Customer Reviews

E & A

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is probably the finest release to come out of Rhymesayers/Minneapolis in my opinion.

Not only is Eyedea one of the greatest front-men in hip-hop; he is also an incredibly talented and conscious song writer. Eyedea is in your face, forcing you to listen to his words of wisdom.

This is probably Eyedea's most "gettable" album. Meaning, it's more straight forward and focused than his past efforts. You can listen to it for the first time, and catch the fantastic production skills held within. You will get tangled up in the intensity of Eyedea's well written lyrics. You will be left in awe of Abilities "dead on the nuts" turntable work.

If you haven't read already, Eyedea is famous in the underground for winning the lyricist Blaze battle years back, before moving into the studio. Eyedea & Abilities "First Born", their first album, was more of a loosely based concept album. It had deep meaning and philosophical lyrics. It was so unique, and stood far away from the battling reputation that most people had known him for. But Eyedea is a genius; an artist that can achieve multiple heights in music. E&A proves to be a mix between First Born and a little more of his battling skills.

This album kicks it into high gear; making your jaw drop in disbelief of the amazing music your are hearing. The diversity between the tracks, shows you just how multi-layered Eyedea & Abilities can get. He trashes on other "wack" MCs constantly, proving he's number one in the process.

If you want some real hip-hop; not Jay Z, Chingy, Nelly or any of the crap that Clear Channel makes us hear on MTV and the radio; pick up this masterpiece of turntablism and lyricism.

In the days where Atmosphere and the rhymesayers camp have a choke hold on the underground, people lose sight of what the underground is about. REAL hip-hop has been banished for the ever popular Lil John and Nelly crowds. This has pushed REAL hip-hop off the map, which makes it harder to find. Here comes the term underground. Hard to find, you gotta dig for it. Eyedea and Abilities sophomore album gets bashed for not being "deep." However, just because it is not "deep" does not mean that it is not underground. This is hip hop at its finest. On one hand, you have an mc that is very accomplished. Eyedea is still a very young rapper. In one of his songs (though i wont mention which one, just buy the album!) he mentions how he has accomplished what most rappers wont accomplish by the time he was 18 (you still with me?). This leaves some room for arrogance, and why not, the kid has skills. It is incredible to see an mc take words and make them their own. Big daddy kane, ATCQ, and (more recently) Little Brother, all demonstrate what it takes to be a dope mc, not JUST a strong lyricist. That is what it takes. Dopeness, freshness, originality; and a lot of underground mc's neglect all of the above for lyrics. But dont get me wrong, you cant be dope without dope lyrics as well. Let Eyedea flex, he does it well and its in a good place. Now, the turntabilism is dope. Abilities takes this record and makes it just as much his as Eyedea has. This is one of the best mc/dj duos i have heard since gang star. Very well balanced. This is a very strong cd and I recommend it to anybody who wants real hip-hop.

Just to get this out of the way: I'm a fan of Black Star, The Roots, Common, Pharoahe, El-P, etc. At any rate...the problem that I have with this album (I'd really give it 3.5 stars, I like quite a bit about it) is that while Eyedea's, um, abilities are developing, he's not quite there yet.

Most of the songs, lyrically, are essentially in the vein of dissing sucker MC's -- as another reviewer pointed out, Eyedea is really still trying to be a battle MC. That's all well and good; but he's so obviously talented and full of potential that at a certain point, he simply needs to set a more ambitious agenda for himself and craft true songs with something more to say (remember that Canibus was also a highly-rated and much-talked-about battle-rapper...but his recording career went absolutely nowhere).

To be fair, Eyedea does try to develop a bit on some of the songs -- he diverges somewhat into relationship issues, and skims a political surface; but the treatment is more or less a raw one that isn't fleshed-out much (though he's only in his early 20s, and most people don't have much to say at that point). If he continues to evolve and branch out, which he should, then I fully expect great things from E&A in the future -- their next album or two could be great.

But to sincerely call *this* one great sets the bar a tad too low. Admittedly, there are a few songs on here that don't need a thing changed; but it isn't quite a coherent and consistent whole. And yes, they should get points for trying (and not just rapping about guns and pretty jewelry); but you need to fully earn the rest of your credit.

These guys are young and hungry, though -- and it's still very early in their careers; there's no reason not to expect good things in the future.

i want to give it 5, but i'm sad about just how little there is on this. 13 tracks to start, and then a couple are interludes or abilities messing around (he doesn't shine here). then factor in what was on the road mix and "now" prereleased and there's a couple good new tracks to peep. barely any of the philosophy and introspection i'm used to from eyedea. just another in a recent trend of dope emcees going arogant - aesop rock, new sage a little. its sad. sure you can rap well, so rap well about something.

when i first heard they were coming out with a new cd i thought that it was gonna be like whatever because so many mc's that i look up to are changing their style, but when i heard this cd i have to give them props it's just as sick ass first born which is their second cd my favorite track is star destroyer and man vs ape. keep it up dee jay abilities & eyedea i hope your next cd iz just as hard....

this album is pure, raw, hip hop skill...from start to finish eyedea and abilities keep their muscles flexed with awesome production, scratching, lyrics, word play, breath control, poetic depth, exact communication and all of the things that make true hip hop beautiful at their absolute best...

Eyedea stepped up his flow.
Abilities is always through & through with his, but I thought on their first release (First Born) he outshined his verbal counterpart. This CD is one of thoes rare ones with the best song on the disk being the opening cut, "Reintroducing" Is just nasty. The technique involved is truely crazy. The next track ("Now") keeps it goin' with some rugged scratch and Eyedea bringin some twista type flow. Other standout cuts are #5 "Star Destroyer", and the hype ass #7 "One Twenty" All in all this CD is worth the 14 duckets, it depends on your taste, I wasnt a huge fan from First Born. But Im sold now.

Its like this I love RSE and almost all there artists, but I never could get into an Eyedea studio album, just didnt have the passion and aggression of his battle raps and freestyles. I listened to a few tracks on First Born and honestly I would not waste my money on it since I only liked about 4 songs. After hearing the incredibly dope Semi-Offical album (I Self Divine & DJ Abilities) I noticed a great improvement in Abilities production. With that said I had a feeling that I would be in for a real treat with the next E&A album if the production was anywhere near as good, I wouldnt say it turned out better but it comes pretty close. This album has a throwback feel to it, one of those albums where you dont have to skip any tracks and you know it would sound great live. Lots of scratching and sampling, lots of rollercoaster raps by Eyedea never losing a step on the beat. Basically this is the Eyedea and Abilities you remember from Scribblejam ready to serve anyone at any time.

1) Being a fan of Blackstar does not give you underground cred or any cred at all for that matter.

2) Eyedea didn't just hop on the cypher(cool word) one day and decide to be a battle emcee, it's obvious that he was writing rhymes long before he started battling.

3) The album is not called "DJ Abilities spins records over Eyedea" it's called Eyedea and Abilities and since Eyedea's name is first on the marquee-the album focuses more on lyricology(another cool word). Some of the reviewers make it sound as if they want DJ Abilities to mix and scatch the whole album. You can buy CD's like that at rhymesayers.com.

On this CD, there is somewhat of a balance between emceeing and turntablism. Eyedea is a battle rapper in his spare time and it shows. But once again, don't buy this CD looking for some deep life-changing thoughts(even though there are a few), buy it looking for good rapping about what a talented emcee Eyedea is, and how incredible his DJ is at being a DJ. Most songs will catch you right away, whether it's some awesome flow by Eyedea, or a super-cool scratch that leaves you wondering how your brain didn't explode during the thing. This is your classic emcee/DJ album, nothing more nothing less. But with the lyrical stylings of Eyedea combined with the turntable talents of Abilities it comes out to a higher quality.

Buy this CD and if you don't like it, keep listening, your bound to find something you like seeing as how this exploresmost aspects of common and abstract hip-hop. If you don't like hip-hop then you leave me wondering why you bought this CD.

The album from them, E&A, is, simply put, a whipping. I have heard none of Eyedea and Abilities' other albums, but due to my recent interest in white boy hip-hop from the Midwest, their names kept coming up. So I checked it out, and, wow. "Kept" and "Star Destroyer" are the best this album has to offer, though it's all really good stuff. Eyedea's flow is fast, smooth, brutal. It washes over the album tracks and is semi-literate smart material. That's all well and good, but DJ Abilities straight steals this album. I haven't heard scratching this good since I saw the Quannum Label on tour! Every track features some extended scratching breaks by Abilities that spices up the album and renders the overall sound much more edgy. The refreshing thing about E&A is that it gets to the essence of old school rap and the DJ-MC Duo without actually using that style. It's an LP where the MC and DJ constantly play off each other like a band would, and puts turntablism in the center of the sound. This isn't mindless beat production, the DJ is also throwing his own performance in the mix.