Eddy Reaux - Are You With Me? (Album)

More like “Are You Still With Me” being that this is Eddy’s 3rd effort thus far & it just might be his magnum opus. We open things up subtly with the laid back nonchalance of “Dial Tones”, Eddy is tip toeing on this beat, delivering lines that were clearly structured meticulously, he’s obviously been feeling this way for some time, addressing all of life’s fluctuations & his dealings with the fickle & fake that were spawned as a result of his hard work & determination. If intrusive thoughts had an anthem, this would be that anthem. Eddy maintains such a smoothness when he’s flowing, it just all comes together seamlessly once we bleed into “No Limit”. He has the right idea by not placing limitations on himself, rather simply handling his business the way he sees fit, as opposed to following suit towards everybody else & much to their chagrin, he’s paved his own way.

Is it love or is it lust & let me tell you or rather let Eddy tell you, both are some of the strongest drugs you could ever partake in, just look at Bobby & Whitney, with them, it was a combination of both. A good woman by your side, especially one who can satiate both desires, now that’s a super drug I personally am dying to partake in but looks like he’s gotten lucky before I. Like all of us, he’s done dirt too & he’ll do it all again if it meant his dawgs would benefit, DMO tags along to further expand on this sentiment, their goals & desires are forever changing so hopefully his dawgs are along for the ride & maintain patience as he maneuvers through this tricky bitch called life.

Unfortunately, some of those dawgs are probably the same ones who wanna off him but he’ll be god damned if he allows anybody to put a halt to what he’s trying to accomplish. I’m certain it must be annoying having to deal with this on the daily but he seems to not be phased by it at all, I guess he’s just too busy going up to be looking down, let alone stopping. Is that a Lil O homage on “50 Feet/Nosy”, that’s killer cause that’s a sleeper record! The switch up on this one is also killer, whereas the 1st section has a sorta of bounce to it that you can jiggy with, it’s only a warning to how easily things can go left if he’s pushed over the edge enough & that happens due to people not minding their fucking business & stop prying their eyes into his instead of focusing on themselves, which they obviously need if they’re so concerned.

He’s cutting off all of that deadwood on “CMP”, there’s no excuse for them not being there when he really needed it but then showing up once they see he has something they want, it typically goes that way so he’d rather avoid that annoyance by all means necessary & if you keep fucking around, he may hit that delete button on his contacts list so hard that you actually disappear. He’s living as lavish as he possibly can & is enjoying it but “What’s Next” after this, what more can he possibly accomplish & will you still be with him as he accomplishes more because I’ve seen how easily fickle fans can be, especially once you’ve been doing it for a minute, people on the outside looking in usually develop this sense of entitlement & even typecast in some situations cause it’s like, “oh, there goes Eddy, killing it again” & it’s like, he’s supposed to kill it everytime you idiots, he’s supposed to want better for himself & his people, the fuck?

A lot of life pondering on this record & it continues on the reflective “LAX”. I urge anybody who has any sort of relationship but especially a romantic one with a creative, understand just how much of a non stop grind it is, it’s not something you can afford to be lazy with, you have to want it more than anything, the amount of sacrifices this lifestyle comes with can be a lot for someone who doesn’t fully understand it to handle but just imagine how hard it is for the creative who’s doing all of this for the betterment of the both of y’all, sometimes just you alone, to have to be gone all the time, I’m sure he’d love to spend all the time in the world with you but he simply can’t & you must learn to respect that or stop wasting everybody’s time, including your own.

When you’re in love, you want that feeling to last for “Eternity” & when that love ends, it too feels like eternity, the pain & anguish that is. Shit is no longer sweet like it once was, clearly she wasn’t all that down so that honeymoon phase is now over but the hurt that comes from it, that pain is running far too deep for him to not feel it, at least occasionally. It’s not like he wants to be “Alone” but isolation seems to be their best bet, them getting lost in one another has only been to their detriment as they lost themselves in the process but it’s still all love. I wonder who that is singing on there cause she really captured the essence of this record.

We all got “Wants And Needs” but we have to learn how to tend to ourselves before we tend to others, their love is real & their both enduring growing pains currently but if she can just stay down through it all, maybe eventually they can be what each other wants & needs. Having to choose between music & love is a predicament a lot of artists find themselves in & for the most part, I’ve rarely seen any give up their dreams for that, which goes to show that love is just not enough. I wish I could say it was “4am in Houston” as I’m writing this but it’s not but what Eddy has crafted here is a very poignant opus of an album that takes us deeper into who he is, the introspection throughout is so powerful & we appreciate him being such an open tome with us.