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First Born

Minnesota’s favorite Emcee-DJ crew is finally back. Three years after Scribble Jam/Blaze Battle champion Eyedea and DMC champion DJ Abilities coalesced as Eyedea & Abilities to release their promising debut First Born, the dynamic duo is back with a more enjoyable affair in E&A.

While First Born admirably set its sights on deeper than usual hip-hop topics relating more to thought and reflection than outright braggadocio with tracks like “Birth Of A Fish,” and the two “Void” tracks, it unfortunately wasn’t all that fun to listen to. Eyedea’s flow seemed to settle on one level—nasal, and as I sit writing this review, there aren’t too many instances where I can remember Abilities DJ work really standing out.

Nevertheless, Eyedea & Abilities had set forth with a clear goal to make deep thinking hip hop, and for a first effort, it was a decent enough record. That’s why it’s so surprising to see E&A, their sophomore release, take a huge step forward by making their subject matter take a small step to the side.

The main focus on E&A is, as the album title suggests, Eyedea & Abilities themselves. This doesn’t mean that E&A spend all thirteen tracks talking about how awesome they are, although the album does contain a more self-centered focus than First Born. From the blistering opening numbers “Reintroducing” and “Now,” which serve as reminders that E&A are back, to the somber worn-down rapper tale of “Exhausted Love,” to the fierce diss track “Star Destroyer,” Eyedea & Abilities are taking no prisoners.

That’s not to say that Eyedea & Abilities have abandoned what made them an interesting group in the first place. “Paradise” is a classic Eyedea track about how being too close in a relationship can tear a couple apart. Meanwhile, the album closer, “Glass”, is perhaps the most First Born like track on the entire album.

One factor that ends up making E&A so much more interesting to listen to than its predecessor is Eyedea’s newfound emotion. Instead of the shy nasal delivery of First Born, listeners are treated to a variety of flows that manage to keep the album sounding fresh from the first track to the last. For instance, on “Reintroducing,” Eyedea sounds much more relaxed, like he’s actually having fun rapping on the record. Meanwhile, on “Paradise,” he pulls back just a touch, and his smooth quiet delivery helps to showcase the lyrics perfectly.

The Emcee/DJ interplay is also much more prevalent on E&A than it was on First Born. On “Reintroducing,” Abilities manages to scratch some of Eyedea’s lyrics as he raps them, making one of the coolest sounds I’ve heard in a rap album in years. Meanwhile, on “One Twenty,” Eyedea tells Abilities to “Go ahead and give a taste of what you got," and Abilities uses the opportunity to scratch something fierce over the track. It’s almost as much fun on record as it is live.

Even with all E&A has going for it, it’s not the perfect rap record. While it doesn’t have “skits” per say, it still has two or three odd vignettes that slow the pace of the album down. Also, as I mentioned previously, the fact that the subject matter strays so much from what Eyedea & Abilities were first going for on First Born may scare some people off. Not that the songs here are boring, but if someone was a big fan of First Born, they’re going to want a lot more “Glass” and a lot less “Star Destroyer.”

Subject matter aside, if you consider yourself a fan of either the Rhymesayers staple of emcees, or of very good indie hip hop records in general, you should be running to the store to pick up E&A right now. It’s more immediately accessible than First Born, and showcases a lot more of both Eyedea & Abilities talents than anything they’ve done previously. If Eyedea & Abilities can keep improving in such large strides as they did between the two, I can’t wait to hear album number three.

Reviewed by: Dan Kricke Reviewed on: 2005-01-11

E&A

The second full-length CD by Minneapolis-based Eyedea and Abilities, E&A is far more accomplished than their debut, First Born, which, though not without its merits, felt incomplete and lacked a certain amount of confidence. Eyedea seemed vulnerable, perhaps too defensive about being complex, difficult, and heady. This follow-up shares these intellectual qualities with its predecessor, only now Eyedea sounds more comfortable with his place in the rap world, and, consequently, flows and weaves more surely through Abilities's beats and glass-dazzling cuts. Indeed, on tracks such as "Kept," "Star Destroyer," and "Reintroducing" (which makes a wonderful reference to a technical innovation on Run D.M.C.'s 1988 track "Beats to the Rhyme"), Eyedea does something he mostly failed to do on the first CD: he positively swings. Instead of collapsing his words, rhymes, and ideas into a thousand impossible parts, he now fuses these elements into the pure beam of a rap swing. E&A is not a masterpiece, but it bodes very well for the future. --Charles Mudede

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Eyedea and Abilities

Eyedea and Abilities is what you get when you combine the very best of two opposite ends of Hip-Hop’s musical spectrum. On one end you have the M.C./Lyricist, Eyedea, who has proven himself time and time again not only as an extraordinary song writer, but also as a master at battling and the art of freestyling. On the other end you have Abilities, the D.J./Turntablist, who’s talent from the battle, to the mix tape, to production has resonated on the underground for quite some time now. When you put these two extremes together, you get the new, innovative and exciting dynamic we like to call E&A.

Eyedea

Eyedea (born Micheal Larsen in 1982, also known as Oliver Hart) is a well-known freestyle battle champion and underground rapper. His notable wins include the televised Blaze Battle sponsored by HBO (2000) and a victory at Scribble Jam (1999). He has appeared as a solo artist, and as the emcee half of the duo Eyedea & Abilities (along with longtime friend and collaborator DJ Abilities). His non-battle rhymes are generally philosophically or thematically based, and often tell a definite narrative. His song "Bottle Dreams" is a well known piece about a sexually abused violin prodigy who commits suicide.

For much of his youth, Eyedea lived with his mother in downtown St. Paul, MN. He attended Highland Park Senior High School, with interests including psychology, physics, and yoga. Favorite authors include James Joyce, and Finnegan's Wake is a favorite text of his.

First establishing himself as a battle emcee, Eyedea toured the circuit between 1997 and 2001, notably winning top prizes at Scribble Jam ‘99, the Rock Steady Anniversary 2000, and Blaze Battle Chicago 2000. He contributed a track to the Anticon compilation, Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop. Additionally, he toured extensively as second emcee for Atmosphere, with DJ Abilities sometimes filling in for Mr. Dibbs as tour DJ.

In 2001, he released First Born with his partner DJ Abilities (collectively, they were initially called the Sixth Sense, but they are now known as Eyedea & Abilities). In 2002, under his pen name "Oliver Hart", he released the self-produced The Many Faces of Oliver Hart. In 2004, he and Abilities reunited to release the self-titled album E&A (released March 23, 2004). All of Eyedea's releases have been on the Rhymesayers record label.

In addition to touring independently and with Rhymesayers labelmates, Eyedea and Abilities participated in the Def Jux-sponsored Who Killed the Robots? tour, titled by Eyedea.

As of 2006, Eyedea has seemingly abandoned hip-hop writing and battle rapping for a new rock music project entitled Carbon Carousel. There has been much debate on few online messageboards with regards to this new direction, consequently, Eyedea or Mike - as he's going by now, has addressed these criticisms via a now-removed blog entry on the group's Myspace page.

As well as performing with Carbon Carousel, Mike has also released an album of his freestyling over jazz percussion entitled Face Candy.

He is signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment, and has been known to collaborate with Slug, Blueprint and Sage Francis.

Discography

* First Born (2001)
* The Many Faces of Oliver Hart (2002)
* E&A (2004)