Steve 'Flash' JuonHis bio reads “Don’t be surprised when the first time you listen to an Eric Biddines song it feels like you know him already.” True dat. When I started listening to “The Local Cafe” I felt an immediate kinship to Southern rappers I liked, and learning that he was born in Ocala and raised in Delray Beach didn’t surprise me that much. Now if I had thrown a dart at the Dirty South, I would have probably landed on Georgia or Texas, but there’s no doubt Eric came up as a fan of OutKast and U.G.K. You can hear it AND you can see it when you watch the video for “20 Dollar Loan,” and to be honest I’m a little bit pissed off that this had only done 1,700 views when I saw it. That’s damn near criminal.
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air/where we from, ain’t no Uncle Phil”
“This ain’t a cry for help/I’m just ventin’, ‘scuse my expression.” For real Eric, you’ve got nothing to apologize for. There’s some powerful soul in this track and a smooth jazz feel to the instrumental. It doesn’t take him long to flip the script on “Whole Trunk” though, “swangin’ bangin’, I’m drivin’, real slow” like a player from Houston would. My mind starts wandering while listening to the song and not because it’s bad — it’s because I start wondering what a chop ‘n screw mix of the track would hit like. It’s ripe for the treatment.
“Here I go, come back again… for the 15th time” spits Eric on the opening of “Worried Bout.” He has the demeanor of someone with those kind of veteran stripes. He tells us all the things he’s NOT worried about here, including the fact he doesn’t fear anyone alive… except himself. That’s a bar that’ll make you think, and that’s something you’re struck by on almost any Eric Biddines track. He’s putting a lot of himself into each line, and he’s not only making the process more personal but more relatable to the listener. For a lot of people who came up with his circumstances they’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose, which is why “we ain’t worried bout, what you worried bout.”
“The Local Cafe” is a friendly and inviting place. This might be a weird comparison but fuck it — Eric Biddines reminds me of Fredo on TV. He’s a real dude and he’s not to be trifled with, but he’s only going to scrap if you’re disrespectful. For the most part both of them just want to make you smile and enjoy yourself, and they both have that rural South charm (Fredo is from Mississippi) where you’d like to have a drink and a smoke and talk shop. Well actually Eric says he doesn’t do either of those things, so maybe we could sit down for a Coke and a sandwich and talk about some “Classic Cars” instead.
“Done woke up feeling different.” So did I after hearing him rap and Kendra Williams sing. This is a whole ass vibe. Not a half, not a quarter, I’m talking 100% of the vibe. Kendra says “I know you want to ride” and damn it yes I do. I almost got up out of my seat writing this review just so I could put the windows down and cruise to this track. “Just hold on tight to the wheel, and let the road be your mind.” How is Eric Biddines just naturally this cool? There’s something incredibly rare to the air about songs like this and “Fly Butter.” He makes it sound like he’s not trying which is in fact the exact opposite of how he got to be this good. He worked HARD to make it seem this effortless. If the aforementioned OutKast and U.G.K. had a baby together, Eric would be their progeny.
Frankly at this point I’m stunned. I’m stunned I didn’t hear about “The Local Cafe” when it came out in 2017. I’m also stunned that he apparently entered self-imposed retirement a year later, because that’s where his discography abruptly ends. I’ve tried modifying the URL of his Bandcamp page and you can’t even pull up anything else — it just leads you full circle back to this album. This might just be his magnum opus and if it was it’s fair to say he went out on a very high note — one that deserved far more than the relative anonymity he’s had until now.