Oct 07
2010
Micheal "Eyedea" Larsen Tribute
This is tragic, not only because eyedea was a great talent but because he was so young. Through the years I have had the pleasure of speaking with him on a few occasions. My personal impression of him was that he was an intelligent, down-to-earth individual who offered a unique view on life & music. He accomplished a lot in his short life - there will always be that lingering what if. Through his stellar unmatched freestyle achievements to his genre-spanning musical endeavors, he was definitely a boundary-pusher. I remember back-in-the-day going to see Atmosphere and wondering who the hype-man was, finding out quickly that it was a gentleman named Eyedea. I recall his triumphant domination at Scribble Jam 1999, HBO's Blaze Battle in 2000 (which I think I skipped a class during high school to watch) and of course, the legendary Eyedea vs. Immortal Technique battle. I was a big fan of 2002's inspiring-effort First Born and continued following Eyedea's career. He took chances, some paid off and some did not (in my opinion). What counts is that he seemed to always challenge himself and took great pride in it, unapologetic. E&A's 2004 release, aptly titled E&A was nothing short of awesome. Their final effort, 2009's By The Throat offered a new approach, bending conventions and further refining his newfound vocal approach.
Perhaps the most profound conversation I had with him was during SoundSet 2008 in the Metrodome parking lot. Ryan Warnberg and myself were conducting some interviews for a New York-based magazine called Frank 151. We had the pleasure of speaking with him both on camera and off for a half hour or so. I'm truly happy we have this interview recorded, I totally forgot what we talked about that day. I remember his mom's presence at the event - walking around with a t-shirt that read something like "eyedea is my son". She seemed like an awesome mom and incredibly proud of her son. My heart goes out to everyone close to eyedea.
Watch the interview from Soundset 2008
Thanks to Ryan Warnberg for posting the thorough interview recap on his blog. Also, mad thanks to him for bringing me on that journey 2 years ago.
As far as this post goes, I felt compelled to write something about what Eyedea meant to me and how his life impacted mine. I chose to illustrate (in my crude way) one of my favorite photos of him from that Soundset 2008 session.
So long Eyedea, you will be missed. Do yourself a favor and go throw on some headphones, lay back, and enjoy eyedea's discography.
