E.D.I Mean aka EDIDON continues the Outlawz legacy with his latest album, The Hope Dealer. The West Coast icon came up with the idea for the positive project back around 2011, but knew he needed to share the message after his daughter became ill and his mother fought lung cancer. Thus, the album was born.
“There’s a lot of us, especially in these turbulent times, that need hope, that need a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” he explains to Soren Baker on an episode of Unique Access. “If I can do a little bit to help somebody do that with music, then I’ve done something. I’ve done my job.”
One aspect of that duty that EDIDON takes seriously is bringing the rap generations together. He featured the legend Planet Asia and rising Atlanta rapper Translee on “Hold Us Down.” He explains that seeing 2Pac take Big Daddy Kane under his wing during the height of his career, the All Eyez on Me era, inspired him to continue bridging the gap between rap generations.
“To me, as an elder now in the hip-hop game, I think that needs to be done a lot more,” he shares. “We have a tendency to say, ‘Fuck the old school niggas. Let’s just focus on the young and the new.’ The Rock and Roll dudes don’t do that. They lift their old heads up. That’s why the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Deads and the Red Hot Chili Peppers can tour and still put out albums well into their 50s and 60s because people don’t just throw ’em away like they trash. They celebrate ’em. And I think that needs to happen more.”
He continues that he is proud of Translee for being on board with the idea and understanding the importance of paying tribute to the generations that came before.
“When I told Translee I was putting Planet Asia on this song, because he’s a student, he was blown away, like, ‘Fuck you’re putting Planet Asia on there?’ He was excited about it and I think we need more of that in hip-hop.”
Even with the hardships that hip-hop faces as it grows more mainstream or reflects the tragedies of the world, EDIDON says he won’t ever give up on the music because of how far he’s seen it come.
“I love this culture. I love this genre of music ever since I was a little kid,” he says. “I’m from Brooklyn, New York, so I literally grew up at the same time hip-hop was emerging. It’s in my system. Just like gang-banging would be in a gang-banging dude’s system out here in L.A. That’s all he know. Hip-hop was literally around me everywhere I went from my mom’s playing Sugarhill Gang records to going in the street, my uncle would pull up in his Caddy and he’d be playing Run-D.M.C. Go to school, me and all my friends freestyling, beating on a lunch table. It’s just always been in me and always been around me. I feel like I’ve seen the power of hip-hop, too, traveling to other countries, people that can’t speak English knowing every word to a ‘Pac song or to one of our songs. I’ve seen how it transcends and brings people together from different cultures and different racial backgrounds. I’ve seen the power of hip-hop, so I could never lose that excitement for that reason alone. No matter how trashy it gets, how many people be like ‘Rap is terrible now.’ I’m not one of those people that can say rap is terrible now ’cause I can go back and put on an E-40 record. That shit lives forever. Or a Scarface album, that shit lives forever. And there’s still good projects coming out today, you just gotta do your research and go out there and look for it and stop accepting what they’re giving to you.”
Besides legends like himself putting younger artists on, E.D.I Mean encourages rap fans to find their own way to contribute to the culture. And it might not be the obvious plan of action.
“I wanna say this to anybody that ever sees this interview: Just because you love hip-hop and you love this music and you love this culture, doesn’t mean you have to be an artist,” he says. “You can do something else. You can be a deejay, you can get on the business side, you can be a manager, there’s ways for you to still be around this culture. But one of the problems with people finding their favorite artists or good music is that it’s so convoluted, it’s so congested, it’s like LA traffic. Everybody wanna rap. I understand dreams and having aspirations and goals, but it just may not be for you. Something else may be for you. … I definitely feel like the cream always rises to the top anyway. If you’re not adding anything to it or pushing the culture forward, then you’re really just in the way and you can help out in a lot of different ways. It’s so many other ways to be involved with this culture besides being in front of the camera. You know everybody wanna be famous.”
Knowing that he is one of the many that made it to some level of fame, EDIDON pushes himself to keep creating and making his impact on the culture. Besides The Hope Dealer, he is also working on a new mixtape with fellow Outlawz member Young Noble. He explains how they both have been able to step out of the shadow of the megagroup while still carrying the torch.
“I really feel like musically, we’ve gotten a lot tighter because we’ve had to. It’s not so many different personalities and voices you got to choose from when you get an Outlaw project,” he says. “So you have to find a way to still keep the listener interested and not just rely on the fact that we the Outlawz. We still wanna give quality music and improve as artists. He does a lot of work solo. I do work solo, too, but when we come together, it’s a certain energy that we just don’t get when we apart.”
Looking back on the history of the Outlawz, EDIDON is thankful for the platform that the group was given, but suggests that part of the legacy is tainted by the lore surrounding 2Pac and Death Row Records. He believes the members’ dedication to the music above all else has saved them from getting lost in the hype.
“I think a lot of it kinda got overshadowed because everything was so grandiose,” he says. “The whole thing with ‘Pac was so huge and Death Row and even the myths, the stories that came out about us kinda overshadowed the music that we were doing. So it was just one of those things that you really can’t do nothing about, but just continue to work hard at your craft and try to get better. That was always me and Nob’s thing in particular as far as a group, just putting out the best music that we could put out, being the best that we could possibly be because we knew what we were representing, because we knew people really kinda threw a strike or two at us anyway and said, ‘Ah we only seeing y’all because of ‘Pac.'”