21 years ago, rapper Eyedea showed the world ‘Oliver Hart’
by Ali Elabbady
February 17, 2023
Among the artists who made the rounds of rap battle circuits, Micheal David Larsen was a wunderkind. Known to most as Eyedea, the St. Paul rapper handily won top prizes at Scribble Jam in 1999, the Rock Steady Anniversary in 2000, and the HBO-televised Blaze Battle in 2000. Understandably, the anticipation for his recorded work was palpable, and potentially insurmountable.
Following these wins, Eyedea teamed with turntablist and producer DJ Abilities – renowned in his own right on the DJ competition circuit – to release the introspective First Born in 2001. Initial reactions were mixed: Critics praised Eyedea's growth as a lyricist, but lamented a lack of his battle-tested, quick-witted presence. (Later revisits of First Born by critics and fans were more sympathetic.)
The ideas that came next were grander, though. So grand that Larsen reinvented himself under the name Oliver Hart to express them. Originally released in July of 2002, The Many Faces of Oliver Hart or: How Eye One the Write Too Think captured Larsen’s exponential creativity set loose in his home studio. This month, Rhymesayers Entertainment released a 20th anniversary edition of the album, one of the most celebrated and discussed in his entire body of work.
The truth of where one artistic persona ends and another begins is something Larsen took with him when he died at 28 on Oct. 16, 2010. He wasn’t the first or last to shed an established name – possibly to reject past ego, to open up a new train of thought, or just to mess with people’s expectations.
Frequent collaborator Carnage remembers the Oliver Hart name having a connection to the Vietnam veteran with PTSD that Eyedea described in First Born track “A Murder of Memories.” “I feel like it had something to do with playing off the person he was talking about [in that song],” Carnage says. “I feel like it had something to do with that, or it was a character he made up, or maybe I'm just mixing the two things.”
“By the way, you’re in for some weird sh**t.”
-Oliver Hart, “The Many Faces of Oliver Hart”
Dig into the bars on “The Many Faces of Oliver Hart,” the album’s opening track, and there’s transparency met with subterfuge again and again. In the outro, there’s this disclaimer: “The characters in this album are very real and reside inside a space-time continuum known as ‘the artist's head.’ The artist solemnly guarantees that you will love them in addition to the assurance that the preceding statement was a lie.” Well then; and then this kicker: “By the way, you're in for some weird s**t.”
Setting up in St. Paul
Eyedea and Abilities’ First Born had arrived amid a hotbed of activity at Minneapolis-based label Rhymesayers Entertainment after the release of Atmosphere’s Lucy Ford EPs and a wider distribution deal with New York’s Fat Beats Records. Before the album was recorded and mixed at A440 Studios in Minneapolis, Eyedea and Abilities – then known as Sixth Sense – cut demos in Larsen’s St. Paul bedroom. “The house was one floor, and had a huge open basement,” Larsen’s mother Kathy Averill recalls. “Recording would usually take place in a tiny closet, and on the door, any artist that came to record with them, would sign the door. The basement is where both Eyedea and the Battlecats crew would practice breakdancing.”
After releasing First Born, DJ Abilities headed to Brooklyn, lending his turntable wizardry to El-P’s debut album Fantastic Damage, as well as competing and winning the Midwestern regional finals for the DMC World DJ Championships. Meanwhile, Eyedea stayed at home and plotted ways to enhance his home studio space, in a bid to become more self-sufficient.
“When Eyedea turned 13, the basement was his,” Averill says. “He decided the basement, where breakdancing practice took place, would become the new studio. The area that was his bedroom became a soundproofed room, which would be insulated with dense fiberglass, and covered with T-shirt and cotton material.”
“Eyedea was really trying to figure out how to do it,” says Felipe Cuauhtli of Los Nativos. “He was all over the place, absorbing all he could at this point. Buying every piece of equipment he can find, researching every studio that does the dopest rap s**t. He took it a step further and would be like, ‘Wait a minute, I don't want to get it mixed there. What makes this sound good is this outboard gear that they used, so I'm gonna buy that.’ He built the studio he wanted. You name it, from the microphones, to the preamps, outboards, and compressors.” (Eyedea’s home studio would later become the main recording grounds for the 2003 Los Nativos album Dia De Los Muertos.)
Eyedea spent his Blaze Battle prize money on equipping this studio, which was later known as E&A Studios. He bought an EPS-16 sampler and had a ProTools setup, DJ Willy Lose recalls. “He found a decent deal on it, because he wanted to learn how to do it,” says Lose. “Eyedea was always the kind of person who always wanted to learn as much as he could, but didn't want to wait on anybody else. So much of what would be these sessions was learning how to use ProTools, and having his own booth, so he could do as many takes as he wanted, perfecting his craft.” So there Eyedea sat. Practicing, reading, and learning.
As Eyedea built the studio out, Willy Lose was an early participant who shared his skills during sessions for The Many Faces of Oliver Hart. Every Saturday afternoon, Lose brought his DJ equipment and crates of records over to Eyedea’s house. Rappers would filter in to freestyle over Eyedea’s beats.
“Some of the first sessions where I came to his house, he played me some of the beats he made before I was even involved,” says Carnage the Executioner. “He would say ‘Listen to some of my beats,’ and he's playing them on the EPS keyboard, and I'm like, ‘This s**t is hot.’”
“Once Eyedea finally said, ‘I'm gonna put this record out, but it's missing some things. Do you want to do the cuts?’ I answered, ‘Yes,’ without hesitation,” says Lose. “Eyedea is doing this album, which was a byproduct of him learning the more he experimented. The sessions hit a point where it's like, ‘Oh, this is a record. This needs to be put out, like it has everything you need.’”
“He was a self-contained unit in many ways, capable of making amazing music all by his lonesome. So to get the call, to me, meant he appreciated what I brought to the table,” says Heiruspecs bassist Sean McPherson, who played on the project. “By the time I came over to work on Oliver Hart I had been to [the studio] a number of times. He had a big Miles Davis poster, a Jimi Hendrix poster, and some goals for his work in the studio that week, or that day, written on a whiteboard.”
When McPherson recorded his contribution to the closing title track, Larsen put up a little fabric sheet over his monitor once tracking commenced. “I've never had a studio engineer do [that] before or after,” McPherson says. “This struck me as a very musician-centric way to approach recording. It was this acknowledgement that the most important thing happening right now happens with our ears. I always appreciated that.”
The many sides of Eyedea
Few, if any, hip-hop concept albums hit sonically and lyrically quite like the bold ideas contained within The Many Faces of Oliver Hart or: How Eye One the Write Too Think. There’s OutKast, Eminem, and, of course, the Kendrick Lamar that created To Pimp a Butterfly and Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. First Born listeners might’ve thought 70 minutes felt like a lengthy runtime, so it’s apt that the sweeping Oliver Hart is three minutes longer. It’s a feat to create a project that on the surface challenges listeners to look inward and reject idolatry – but, all the while, it further endears that audience to the artist.
”Standing back and just thinking about the record, this was the test as to whether Mikey's personality/personalities could work for a whole record. Sharing an album with DJ Abilities, or participating in guest verses are all different than asking a listener to spend an hour with you. I think it's clear it was a resounding success,” McPherson says. “He hit the right notes to establish himself as transitioning from a battle rapper, to someone who offered a lot more perspectives.”
From a lyrical standpoint, Eyedea had already offered a much-needed contextual expansion for himself on First Born, while chipping away at the ego that came with being considered the best battle rapper. Larsen saw his battling scene glories as only a small part of his multi-dimensional self. He exclaims on the kickoff track, “The Many Faces of Oliver Hart,” “No matter what side you see, it's just one side, no matter how much you think it means, it’s just one side, my depth is only as shallow as time and space is.”
The source samples strewn throughout Oliver Hart provide a dizzying array of freewheeling keyboard solos, playfully strummed guitar riffs, horn hits, and drum breaks. It’s a balance of moments of abstract simplicity and psychedelic, jazz-solo-styled breakouts.
In addition to contributing the vocal intro for “Weird Side,” Felipe Cuauhtli plays a bucket drum beat on “How Much Do You Pay?” “Most folks from Minneapolis at that time were familiar with the dude who played the bucket outside of First Avenue,” he says. “Eyedea tried to find the dude, and got some audio from him, but no bucket drum recording. So Eyedea gave me two sticks, and we found a pickle bucket. I turned it upside down, and got loose.”
Spoken word interludes touch upon giving into the curiosities that life offers, embarking on new life journeys, jumping into rivers, and Prince Paul-style comedic diatribes. In many ways, Oliver Hart delves deeper into philosophy, humanity, and the human condition, and dealt with it in a more uncompromising, yet digestible, fashion.
“Weird Side,” offers one of the quirkiest and upbeat numbers on Oliver Hart, a chance to highlight his eccentricities and imperfections. After the smoky jazz club preface of “Song About a Song” comes “How Much Do You Pay?” – which echoes “Birth of a Fish” off First Born from a narrative standpoint. Here, he’s reflecting on following one’s passions and happiness instead of relying on societal expectations, stature, or salary. The screamed refrain of “Make money and die, that’s the American way” and percussive elements alongside it grow more and more intense as the song progresses.
The quest for authentic self rings out in the dreamy, psychedelic “On a Clear Day” and its upbeat counterpart, “Walking.” The latter carries the chorus and revelation, “I'm walking, not cause I'm mad at you or anyone else / I'm walking, walking until I find myself.” Fans and critics who showed up to hear Eyedea’s battle-tested flow get “Coaches,” “My Day at the Brain Factory,” and “Just a Reminder” standing ready, willing, and able to show he was never new to this, he’s been true to this.
“I have a question: Any other MCs in the house?”
–Oliver Hart, “Coaches”
One of the album’s few guest features was Carnage the Executioner, who pushed the creative envelope on “Prelude to Coaches” and “Coaches.” “I was doing things in those verses where I would spell my name backwards, and even saying syllables backwards,” he says. “Eyedea was not only receptive to all of it, he fed off that creative exchange to really make it something special.”
Tracks like “Step by Step” tap into mortality; “Motormouths Anonymous” and “Infrared Roses” chase fleeting moments of happiness; and there’s exploration of the path to lasting relevance on the closing title track, “How Eye Won the Write Too Think,” and “Forget Me,” which features Slug of Atmosphere. “I was excited that the song made the cut,” Slug says of their collaboration. “He was such a prolific artist, that I assumed ‘Forget Me’ would get forgotten. When he told me he was using it, I was excited, because I really liked the jam.”
The emotional core of the album, and a reason for its everlasting relevance, can be found in “Bottle Dreams.” There, Eyedea (as Oliver Hart) tells a tale of a young violinist and the abuse she suffers at the hands of her father. The tragic story carries a gut-wrenching emotional heft similar to “A Murder of Memories” on First Born.
“Here For You,” the album’s cry for understanding and connection, is a heartbeat that keeps everything in perspective. Here, the role we play is “part of the whole,” and without us, the world simply “can’t be.” Nearly 13 years since Eyedea’s passing, these words still resonate.
"’Here For You’ is a gift,” recalls Jason Brown, known in artist circles under his pseudonym Phingaz, who would later collaborate with Eyedea. He says this song in particular motivated him to move to the Twin Cities to make music. “The words are so uplifting, so effortless and still profound. I tell people to listen to it when they are sad, when they are happy, when they need a pick-me-up or when they feel on top of the world. It spoke to my core existence.”
Oliver Hart’s sweet release
The Many Faces of Oliver Hart or: How Eye One the Write Too Think, was released in July of 2002. It came during a watershed year for Rhymesayers. Just the month before, Atmosphere’s groundbreaking Godlovesugly arrived and was celebrated with release parties in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Minneapolis, before a three-month stateside tour in September. Musab, formerly known as Beyond, released Respect the Life that October.
The Oliver Hart cover features artwork drawn by Adam “Booka B” Bücher. He says the concept came together during a Scribble Jam road trip with Eyedea and Brother Ali. At the time, Booka B was promoting the first collection of beats he had compiled on a bunch of burned discs with photocopied album artwork.
“On the way back to Minneapolis, Eyedea asked to flip through my blackbook,” Bücher recalls. “Around that time, I'd gone from drawing letters and faces to weaving faces into faces and letters. I'd fill whole pages with a tapestry of these weird looking characters. In the same breath Mikey gave me a kind of half-compliment, half-insult for being a little obsessive about my artwork. The next thing he said was that that style would be perfect for the album cover for a project he was working on called The Many Faces of Oliver Hart.”
The album’s kickoff began with the debut of a freestyle between Slug and Eyedea that was recorded for the Wake-Up Show with Sway & King Tech, and released online shortly before the release.
A release party at the 7th Street Entry followed on July 12, and it began a two-week tour featuring Illogic, DJ Przm, and DeeJayBird, AKA J-Bird of Rhymesayers. “I was barely home in 2002,” J-Bird says.
Kevin Beacham, then known as DJ Nikoless, remembers Larsen welcoming him when he first moved to Minneapolis. “[Eyedea and I] would hang out, or at least talk, almost every day,” Beacham says. “That's what led to me DJing for him on those few shows, and even being his ‘tour manager’ on some of those dates for the Oliver Hart run. The shows we did were in Madison, Eau Claire, and Gustavus Adolphus College, and maybe one or two more shows after those.”
The year after Oliver Hart was released, more opportunities arrived. Eyedea would serve as the main support for Prince Paul’s Politics of the Business tour, along with Aceyalone. The album’s confidence, curiosity, and experimentation would be doubled down and replicated on Eyedea and DJ Abilities' later forward-thinking and boundary-pushing efforts E&A and By The Throat. The project also set the stage for Eyedea’s future work as part of Face Candy and Carbon Carousel, and gave him the confidence to start his own collective of like-minded creatives in Crushkill Recordings.
Doing promotional work for Carbon Carousel was how Phingaz first met and started to work with Eyedea. “In my evenings, I was plastering the U of M with flyers for Carbon Carousel, and going to shows to help with odds and ends in 2005,” Phingaz remembers. “I'd spend time down at the Glockenspiel in St. Paul just drinking beers and talking at length with Eyedea about new releases, or whatever the topic of the day was. He treated me like a peer, when he was far and above anything I could imagine.”
When it came time for Phingaz to record contributions for Background Noise Crew’s 2009 album Everybody Does This, Vol. 1, he chose to cover Oliver Hart track “Here for You,” after receiving Eyedea’s blessing one night outside the Dinkytowner Cafe in Minneapolis. “He was taken aback that I'd even asked his permission,” Phingaz says. “But he told me something to the effect of, ‘Of course, I don't own those words or that song. I let it loose into the wild, do whatever you need to do with it.’”
Not long after Phingaz found out about the news regarding Eyedea’s death, he and fellow Common Labor vocalist Analyrical decided to record a tribute to him nodding to “Here for You” once again. “Here For You Too (Dreamer of Dreams),” was released on Common Labor’s Tale of the Troubadours album. “My first exposure to Eyedea was always through his words and music; thus my verse in the song is filled with references to song titles from his catalog, of course, ending on the tribute to the songs namesake,” says Phingaz. “Analyrical wanted to tack on the ‘Dreamer of Dreams' tag to the title because he viewed Eyedea like a Willy Wonka person who just poked holes in the world. It was our way of paying homage.”
In 2014, The Many Faces of Oliver Hart or: How Eye One the Write Too Think was released for the first time on vinyl for Record Store Day, with an etched F-side consisting of the same faces that make up Booka B’s original artwork.
“Some songs are filled with passion and drive for the world and all its creation, and other tracks are clouded with doubt, fear and uncertainty,” says Phingaz. “It's a display of Eyedea grappling with all facets of his life and artistry, and it's haunting, powerful, and beautifully bittersweet.”
Not only was Oliver Hart an introspective look into the mind of Eyedea, but it highlighted his vulnerabilities, his humanity, and his innermost thoughts about his quick ascension. The album helped shift public perception of an artist that evolved greatly over its creation.
The album’s impact and legend would only grow in stature with the release of The Many Faces of Mikey, released on Crushkill Recordings in 2015. The Many Faces of Mikey offer demos, b-sides, and alternate takes from the Oliver Hart sessions. Many of the tracks offer extensions of the vulnerability and richly woven stories that not only showcase Eyedea’s technical ability, but his knack for deeply interwoven narratives that strike at the core of the human condition.
“He grew in age and maturity, so that was a major change,” Kathy Averill says of her son. “He was trying to prove that he was an artist, not just a battle rapper. It was more him telling listeners and critics alike, ‘I want to be all these other things, don’t pigeonhole me.’”
