Pronunciation

Hey! I've been studying Japanese for a year or so and some time ago started watching Japanese tv shows and anime. I noticed that sometimes people pronounce 'ai' as 'ee'. Or at least thats how I hear it.

For example 食べたい sounds like 食べて〜 or 煩い as 煩せ〜

Am I hearing things or can you really say like that?

Yes, a slang form of 食べたい is 食べてえ, and that of うざい is うぜえ. It is a rough-sounding guy's talk, though, so I would not recommend you to use it, but it helps with recognition, right? :)

Slang plus mostly only guys use it...or at least I haven't heard a respectable girl or woman use it.

You might also hear commonly, urusee(na)＝urusai(うるさい)=shut up, sugee(na)＝sugoi(すごい)= wow!, omeee=omae(おまえ)=hey, you!, etc.
There are many more but not polite form.
Also normally people try not to show their emotion in public but when a Japanese male gets angry, snaps or loses temper, his voice & speech change totally along with his facial expression. It is known that the original Tokyoite have had a short temper & tanka wo kiru(啖呵を切る). Be aware.

Thank you for your replies! This was very helpful