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.