Edan is quite the character: With him, it's either "Sing it, shitface" or an exercise in hip-hop erudition, as heard on his Fast Rap mixtape. Which is why one never knows what to expect from his recorded output. His debut LP, Primitive Plus, mixed the retarded with the ingenious; it was an entertaining album in a backpacker era that was more often redundant than refreshing. So, when photos of the newly hirsute Edan emerged and rumors of a "rock" record made the rounds, it became easy to imagine a Derek/Biggie Smalls concept album replete with irony and wankery. This record is no joke. Having established himself as a ruthless wit and tireless scholar of rap, Edan makes the leap to "serious artist" on Beauty and the Beat, exhibiting an auteurism that places him level with his predecessors instead of prostrate before them.

On lead single "I See Colours", Edan declares, "Prince Paul already used this loop/ But I'ma keep it movin'/ And put you up on the scoop." The lyric is a synopsis of Edan's new outlook. Yes, it's been done before, but not like this. The song is his epiphany over a 60s jangle and mushrooming Moog effects. Like a master mathematician who suddenly sees the pattern in the formula, Edan commences his solution.

One more time before he blows your mind, Edan pays respects to the "true scientists". "Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme" is a timeline of the forgotten founders. True, many of the names he drops are familiar, but-- as many of the mentioned could tell you-- respect is the only restitution to them. Over a runaway break, Edan pays dues to the Fatback Band on up, providing a syllabus for future pupils.

The nightmarish diptych of "Murder Mystery" and "Torture Chamber"-- the latter featuring Percee P's lyrical conveyor belt over the churning bass-line from Pink Floyd's "On the Run"-- bleeds into "Making Planets", an organ dirge backing Edan's laidback braggadocio that changes gears into a Crazy Horse-ish Mr. Lif conspiracy theory. Each song transitions to the next through the ever-present Moog noodlings and shared elements, an effort at a hip-hop long-player and not simply a collection of singles.

"Rock and Roll" applies Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground, and Talking Heads to create a psychedelic ode to its titular genre, and "Science of the Two" is a tangled mass of Edan and Insight that rivals Run-DMC for seamless vocal interplay.

On the latter half of the album, "Beauty", "Smile", and "Promised Land" are three sample-packed masterpieces that compress the time between '68 and '88. Reversed drum loops, found sounds, droning feedback, Echoplexed vocals, syrupy strings, and truckloads of bubbling Moog intermingle with Edan's Kane-with-a-cold mic skills to astonishing effect.

The gravity of Edan's lyrics and voice on Beauty and the Beat is perhaps its most surprising element. He's gone from a brainiac prankster to the Borges of rap. Even his battle rhymes have a surrealist bent. He doesn't wear watches by Jacob. He "wears the Time Meridian as a wristband." He doesn't grace stages. He "does the show on a fireball." He doesn't wear his own clothing line. He "put a nameplate on a asteroid belt."

Edan satirizes the narcissism of hip-hop by being so out-there narcissistic that someone would basically have to say, "I'm the best MC times infinity" to compete. But it's more than just his otherworldly assertions. Nearly every bar is a saturated image of his subconscious put on display to ponder its meaning. Some of it may just be nonsense but most if it is resonant. His lyrical inventiveness and idiosyncratic metaphors place him in a category populated by few.

Edan is hip-hop, without a doubt. But he's the hip-hop that appeared in the suburbs in the late-80's and shared time with metal and indie rock, when MTV's weekend line-up was "Yo!MTVRaps", "120 Minutes", and "Headbangers Ball", with Public Enemy likely to find time on all three. Beauty and the Beat sounds like a record made by someone who once devoured the catalog and history of his favorite artists, traced their lineage as far back as he could, and has discovered his place in the genealogy. With that enlightenment, Edan is no longer an impersonation of his idols, but one of their peers.

-Peter Macia, April 18, 2005