Eyedea and Abilities – By The Throat

Eyedea and Abilities - By The Throat

Memo to Hip Hop/Rap:

The late 1990’s DID happen. Rap-rock was a thing; a very unfortunate, shameful thing. Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and Linkin Park ruined and undid whatever it was that Run DMC-Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys ever did to prove this would be a wonderful marriage of genres and it just cannot happen again. I really need you to be on board with this.
When we were doing the whole “remember the 90’s” thing; didn’t we all share a good chuckle when someone brought up rap-rock? Its only 2009 for fuck’s sake – do not forget the lessons we learned less than ten years ago.
I get it, you’ve had some success, you’re kinda bored with your craft, you want to explore as an artist and go a different direction. That’s cool, but please realize that times are tough right now. Folks out there don’t have much to look forward to with the world in the state that it’s in. But maybe, just maybe, a fan of yours will circle the date on their calendar when your new album comes out and actually have something to get them through the days and weeks as they stretch dollars and pinch pennies to survive. People don’t have jobs, some don’t have homes and we definitely don’t have the patience to sit through your backpack hip hop, rap-rock experiment with peppered wannabe Timberlake hooks. We need you to give us something to look forward to; we need your best right now.
Remember when you tried to get all Daft Punk on us with the autotune, and even had some moderate success. Now that the Black Eyed Peas have made an autotune album and Jay Z, hip hops undisputed heavyweight champ over the last 10-15 years has announced the “Death of Autotune”, the autotune trend is dead. Believe me, believe history, rap-rock is not the next “it” thing. Just because you are bored artistically, I urge you not to be a punchline on a shitty VH1 show.

If you’re bored with the music you are making, perhaps it would be wise to look at the devices in hip hop and rap that have been tested over time and worked more times than not, like a mega-collaboration, a mixtape or get an “it” producer to produce your beats. But please understand that rap-rock is not the answer.

Unfortunately for Eyedea and Abilities, and us, this memo should have gone out about 12 months ago. E&A was so dope, I’m just kind of baffled here.

Get Ratatat to produce your beats (Jesus why has no one done this yet?).

Track Listing:

1. Hay Fever
2. Spin Cycle
3. Time Flies When You Have A Gun
4. Burn Fetish
5. Sky Diver
6. Junk
7. Forgive Me For My Synapses
8. This Story
9. Factory
10. Smile
11. By The Throat