To know the life story of Michael Larsen, it seems all you have to do is listen to his music. This has become a cliché statement when regarding hip-hop artists or even musicians of any genre, but for the most part, I believe it is only partly true when applied to the latter. Most only offer the highs and lows of their lives, the bold specs on their lifelines, and Eyedea separated himself from this commonplace standard by devoting the entirety of his art form to sharing the entirety of his life. He offered listeners the chance to watch life through his eyes, to learn the knowledge he had gained along the way, study the philosophies he'd developed, and compare his unique perceptions on all aspects of our world with what we have have been told or established in our own minds. The diversity of his music offers the ability to connect with all of us in some way or another, and seems meant only for our enjoyment, carrying no intentions or demands.

Eyedea's lyrics read somewhere between the style of a novel and collection of autobiographical poems, and are delivered as a constant introduction and conversation with his listeners. This is an era where fans of any genre want to know the music rather than the artist behind it, and despite the barriers that all of us, in one way or another, have constructed, Eyedea pushed forward to sit on our wall, and establish an equilibrium between these extremities. If you listen with the right kind of ears, you will see a life rather than a song, and the music behind is merely the soundtrack of a man's different moments in life rather than a simple musical composition.

His versatility as an artist and the diversity of his work is something of a Shakespearean comparison—comedic, even hilarious at times, tragic, philosophical, satirical, political, and even enlightening at times. The spectrum of his talent as a lyricist and narrative poet displayed, and will continue to display, the seemingly unlimited directions that he could command his music toward, and it seems best to remember him as Machiavellian in ways when it comes to the written word.

Aside from his work in hip-hop, Eyedea formed a rock band under the name of Carbon Carousel that further displayed his ability to fuse genres in a way that is most uncommon in the attempts of others. 2009's By The Throat displayed the rock-influenced hip-hop style that Eyedea and Abilities had begun to develop, and we are now only left with an inkling of where they were going, and what the product would be. It isn't certain what stage his upcoming album Waste-age Teenland was in before his death, and no word has yet emerged of a posthumous release. His music was his tale, and though the story has been tragically cut short, the complexity of his rhymes seem to still hold truths that will only be uncovered in time.

Somewhere out there lies a consensus that Eyedea has only caught national attention and mass praise due to the media's highlight of his death, and their ignorance proves through example of the boundaries we build around respective art forms that constrict their ability to expand into the mainstream. It is not a matter of the "fame and fans through death" ideology, but the acknowledgment of what was left behind. For so many, myself included, we can only now most appreciate the music Eyedea shared with us during the duration of his career, and more sadly, understand that his gift was unconditional, shared without attachments, given for the betterment of an art form.

Here are 15 tracks, in no particular order, that I believe display the scope of Eyedea's talent, what he has done, and where he was going. Feel free to comment with additional tracks that you believe matter most, and remember that this isn't a time for quarreling, but paying homage to a fallen artist.

"Birth of a Fish"

"Burn Fetish"

"Coaches"

"Color My World"

"Here For You"

"How Eye One the Write Too Think"

"How Much Do You Pay"

"Internal Theory"

"Kept"

"Man vs. Ape"

"On This I Stand"

"One"

"Paradise"

"Sky Diver"

"Soundtrack of a Romance"

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JT Langley