary edition unecessary.

I say all this. But I'm still excited.