Edan is a US alternative hip-hop artist from Rockville, Maryland, born in 1978. He works as an emcee, DJ and producer, and is based in Boston. His music combines classic mid-1980s to early-1990s hip-hop with 1960s rock, funk, psychedelia and other styles.

Early work and first releases

Edan begins recording in 1986 using 4-track and 8-track home setups, working with both live instruments and sample-based production. He plays drums and bass, and develops a Native Tongues-influenced approach while still in school. He is also a former member of Fiber 2001.

His debut 12-inch appears in 1998 on Biscuithead Records and includes the tracks “The Es Have It” featuring Eric Ferguson and “Migraine”. The release introduces his dry humour and lo-fi production style. He then works on an unreleased album, The End Is Forever, recording it on an 8-track digital cassette recorder in his dorm room; the only tracks from that project to surface appear on the 1998 single.

Primitive Plus and early 2000s releases

After leaving college in 2001, Edan begins work on his first official album, Primitive Plus. The single “Godlove”, featuring Boston MC Mr. Lif, appears on Sun/Moon Records, and Edan then becomes the first artist signed to UK label Lewis-Recordings, which releases the single “Mic Manipulator”.

Primitive Plus is released in 2001 and is produced, rapped and turntabled entirely by Edan apart from guest appearances by Mr. Lif and Father Time of Alaskan Fishermen, plus production on “Key-Bored” by Eli, also known as Memory Man. The album draws on experimental and throwback elements and uses the phrase “primitive plus futuristic” to describe its approach.

He follows it with the mixtape Fast Rap, a compilation of fast-paced hip-hop tracks that helps renew interest in so-called fast rap. He also releases the non-album single “Drop Some Smooth Lyrics” on his Humble Mag label, backed with “Ultra ’88”, a Kool Keith imitation. In 2002 he issues the lo-fi Sprain Your Tape Deck EP, which includes CD-only material from Primitive Plus and two new tracks recorded directly to cassette after his 8-track recorder breaks. Because the recordings are made live, the scratching, mixing and effects are performed in real time.

Collaborations and live performance

Edan later produces remixes for Mr. Lif and Souls of Mischief, and contributes album cuts such as Akrobatik’s “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”. In 2003 he begins performing with Insight, first as “Edan & Insight” and later as Duplex. Their live shows are built around tight DJ performance and extended improvisation, and they often reference the style of the Furious Five and the Cold Crush Brothers.

His live routine includes cutting up the intro to Thin Lizzy’s “Johnny the Fox” while rhyming and using a delay pedal for extra texture. This performance also appears in the independent film SBX.

Beauty and the Beat and later work

Edan’s first single from his second album is “I See Colors”, a psychedelic track with his own Moog synth playing. Its lyrics describe psychedelic experiences without drugs, and the B-side, “The Science Of The Two”, is his first recorded collaboration with Insight. Another mixtape, Sound Of The Funky Drummer, appears in 2004 and collects tracks that sample James Brown’s “Funky Drummer”.

Beauty and the Beat is released in 2005. It features Mr. Lif, Insight, Percee-P and Dagha, and Edan again handles the production. The album is noted for its mix of hip-hop with rock-based psychedelia and diverse sampling, including funk, psychedelia and 1960s rock. He later creates the audio-visual project Echo Party Movie, a dance, rap and punk collage built from turntables, tape echo, glockenspiel, guitar, Moog and kazoo, and set to found footage by Tom Fitzgerald drawn from sources including Bollywood films, martial arts films, 1960s animation, obscure new wave 8mm film and vintage breakdance and graffiti footage.