Boston's Edan has scored the hip-hop triple crown, rapping, programming and sampling at a masters level on his second full-length. As an MC, he bows down while hyping himself up on the wink-nudge titled "Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme," giving extended shout-outs to the history of hip-hop, from Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash through to Ultramagnetic MC's and Prince Po, all over a break as dusty and faded as an episode of Carnivale. "Polite Meeting" offers a beat and sample collage on par with the current work of DJ Shadow and RJD2, and one is left to really ponder at the possibility of Edan trying to perform the beats and vocals live. Def Jux bright star Mr. Lif makes a guest appearance on the heavily psychedelic "Making Planets," which leads into a full-on Hendrix-inspired freaky-lues interlude. Percee P and Insight also drop by to flow over some of Edan's time and space warping musical beds (to call these "beats" would be an immense oversimplification) but Dagha guests on the grittiest rocker, "Rock'N'Roll" which manages a full-on Marshall stack set to ten, and a guitar assault that somehow avoids all of the failings of ap-rock. 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.
This record received a lot of hype a couple of years ago, and for good reason. If you like some righteous anger in your hip-hop but don't want to listen to old Public Enemy, then Mr. Lif is your man! This track matches Lif with the heavy psych-rock production that permeated the Edan album. It really does sound like making (or destroying) planets.Edan gets the first verse, then comes the goodnes...
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Did anyone catch Edan at the Big Day Out 2006? I had no idea that he could mc and mix simultaneously! It was unique! Damn...there was hardly anyone in the tent on that steamy summer day way back in January...the crowd was 30000 plus and still he managed to pull less than a hundred people. I guess word of mouth travels slowly in Australia...triple j kept on playing making planets quite often and...
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 "Beauty and the Beat")
