Edan reminds me of a mischievous little boy setting up booby traps in the hip hop scene, constantly defying the standards and the expectations of the genre and having some fun. Gluing quarters to the pavement and sitting in the bushes watching everyone try to pick them up, laughing hysterically. He is an artist that acknowledges little convention and is constantly quoted saying he simply ‘makes music that he wants to make’. 2002’s Primitive Plus LP hit nerves with the hip hop purists and led to much reverence with the simplistic and classic approach to recording, yet the sound that propelled him into the spotlight, both on Primitive and mixtapes such as Fast Rap, is one that Edan has completely avoided on his 2005 release Beauty and the Beat. Whilst every fucking journalist in the world is calling it ‘psychedelic’ and writing a psychology thesis on it’s themes and meanings, Edan takes a more permissive approach to the record. ‘It’s all in the mind of the beholder. Some people look at murder footage and like laugh so it’s just depends on the spectator. I don’t take life all that seriously, sometimes I get quite serious, other times not at all, so how anyone wants to take it is their prerogative.’
So whilst the themes may be there, some contrived and others not so, Edan still believes his music to have evolved into a more profound place. ‘I used to really throw anything and everything at the wall just to see what stuck, now it’s a little more, the more songs you make the more territory you might cover within yourself so you try to branch out a bit and tackle higher heights. I’m just trying to be satisfied with what I’m doing and let that lend itself to more conceptual stuff as opposed to just fucking around. In order for me to feel good about what I’m doing there needs to be some layers there.’ Yet when he talks about the recording process his approach polarizes ‘I’m thinking “I ain’t shit” and that I gotta prove myself wrong and that I am worth half a piece of shit.’
Listening to him speak it is hard to comprehend that this self depreciating, Jewish white kid is the same rapper that calls himself the Humble Magnificent. The same one that utterly destroys conception with his unique and restless approach to rapping, dj’ing and producing music, the same one that took his childhood Kinks, Beatles & Pink Floyd influences and paired them with the boom bap stylings of Kool G Rap, Cold Crush & Rakim. He constantly uses words like magic, art and mind and speaks intelligently and passionately whilst still playful and intensely creative. He sees music not in colour or race or genre but as a higher art to be respected.
‘I think it (hip hop) arose out of racial prejudice, a lot of people in the Bronx and in New York, didn’t have shit and they had to find something to make their lives more tolerable and use their imaginations and their creativity and all those good things just to make life enjoyable just a bit. That’s what the human spirit and the triumph of the human spirit is all about, so if it comes across as racially selective you can’t really disagree as it came out and arose from racial misfortune and bad deeds that occurred once upon a time. I think that if we all as people can look at each other more frequently and realize that race doesn’t mean a damn thing, when we can all elevate our mindsets, it doesn’t mean a damn thing. There are certain things about the system we live in where some of these superficial race values are just entrenched in the way things are set up so it’s harder for the oppressed people can really come up, but then again it’s really not as much about race as it is about class. I don’t really think it is a black on white issue or a green on brown issue or a purple on yellow issue as much as it is a constant class war that benefits the rich and they can sit back and remain rich whilst everybody else argues. It’s really about the rich and the super rich getting over everybody, the more that’s made common knowledge and less so than the race issues the more we’re on the right track to unraveling some of the bullshit. I love trying to break down those limitations and those stereotypes and I have no choice, me being a weird Jewish dude who raps shit. If I were in my mind to paint any racial issue or stereotype and let that govern my music I would have given up a long time ago. I don’t like to complain about that because for one guy that won’t relate to you there will be somebody else that will, I just don’t give a shit and to complain about being white is just stupid. Obviously it’s not what you look like but what you have inside.’
And the best demonstration of this is his no holes barred approach to his music, he is quite fearless in the projects he tackles yet manages to retain the utmost respect to traditional hip hop, ‘I would like to hopefully just try to defy some of the conventions, I truly respect this art in general and the human mind and the potential that lies there, so I’m always into trying to just celebrate that. When things get real difficult I tend to stay away and try and shake things up a bit just for myself and for the people around me, I try to remember that we are part of an alright legacy and not a shit legacy of haphazard humanity.’
It is his first visit to Australia and he knows little of Australian hip hop but somewhat sympathises with the pressures in undertaking a culture that is known in the mainstream for being quintessentially American. ‘I think it would be daunting to take something like rapping and do it in your own dialect or accent, especially when the culture is so forward with it’s origins, but if you’re really dedicated to doing it then you’re going to make a much better contribution doing that then just mimicking somebody else. It’s always better to just stick to where you belong, not in terms of physically or geographically but just whatever is honest is probably the best bet.’
Edan is touring nationally in January and February as part of the Big Day Out.
