Pitchfork: Eyedea and Abilities Tour North America

Eyedea and Abilities Tour North America
Duo negotiating for lead role in Breakin' 3: The Wackness, opposite Ollie & Jerry

I've learned many a valuable life lesson from my years of listening to undie hip-hop music, a few of which I'd like to impress upon you now. Wack rappers suck when they rap, and any rapper who is not currently rapping or involved in the rapping rapper's posse is wack. Punchline rapping is wack, unless your punchline is about punchline rapping being wack, in which case your punchline is fine. It's dope to rail against uncreative rappers, even though railing against uncreative rappers is probably the most uncreative and tired hip-hop paradigm there is. And finally, if you get too ambitious with your rapping by trying to deviate from punchlines and disses and skits, heads will say you're on some Anticon shit, and they won't mean it in a nice way. Like, who the hell do you think you are, coming around here with all your fancy book learnin'? Fuck that shit, homie.

Eyedea and Abilities, who rather dumbed down their last Epitaph album, E&A;, ostensibly to evade accusations of Anticonitis, know a thing or two about trying to foist some wisdom on the screwfaces and backpacks who get off only on braggadocio and easily parsed disses. Could undie rap be to hardcore hip-hop what emo is (or was, back in '85) to hardcore punk? And if so, who will be the Dashboard Confessional of undie rap a decade from now? Could be MC Eyedea and DJ Abilities have their eyes on the prize. Come and get your hip-hop learn on during this tour with Blueprint, dates courtesy of the Kork Agency:

04-28 Denton, TX - Hailey's
04-29 San Antonio, TX - Sin 13
04-30 Austin, TX - Emo's
05-02 Coachella, CA - Coachella Festival
05-03 New Orleans, LA - Twiropa
05-04 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
05-05 Miami, FL - I/O
05-06 Orlando, FL - Back Booth
05-07 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
05-08 Charlotte, NC - The Room
05-09 Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club
05-11 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
05-12 Philadelphia, PA - Theater of Living Arts
05-13 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
05-14 Boston, MA - Matrix
05-15 Providence, RI - Living Room
05-16 Portland, ME - The Big Easy
05-18 Montreal, Quebec - La Salla Rosa
05-19 Ottawa, Quebec - Babylon
05-20 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
05-21 Pittsburgh, PA - Brew House Space
05-22 Columbus, OH - Little Bros
05-25 Bloomington, IN - Rhinos
05-26 Chicago, IL - Abbey
05-27 Milwaukee, WI - Rave
05-29 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue