Biography
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Born
9 November 1981
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Died
17 October 2010 (aged 28)
Eyedea (born Micheal Larsen on November 9, 1981 – October 16, 2010) was a well-known freestyle battle champion and underground hip-hop emcee. His notable wins include the televised Blaze Battle sponsored by HBO (2000) and a victory at Scribble Jam (1999).
He had appeared as a solo artist and as the emcee half of the duo Eyedea & Abilities (along with long-time friend and collaborator DJ Abilities). His non-battle rhymes were generally very philosophically or thematically based, and often tell a definite narrative. His song "Bottle Dreams" is a well known piece about a young sexually abused violin prodigy who commits suicide.
For much of his youth, Eyedea lived with his mother in downtown St. Paul, MN. He attended Highland Park High School, with interests including psychology, physics, and yoga. Favorite authors include James Joyce, and Finnegan's Wake is a favourite text of his.
First establishing himself as battle emcee, Eyedea toured the circuit between 1997 and 2001, notably winning top prizes at Scribble Jam ‘99, the Rock Steady Anniversary 2000, and Blaze Battle Chicago 2000. He also toured extensively as second emcee for Atmosphere, with DJ Abilities sometimes filling in for Mr. Dibbs as tour DJ.
In 2001, he released "First Born" with his partner DJ Abilities (collectively, they were initially called the Sixth Sense, but more recently were known as Eyedea and Abilities). In 2002, under his pen name "Oliver Hart," he released the self-produced The Many Faces of Oliver Hart. In 2004, he and Abilities reunited to release the self-titled E&A (released March 23, 2004). All of Eyedea's releases have been on the Rhymesayers record label.
In addition to touring independently and with Rhymesayers labelmates, Eyedea and Abilities participated in the Def Jux-sponsored Who Killed the Robots? tour.
In 2006, Eyedea temporarily abandoned hip-hop writing and battle rapping for a new rock music project entitled Carbon Carousel.
As well as performing with Carbon Carousel, Eyedea and others had started a group called Face Candy. They released an album full of freestyles over free jazz percussion entitled This Is Where We Were.
He was signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment, and frequently collaborated with Slug, Blueprint and Sage Francis.
Eyedea died in his sleep on October 16, 2010 in his St. Paul apartment. He was found dead by his mother, according to a friend. Cause of death was released November 18, 2010 and ruled an accident, from respiratory depression, caused by opiate derivatives, according to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office. The specific drugs found in Larsen's system have not been revealed to the public.
Various hip-hop artists went on their Twitter accounts to pay their tribute to him, such as Immortal Technique, Mac Lethal, El-P and P.O.S, among others.
On December 25, 2013, it was announced on Eyedea & Abilities' Facebook page that a star was registered under the name Eyedea to commemorate Larsen on the web site Online Star Register.
Fellow hip-hop artist and friend Murs paid homage to Eyedea on his track "I Miss Mikey" on his album Have a Nice Life. Also, the song "Flicker" from the album Southsiders by Atmosphere where Slug describes different sides of Eyedea and their relationship can be called a eulogy. In 2013, The Uncluded, a collaboration between folk punk singer Kimya Dawson and hip hop artist Aesop Rock paid tribute to Eyedea in the song "Bats" from their album Hokey Fright. Additionally, the songs "Michael" from the album Flowers for My Father, by Sadistik, "Toast to the dead" from the album The Martyr by Immortal Technique, and "Great Eyedeas Never Die", from the album King No Crown by Blueprint, are also tributes to Eyedea.
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