Eyedea (Three Song Listen)

 Eyedea aka Micheal David Larsen was an American rapper and poet. He was born in 1981 and died in 2010 at the age of 28 from accidental overdose of opiates, causing his breathing to stop. RIP.

"Eyedea is widely known and praised for his battle rap skills. LA Weekly listed his 1999 Scribble Jam battle with P.E.A.C.E from Freestyle Fellowship as one of the greatest rap battles of all time. Despite the aggressive nature of MC battling, his music is often described as thoughtful and philosophical, yet it still provides a live aesthetic." Ok, so that rap battle should be one of the three "songs" I listen from him, then. And the other two should be more thoughtful and philosophical. I'm liking what I'm hearing so far. If his rapping is on point and his voice isn't annoying, I can see myself REALLY getting into his music. I like calm, philosophical, smart people. That's what I am like, usually, so that's the kind of people I fuck with and who I trust and like the most. (I do have a more tempered side as well, but I think Eyedea might have one, too, being a battle rapper and all.) 

He only released one solo studio album before his death (and one posthumously). I don't like posthumous releases. If there are songs that they finished before their death, sure. But any unfinished projects should be left alone. The artist themself is not there to reap the benefits of their intellectual property and no is entitled to do that for them. With the finished songs, I'd release them, but donate 100% of the profit to either commemorate the artist who has passed (like a museum or a documentary film about them) or giving the money to a charity that seeks to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
So, I'm not touching the posthumous album. Feel free to leave a comment if you think I should listen to it, tell me how well it managed to pay tribute to him.

I'm doing the battle, if I can find it. It seems that most of his music was released as a collab between him and other people, through the groups Eyedea and Abilities (with DJ Abilities) and Face Candy (with Kristoff Krane, J.T. Bates, and Casey O'Brien). I'm picking one song from each. Pushing Buttons, the first single by E&A, and Pill, the most streamed song from the only Face Candy album Eyedea was on. 

1999 Scribble Jam battles

I did find the battle, there were multiple videos to choose from and I picked this one, because it not only has the final battle with PEACE, but the other battles as well, from this Jam:

Eyedea Scribble Jam 1999 All Battles

Idk which one's Eyedea, watching the first clip. They're both skinny white dudes and the video quality is of it's time, so I don't think googling works either. We'll just have to see which dude shows up in the rest of the clips. But so far (one round each) I prefer the guy without a cap, I think his flow and annunciation is better. There's no point having good punchlines on a diss/battle if no one knows what you're saying lmao 😂 The cap guy's just yelling into the mic. Sir, you don't need to, the mic does the projection for you.

2nd clip we have two skinny white dudes in buzzcuts and white tshirts. Not helpful, guys.

Did the... did the first guy just drop the ball in the middle of his verse..? That's a loss, right there. You should never run out of bars, even intentionally, on a battle. You should have infinate amount of shit to say about them and run out of time to say it all.

Idk if he did. His sentence cuts off and the beat continues... It looks like he did, even if he didn't.

I think the second guy in the second clip is Eyedea, he sounds the same as the no cap guy in the first clip. Again, I prefer him over the other. I can make out every word he says, unlike the other guy.

The "stubble" guy just cut his verse again! Idc if you just did 16 bars, if the beat keeps going, you freestyle until your time is up!

In the 3rd clip we have a black guy in a checkered shirt against the same white dude we've seen before. So the white dude IS Eyedea. Good for him, so far he's been killing it.

I prefer Eyedea's flow to the checkered dude's. I don't know if it's just me, but it sounds like the checkered dude loses his flow from time to time / doesn't follow the beat with his flows. He announces better than the previous opponents, though.

The checkered dude's a bit overdramatic as well. He reminds me of those prepubecent boys who just learned a bad word and use it and think they "totally pwned" you with it... Like, they call you a "biaatch" and you can just hear the crickets because no one is fazed by such a common insult. That's what he sounds like. He says a punchline word with huge confidence, emphasizing it, but the crowd remains silent.

The next clip actually had a name - PEACE. The one called "one of the best rap battles of all time". I can see why. PEACE has a nice flow, he's got the annunciation down, he's got the bars, he's got the crowd... He's a worthy opponent, unlike the previous ones.

I like Eyedea's internal rhymes on this. In general, but especially on this. He's not just listing words that rhyme, his bars actually make sense AND they rhyme. 

I like how PEACE takes some of Eyedea's bars and flips them back to him. Means his verse is at least partially freestyled, which is cool. That's probably what I'd do if I was a battle rapper. Write some bars in advance, preferably too many, and then pick and choose in the moment if I should freestyle a bar that responds to their bar or is an extention of something they said, or if I should use one of the pre-written bars I have.

I really enjoyed this. I can catch bars so much better than I could two years ago when I got into hiphop, and on each round me and the crowd/judges agreed on who should win. It's validating, realizing how much more I understand this genre than I did a couple years ago. ♥️

Pushing Buttons by Eyedea & Abilities

Dope group name, btw. Both of their artist names, but also the words "idea" and "abilities". Sounds hopeful.

I like his voice and flow. Easy to understand, not annoying at all (nasal or too high). His flow is so complex and I'm so tired I can't really focus on the lyrics. I'm putting this on my Rap & Hiphop list. Maybe I should make a list of songs that deserve more listens? And then listen to that passively, when I don't necessarily have the attention span or possibility to listen for the blog (i.e. switching busses, shopping, etc) but don't need the comfort of The Vibe either. I'm starting that list now. And start listening to it when it has at least 10 songs.

Pill by Face Candy

Sounds like it's live.

It's kinda weird. In the good way. I think.