Artist: Edan
Interviewer: Alex Fruchter

Edan’s latest album hints at an underlying tension that exists in art. It is easy to admire beautiful pieces of expression without fully realizing the emotion that created them. The same madness that brought forth Van Gogh’s best paintings also drove him to slice off his own ear. Edan is one emcee not blind to such happenings and highlights such feelings on his most recent release, aptly titled Beauty and the Beat. But the album is not just about lonely musicians. Edan again brings the sound that made him an underground favorite after the release of Primitive Plus. His unique style leaves nothing untouched. Edan dips into all genres to produce music that simultaneously occupies space in the past, present, and future.

SoundSlam.com recently had the chance to talk with the Humble Magnificent. Check out what he has to say about his latest offering, the ‘nerd rap’ label, as well as the direction of the Earth…It gets deep.

SoundSlam: What are some main themes running through Beauty and the Beat?

Edan: That’s a big question.

SoundSlam: We’re going to start out big.

Edan: Lot of themes, the more I think about it. First of all, one of the themes is the direction of mankind, and to question it or just to look at it for what we think it is. Another theme is just procreativity and imagination on the album. The album is also anti-categorization or separation. It’s definitely pro unification. And another theme is just how something like 60’s rock fits into a pure hip hop aesthetic, my brother. And I try to figure out how to juggle two such things that are usually somewhat alien and sort of fusing them to the best of my abilities.

SoundSlam: I read somewhere that the album captures the triumph of imagination and its power to overcome all that is perilous alongside positivity, patience, and understanding.

Edan: Yeah, it sounds a bit melodramatic but why not have high hopes?

SoundSlam: What is the direction of mankind? In your music you make a lot of references with the past and then blending that into the future, so I know it’s something you’re thinking about. What do you see happening?

Edan: You know how every time you xerox something it loses a generation of clarity? I sort of see that happening to each of us as individuals and more and more of us come into existence. You know what I mean? I just feel like we’re getting a little arrogant and acting as if the big do’s and don’ts that have been sort of establish through countless thousands of years of generations, and lives, and humans, some of those lessons are being ignored as if we know better when we really don’t. I don’t think human beings right now are doing too much to assess their relationship with nature, and just the natural ways of this world. Ultimately it’s about saving ourselves because once we cross that line the world will shit us out and revitalize and bloom once again as if we never even existed. It’s not really about save the earth as, respect the earth and save ourselves. And respect each other and love each other. And know that love is all we got here, and make most of our actions stem from that. It’s just positivity. I’m just trying to put some good feelings into this shit.

SoundSlam: Also keeping in that theme. How long did it take you to put together ‘Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme’? You present a lot of information and content as well as good technique in that track. I was just wondering how you put that together.

Edan: I’m sure that the information that is presented in that shit took me as long as it’s taken me….Since the first hip hop I ever heard. That timeline has been forming in my mind, even though that ain’t no official, authoritarian, end-all-be-all shit, just that sort of timeline and the ideas that you could take from that sort of timeline have been brewing since about 86 in my mind since I heard ‘You Be Illin’ when I was eight years old. Whatever man, that’s taken as long as it took to absorb all of that, but to actually write the jam it took me about a week.

SoundSlam: Also when you’re talking about hearing hip hop when you were 8, I read somewhere that NWA really caught your ear. What was it in that that appealed to you as a kid?

Edan: I think the same thing that appealed to a kid hearing a Richard Pryor record or a Rudy Ray Moore record for the first time. In the older generation like a Lenny Bruce, some kind of subversive orator who was just speaking boldly in ways you had never heard. NWA was my Richard Pryor or my Red Fox or my Ernie Koufax. It just set off a spark due to the utter vulgarity and the boldness of it.

SoundSlam: You emcee, deejay, and produce, what did you start doing first?

Edan: I started with the beats first.

SoundSlam: That’s a common area.

Edan: You find a lot of people start with that?

SoundSlam: Yeah, start with that and then move on.

Edan: Yeah man, I basically, I had a four-track and had already been doing bullshit like playing guitar and then making a prank call and putting the prank call over the guitar shit. I remember taking, there was an Ice-T bonus beat on the first album the Rhyme Pays shit. There was just a drum, it was on some just drum machine shit. I just remember playing a bass line over that and playing it for some kid and he thought it was phat. This was probably in 92. Then it obviously got more in-depth. I saved up, got a little shitty sampler and it just kept on going from there.

SoundSlam: You went to Berkeley School of Music. Being a deejay, how do you feel about someone being able to just go and take a turntablism class that some people spend years and years piecing together.

Edan: I think it’s great. I think people who feel like they want to have sole possession of a certain art-form or sort of keep information guarded, I think that’s bullshit. That’s selfish. When you know something good and empowering, you’re obligation is to teach somebody else that shit and empower them more so than to keep it secret. It all depends. I know the dude who is teaching the class there and he actually consulted me early on. He basically picked my brain and I actually gave him lesson before he ever taught that class. It was kind of a trip. That dude had won an Emmy for music. He’s just a respected professor at Berkeley. It was kind of bugged teaching the teacher. That was kind of crazy. He’s just a good guy. He got super-interested in the turntablism and has done all the knowledge. He knows the deal and now just wants to teach it to kids. I attended one of the classes and it was kind of bugged. It was this room with 10 pairs of state of the art turntables. This cat’s got vestax, and this kid’s got the Numark turntable with the time stretch, and this dude will have the pioneer, like the Technic CD-turntable, just all this crazy shit in this room. It’s just bugged that cats are doing that. It’s all good. They even approached me about teaching, so I might teach there down the line if this rap shit don’t work out.

SoundSlam: Getting back to what you were saying about blending sounds, that’s clearly evident in your music. What are some sounds that you constantly see yourselves digging and going back to when you craft your songs? without giving away your secrets.

Edan: The records I really adore tend to go from the 1966 era to the ’74 era. Then, whenever I try to kick some hip hop essence into the shit, like maybe sample a verse or get down with a drum beat, a lot of late 70s rap records and the early ‘80s rap records got fly beats on them and drums. You gotta think disco just with a much harder edge to it. You know the drums on Cold Crush’s ‘Weekend’? You know the joint ‘Weekend’ by the Cold Crush? Shit like that. The drums on ‘Love Rap’- Treacherous Three. It’s really whatever man. It’s also fly when I notice, this isn’t really a current event, but when people like Brand Nubian sampled Edie Burkell. I’m just kind of like embellishing on when I gave you a ‘66-‘74 thing that’s sort of like a sweet spot. What I’m really trying to say is everything is fair game, anything’s possible. That’s just sampling. You can put varying degrees of water in glasses and slap them with a spoon. Anything to elicit sound, that’s the name of the game. And just get that sound that you’re visualizing. As far as the shit that I just jones for, a lot of the time I go to that era of late ‘60s-early 70’s rock and funk.

SoundSlam: Talking about anti-categorization, I’ve heard your style referred to as nerd rap. What do you think that label really means? And how do you feel about it?

Edan: I think that label just means white person doing rap. I’m trying to think how it makes me feel…I don’t agree with it. Because I don’t think I’m a nerd, I think I’m a fly motherfucker. I definitely nerd out and pay much attention to the history of this music and to the history of art in general. I’m like a sponge. I take in as much as I can whether it be hip hop, whether it be visual arts, whether it be literature, film. I try to take it all in to better myself and hopefully it has a purpose. The nerd rap shit, I just think a lot of people at this point can still not fully accept the fact there’s white kids that can throw down. And it’s mainly white people that can’t accept it. They have grown up experiencing rap as their gateway to black culture. When that gateway is removed and it’s just another white boy getting down, some of that fascination is killed for them. So they tend to maybe think that a white boy can’t really get down from the heart. We just got to take away all of that shit, all the racial and ethnic shit and see what that artist is crafting, and keep an open-mind, and keep everything on equal terms. I just think that nerd-rap shit comes from white on white hate.

SoundSlam: You fully incorporate the history of hip hop into a lot of tracks. Why is that such a big part of your music? Is part of that reason part of what you were just talking about with that label and showing that you can get down?

Edan: Well, I also think that the more depth that I can illustrate for the listener, the more the listener can realize there’s great depth to the music we’re doing, the more that he can appreciate my record. Or contextualize it, and that’s really it. These guys did beautiful fucking shit. I just think a lot people, because of the stereotypes associated with rap have never really been able to view this artform as majestic thing. They haven’t been able to romanticize it the same way you romanticize an Eric Dolphie or Charlie Parker, or Jimi Hendrix. They haven’t been able to see rap in that light because it’s been over shadowed by sensationalists. My thing is like, fuck all that. I discovered these beautiful things and it’s from sheer excitement that I mention them in my records. It’s being excited about it. A lot of people may say you can’t really be a fan and an artist at the same times these days. You gotta play it cooler than that. But my whole thing is fuck that. I love these people, these brothers that came before me that paved the way for this wonderful shit. I will just show them the proper respect forever. It’s a positive thing. Some people try to criticize and say that I’m resting on the accomplishments of those that came before me, but I can confidently say that’s not what I’m doing. I’m basically on some retrieving the Dead Sea scrolls shit. Just seeking out any information I can to just show me where the excellence of this music has been defined. And use that knowledge as a spring board to make something brand new that has a lot of depth and is more powerful ultimately than something that is fly by night or trendy, with not a lot of foundation or substance behind it. My whole thing is, the more depth that I can convey the better. By studying my lessons, so to speak, I’m hoping to ensure that my music has long term value.

SoundSlam: Speaking of giving props to people, how did you hook up with Percee P? Why do you think he’s so slept on but is such a respected artist by other artists?

Edan: Because he never had that hit, and never had that video. That’s all it takes. He’s obviously respected by artist because as soon as you check out what he’s doing you realize the genius in it. He’s just a brilliant lyricist. I’ve heard tapes of him rhyming over Funky Penguin in ’87 that just definitely put him toe-to-toe with any greats from that era. Whether it be Kool G Rap, Kane, or Rakim, the things he’s doing on this tape rhyming over Funky Penguin, he was probably what 18, it will just fuck your head up. How I met him…I was doing a show at the Wetlands, it was like MF Doom, Cage, Mr. Lif, and Percee. Backstage met him and bought one of his tapes off him like everybody does. I think I saw him again at a show in D.C. By that time he had heard a song that I did where I gave him a shout-out and appreciative and very humble. And then I just kept in contact with him. We talk on the phone. I remember that Torture Chamber rhyme and just thinking specifically of him as someone who would be a perfect compliment and make that song happen. I just continued to pitch that idea and then we made it happen.

SoundSlam: That track ‘Smile’ and the one after that….

Edan: ‘Promised Land.’

SoundSlam: ….Is that an autobiographical track? Where did you pull from?

Edan: It’s partially autobiographical, but it’s definitely an exaggeration of some of the things I’ve gone through. One of the cats that inspired me to rhyme period sort of fell victim to schizophrenia a little bit and just had mental illness that hindered him from really going for his and killing it. He was kind of a genius. That was my first lesson in seeing that those that are truly blessed with great abilities are also in many situations cursed by their own sensitivity. They become as equally aware of the great things that can be done, they become aware of things that are based in fear. It’s just sometimes great talent can become a burden to that person and they may never know how to live up to it. There’s a saying, if there’s great talent within you, you either have to bring it out or it will destroy you from the inside…I’ve seen that in various instances in life and in my own life I have felt melancholy. Even while things seem like their on the rise you can fall into depression, you can doubt yourself, you can have fears, all types of shit. A lot of times artists are expected to be on point every minute of the day. And be on stage, be flawless, and on the inside there could be utter turmoil. That’s really…Why not? That’s something that happens in life and I felt like it was an interesting dichotomy between the gift and the curse within a gifted mind. And I just wanted to touch on that a little bit on the record. And then there is a sort of stream consciousness thing to the record where you’re not sure that the songs are related but in other instances they definitely could be. ‘Promised Land,’ I purposefully put that low there just to have it be overcome by the triumph of that high which is the last song. And have it be almost like a man sinking into depression and then coming out of it and realizing his dreams again.

Edan’s latest record, Beauty and the Beat is in stores soon!