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Underground > Radio & Music >

Edan - Beauty and the Beat

20:11 / 22.07.05

my ipod must be getting bored. it has been continously playing the same single record over and over for almost a full week now. but I for one, am not bored in the least. each listen is like a wholly new experiece: revealing new exciting elements among the densly layered funky psychedelic genius.
words cannot describe how good this shit is.
wow. it's melting my face off as I write this.
if I was a pretentious indie-music critic, I'd describe it as the late-60s-hippie-commune-born-love-child of Jimi Hendrix, Madlib, and Mos Def: a beautiful, eclectic, psychedlic collage of jazz, classic rock, funk, and every decade, style, and facet of rap/hip-hop... all narrated by a confident, intelligent and fiercly poetic MC (who is in fact an afroed white boy from Boston).
but because I'm not, I'm just going to say that it's really motherfucking good.
Finally, the Hip-Hoppers Are Taking Acid.

current favorite track: "Promised Land"
"My power settled the clash between races
And put good people on the magazine faces
Substituted television scandals for elephants and pandas
Tell 'em it's the Elegant Commando"

now let's let the 'experts' have a crack at it...

"With an awe-inspiring imagination in tow, Edan drops his own distinct magical mystery tour." - Urb

"What really puts the album over the top is the way Edan manages to twist the DNA of two distinctly throwback styles, '60s psych-rock and '80s golden-age hip-hop, into a 2005 mutant plaid platypus." - Neumu.net

"If hip-hop had existed in the days of the Filmore, Woodstock and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Edan would have been right on the bus." - AMG

"It's like 'Pet Sounds' born and raised in the Bronx." - New Musical Express

"It's sucker punch after sucker punch of syllable-swapping fun." - Tiny Mix Tapes

"If it has a fault, it is that its relentlessly innovative music can overshadow often superlative lyrics." - Mojo

"best album ever of all time - A mind shattering f*cking explosion of stimulation straight to the brain." - some random Amazon reviewer

more...

so, if you haven't heard it, pick up a copy. you won't regret it in the least - i gaah-rent-tee it!

if you have given it a listen, what do you think? share your opinions here.

01:13 / 23.07.05

edan rules.
i have a freestyle of his somewhere that i keep playing, and i would have the album if had any money.
it's great, he's great, and he's prolly the only one with teh lyrical skill to describe himself.

he has one rhyme string that goes something like 'accomodate the greater data rate a'fantasia' and it makes me smile every time i hear him say it.
i reckon some of the imagery on that one track is awesome.
his favourite colour is 'math', for example and he electrifies the unplugged appliance, apprently.
and just for ganesh, he drops science down a bottomless pit.

dude rocks.
i'd marry him.

10:45 / 25.07.05

I piked up a promo of Beauty & the Beat a few months ago.

Let me add my voice to the chorus and confirm... it is indeed fucking brilliant.

I'll admit I haven't been massively in touch with the hip-hop world it the past year or two, but this is the first thing I've heard in recent memory that's had me jumping around with enthusiastic excitement.

As well as the psychedelic thing, which obviously floats my boat and is handled superbly, and few other things that are worthy of note;

1.it's only about half an hour long, and every single minute is jam-packed with awesome, essential stuff! How many other current hip-hop albums can boast that?

2.instead of the weedy indie-hop stylings I was expecting, his rapping has an excellent, harsh, almost Wu-Tang-like flow to it most of the time - which is a nice surprise!

20:01 / 25.07.05

just got the album.
gush, gasp, gush, squeal, gush, collapse, resume.

13:56 / 07.01.06

I picked this up on the recommendation of this thread, and I have to say I was blown away. It's an amazing album, with both the production and the lyrical flow matching exactly to create a heady atmosphere.

02:10 / 10.01.06

it is good, isnt it?
i like it more with the bass cranked and the higher end pulled back a bit, but that really is my only complaint.

i also really liked the bootleg i have. it calls itself a freestyle but whose lyrics are a lot like a song off the album. it has a simple piano line accompanying it which totally fits the rap, and that is not at all like the production on the album.