Both old school and abstract heads alike may have a reason to get excited with the release of Primitive Plus, the debut album of up-and-comer Edan. Despite inhabiting a genre that is often criticized for its narrow musical boundaries, Edan manages to demonstrate the impressive range that hip-hop has the potential to acquire. Just about any type of music imaginable makes its way into this album. "Key-bored" samples a popular classical Mozart tune, while title track "Primitive Plus" begins and ends with someone beat-boxing the infamous "shave and a haircut" ditty. Psychedelic rock and jazz, as well as popular hip-hop beats, also figure prominently in Edan's production palette.
But don't look only to Edan's compositional skill to appreciate this unique blend of music. His lyrical flow and tight rhymes evince his talent as an emcee, and his combination of Eminem's inflected neurotic flow with the cartoony Ugly Duckling style shows his range as a lyricist as well as a producer.
Listen closely to "Run that Shit!," in which Edan talks about (but insists he doesn't endorse) the joys of thievery, or sample some of the delectable flow of "Syllable Practice," and you'll understand. Perhaps it's strangely ironic, perhaps fittingly appropriate, that a young white boy from the suburbs of Connecticut pioneers such an exploration of the genre's potential. Rest assured that if you don't look into this album, you might miss out on something big in indie hip-hop.
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