Hailing from Boston, but currently dwelling in England, Edan has arrived with his latest skull-bashing release of thoroughbred hip-hop. Edan's commanding voice echoes those of his early influences, the celebrated and less-appreciated pioneers of rap. He doesn't make a mockery, though. His references and emulations of the "old school" comes off without being a novelty. Other homage-payers can't make this claim. When listening to Edan, it goes without saying that you should have a boombox to your ear. Edan is not a bore. Most of his songs clock in under three minutes. It's sucker punch after sucker punch of syllable-swapping fun. Edan's production, entirely done by himself, crunches and crackles with harsh breaks and sputtering delays. Edan is a gut-check. Your stomach will be knotted and nauseous. Beauty and the Beat is what you forgot rap sounded like. You can do your laundry to this album, or you can beat a man to death using a bar of soap to it. Edan has bravado that he can back up. I'm sure he was standing like a concrete monument when he recorded this album.
Edan is good.
1. Polite Meeting Intro
2. Funky Voltron
3. I See Colours
4. Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme
5. Murder Mystery
6. Torture Chamber
7. Making Planets
8. Time Outt (segue)
9. Rock And Roll
10. Beauty
11. The Science Of The Two
12. Smile
13. Promised Land