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Rating: Edan is a young man from Boston raised on bread, Beatles, Hendrix, and... old school. As a child, he even tried his hand at the guitar, but hip hop is his true passion... he strums the strings, but he wishes to be in front of the decks scratching and sampling, he studies chords, but in the meantime, he starts collecting stacks of vinyl from the rap pioneers. A true admiration and devotion he has for Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy and Rakim, Beastie Boys, NWA, and Big Daddy Kane. He is white, a DJ, a producer, an MC, and much more. Predominantly, he feeds on black music; he’s omnivorous of anything that can be traced back to early-style rap, funk-blaxpoitation, soul, but he also very much likes psychedelic rock and electronic music with which he enjoys sampling everything and experimenting.
After gaining experience in the Boston underground, mostly through CDs distributed at the end of his nights, his career took off, first in England, thanks to Lewis Recordings, only to then make the reverse journey and (re)reach the other side of the ocean. "Beauty and the Beat" is not the usual hip hop record, it's much more; it's an excellent rap, old school music album, one of the best I've heard in recent years (just from the title one should understand something about his approach to music and what to expect...), made in 2005, with everything that entails, technological hybridization included.
Irreverent sound alchemist, he moves with ease and naturalness between the funk of "Funky Voltron" and "The Science of the Two", in both of which Insight, another MC from the Boston posse, is guest; and the jazz of "Murder Mystery".
The mind-blowing "Torture Chambers", with a vaguely Floydian flavor (in my opinion, the sample underneath is from "Brain Damage"...) and the hypnotic kraut-rock-esque "Rock and Roll".
If it's true that Madlib is the deus ex-machina of the "new hip hop scene," the enlightened MC, the top of the class, if Prefuse 73 is the producer of the moment, the one who can boast the greatest number of collaborations, among the most diverse, the one who has reduced to a minimum the distance between electronic and hip-hop, I think Edan can calmly sit next to the aforementioned to complete the fateful podium.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme (02:55)
[Hook]
Fumbling over words that rhyme [x4]
[Verse 1]
Pure rap music ain't made under pressure
Expose a jewel, teach school at my leisure
Fumble over words that rhyme with a verse divine
I backtrack and think of the greatest of all-time
Class is in session, master this lesson
Teacher was a student, studied like a Buddhist
Reviewin' on the best to do it
So let's do this
["Do it"]
Nothin' to it
Considered the first emcee to blow the spot
and do work, was Coke La Rock spittin' for Kool Herc
Followin' the influence of Herculoid parties,
Brothers like Cowboy made you move your body
Cowboy would toast for the G.M. Flash
And the skills elevated as crews started to clash
Flash and Bam, they both sought clientele
So Flash formed the Four with the father Melle Mel
Four became Five, law became live
Routines over breaks, true kings motivate
Out the L brothers came the Five Fantastic
With Theodore they battled with the Cold Crush Four
Few had the confidence of G.M.C.
Without the C.C.B.'s there'd be no Run-DMC
The Funky and the Fearless Four, Force MC's, the suave Spoonie G
And I can't forget the ["Treacherous Three MC's..."]
[Hook]
["Come with sound... Around and 'round"]
[Verse 2]
Praise to the Kool Moe Dee, he elevated
and changed it with records like "The New Rap Language"
Before the first full length LP's
There was abstract brothers like the one Rammelzee
Run DMC broke through in '83
Outta Queens, and started rapping hard over drum machines
808's started shakin' up floors ["It's yours"]
With T La Rock's complex metaphors
["T-L-A-R-O-C-K"]
A primary influence on L.L. Cool J
T La Rock's futurism must've been respectable
'Cuz Tragedy from Queens was young but very technical
Sham was eloquent, Chris was intelligent
The 'R' was all of the above with added elements
Slick Rick the Ruler was a screenplay producer
Ultramagnetic had the vision for the future
Big Daddy Kane getting raw at The Apollo and
Kool G Rap was probably the sickest of all of 'em
Jaz from the BK, Percee and Finesse from the BX
Prince Po and Pharoah came next
Wu with the G-Z-A, G-F-K
N-A-S, one of the best out today
Any MC that's addin' on to the list
Pump your fist, but first give praise to the true scientists
[Hook]
13 Promised Land (02:24)
At the dungeon of brain pain I came
With the sell-a-lot plot from the megawatt mainframe
With a suit made of electricity...
With a suit made of electricity
I ran through the Great Wall of China, convincingly
That was after the World Tour...
That was after the World Tour
when I traveled through gravel and battled matter at the Earth's core
I did the show on a fireball...
I did the show on a fireball, a pioneer
ran into the jungle and jetted wearing a lion's ear
I fought fear with the Hammer of Thor lent me...
I fought fear with the Hammer of Thor lent me
and tangled with the Angel of Death for four centuries
Put a nameplate on a asteroid belt...
Put a nameplate on a asteroid belt
and I ran through the future with an android's help
That's when civilians were made of metal...
That's when civilians were made of metal
I received the Coronation cause I had the last flower petals
My power settled a clash between races...
My power settled a clash between races
and put good people on the magazine faces
Substituted television scandals with elephants and pandas
tell 'em it's the elegant commando
With a hand so large...
With a hand so big, I punched a sphinx in the nose
in the nose, decomposed, and so the story goes
I smacked a 40 oh out of a young man's hand...
I smacked a 40 ounce, out of a young man's hand
and fed him lesson's of life to formulate a plan
I wore the Prime Meridian as a wrist band...
I wore the Prime Meridian as a wrist band
and gave away my riches but I still remained a rich man
I thought of freedom and I jetted to the Promised Land...
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