Eyedea & Abilities E&A

Atmosphere: Slug (rap vocals); Ant (DJ).
Recorded at Trail Mix Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This Minneapolis duo had spent about a decade at the center of the insular Twin Cities hip-hop scene before their national emergence with 2002's GOD LOVES UGLY, an idiosyncratic slice of state-of-the-art conscious rap. SEVEN'S TRAVELS, their fourth full-length release, is both a logical next step and a quantum leap forward.
Ant's painterly soundscapes conjure the glory years of Daisy Age hip-hop, and frontman Slug makes up for what he lacks in Eminem-style down-and-dirty venom with a compelling combination of grainy imagery and street-level introspection. The production is a layered affair that features off-kilter beats vying for bandwidth with smartly chosen audio verite and musical samples to produce a kaleidoscopic aural effect. Slug's raps are best encapsulated in the album's closer, "Always Coming Back to You," which crams a world of experience into its brief narrative, transforming the duo's hometown into every city in the world to which its scions have returned, only to find that you really can't go home again.

• Genre: R&B
• Format: Vinyl