Small details, such as the blood in Beast's wound after his fight with the wolves, were also added.
He "wears the Time Meridian as a wristband." He doesn't grace stages. Even his battle rhymes have a surrealist bent. He's gone from a brainiac prankster to the Borges of rap. The gravity of Edan's lyrics and voice on Beauty and the Beat is perhaps its most surprising element.
Reversed drum loops, found sounds, droning feedback, Echoplexed vocals, syrupy strings, and truckloads of bubbling Moog intermingle with Edan's Kane-with-a-cold mic skills to astonishing effect. On the latter half of the album, "Beauty", "Smile", and "Promised Land" are three sample-packed masterpieces that compress the time between '68 and '88. "Rock and Roll" applies Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground, and Talking Heads to create a psychedelic ode to its titular genre, and "Science of the Two" is a tangled mass of Edan and Insight that rivals Run-DMC for seamless vocal interplay.
Each song transitions to the next through the ever-present Moog noodlings and shared elements, an effort at a hip-hop long-player and not simply a collection of singles. The nightmarish diptych of "Murder Mystery" and "Torture Chamber"- the latter featuring Percee P's lyrical conveyor belt over the churning bass-line from Pink Floyd's "On the Run"- bleeds into "Making Planets", an organ dirge backing Edan's laidback braggadocio that changes gears into a Crazy Horse-ish Mr. Over a runaway break, Edan pays dues to the Fatback Band on up, providing a syllabus for future pupils. True, many of the names he drops are familiar, but- as many of the mentioned could tell you- respect is the only restitution to them. "Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme" is a timeline of the forgotten founders.
One more time before he blows your mind, Edan pays respects to the "true scientists". Like a master mathematician who suddenly sees the pattern in the formula, Edan commences his solution. The song is his epiphany over a 60s jangle and mushrooming Moog effects. Yes, it's been done before, but not like this. On lead single "I See Colours", Edan declares, "Prince Paul already used this loop/ But I'ma keep it movin'/ And put you up on the scoop." The lyric is a synopsis of Edan's new outlook.