Blackalicious - The Craft
By: Tyler Watson | Category: Album Reviews | 11/03/05 | 09:50 PM
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Grade: B | Genre: Hip-Hop
Summary: On Blackalicious' new album, they manage to kick every ass in the rap game but their own. The Craft is better than most rap mucking about right now, but Blazing Arrow is a pretty tough act to follow.
Blackalicious totally dominate. Everybody knows it. Gift of Gab has such an insane flow that he sounds like a rhyming auctioneer, and Chief Xcel makes such incredible beats that everybody else should just quit. But hip hop heads expect this. Blackalicious have been proving for years that they're the bomb, and that spoils people. Plenty of musicians have faced the same dilemma: you make an amazing album (or two, in Blackalicious' case) and then people expect something better. This doesnnt mean The Craft is a sophomore slump (Blackalicious have been in the game too long for this); it's better than anything most artists could hope to produce. It just isn't as astoundingly good as the last couple albums. |
Blackalicious founded the amazing label/collective Quannum Projects back in 1991 with DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. So you know they've got cool friends. They're a bay area-based label, but they don't sound like any other rap coming from the bay. (I'm writing this for the benefit of the maybe 3 people who are familiar with the "hyphy" sound in most bay area rap but not familiar with Shadow and Blackalicious. Actually 3 is a generous guess. There probably aren't any of these people.) Do I really need to write anything explaining the sounds Chief Xcel makes?
Just in case: it's very funk- and soul-inspired. My favorite song on The Craft is "Powers", which sounds like something Sly & the Family Stone might come up with. Then there's "Lotus Flower", which features the God of funk, GEORGE FREAKIN' CLINTON! Whoa. Needless to say, that song bumps. As far as the lyrics and vocal style goes, here's what it is: Gift of Gab is a battle rapper (in URB Magazine, he said "I can do that in my sleep") who can also write some really inspired and deep lyrics. "Diamonds and Pearls" is about a pregnant teen in the first couple verses (based on Gab's niece), then the next verse is about a guy whose mom is addicted to crack. He deals it to her. Heavy stuff there. There are still plenty of songs that are just fun and games. (Did I mention George Clinton? This guy wrote "Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis".) "Side To Side" is about trying to pick up a chick while clubbing. So the lyrics are all over the place. Gab's rapping style is fully developed by this point (actually it probably was like ten years ago) and his extremely distinctive flow never fails to please. Unless you've heard it, I can't explain it. It kind of goes up and down a lot, I guess. You need to hear it to get it. There are no crazy rapping experiments like Blazing Arrow's "Chemical Calisthenics" on this album (although "The Fall and Rise of Elliot Brown" comes close), but Gab doesn't really need to do that anyway. Fans know he can do anything.
Part of the reason The Craft doesn't hold up quite as well as Blazing Arrow is that it doesn't have quite the same feeling of continuity. Blazing Arrow didn't have a theme (at least not one that I understood), but all the songs feel like they were meant to be together. That's something that rarely happens, and it's a mark of an amazing album. When the songs are great but they don't manage to keep the same vibe going the whole time, it's not a problem. You still have a great album on your hands.
Release Date: September 27, 2005
Download or get the CD of Blackalicious' The Craft now.
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