DJM_16 (1)

NG
...
CAUSI HIS MONTH
NT
MOTIO
M
O
C
A
NEW
IS THE
Hip-hop’s longstanding duo
Blackalicious is keeping the faith with a
fresh album, ‘Imani, Vol. 1’, that mirrors
their unyielding message of positivity
IT’S A FRIDAY AFTERNOON in the middle of August and
Blackalicious – Chief Xcel (Xavier Mosley) and Gift of
Gab (Tim Parker) – are on a bus from last night’s gig
in Jacksonville, Florida to tonight’s gig in Atlanta.
A few days later, they hook up with Kool Keith for a
show in Brooklyn. “Sometimes we fly, and sometimes
we drive,” Xcel says on the phone. “It depends on the
distance.” When the Sacramento duo broke through
in 1994 with ‘Swan Lake’ from the ‘Melodica’ EP, they
were still driving, but planes were soon on the horizon.
By the time they released 1999’s alliterative classic
‘Alphabet Aerobics’ on the EP ‘A2G’, their course in
hip-hop history was set. That same year, they released
their debut full length, ‘Nia’, through their homegrown
collective Quannum Projects and British eclectic beats
imprint Mo Wax. In 2014, Daniel Radcliffe performed
the track with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘The Tonight
Show’ reaffirming the duo’s staying power.
Blackalicious – like Native Tongues kinsmen De La
Soul, Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest – have
always been on the positive tip of rap’s extensive
spectrum. One of the songs nearest to fans’ hearts
remains 2002’s ‘Make You Feel That Way’, a catalog of
unabashedly optimistic moments: “Christmas Day when
your mama got your first bike/Type of feeling when
you went and won your first fight/How your team felt
winning championship games…” The album, ‘Blazing
Arrow’, featured a wide range of Blackalicious’ friends
including Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha,
soul icon Gil Scott-Heron, The Roots’ Questlove and
DJ Shadow. Over the past decade, Gab has released a
few solo records and Chief Xcel worked with artists like
Ledisi, who appeared on 2005’s ‘The Craft’ along with
Floetry, George Clinton and fellow Quannum Projects
alum Lateef. Blackalicious never really broke up, they
contend. They just wanted to work on other things.
Sadly, they also had to deal with issues like Gab’s
diabetes and his kidneys collapsing in 2012.
These days, Blackalicious aren’t selling out arenas in
every city on the map, as the underground favorites did
when they were touring with Dilated Peoples and Public
Enemy. They’re playing smaller venues and the stops
are fewer in between but they bring as much growth
and intensity to their sets now as they did when there
were fewer candles on the cake and more stops on the
itinerary. Gratitude runs through the new album, and
it’s no accident it’s titled ‘Imani, Vol. 1’, the Swahili
word for “faith.” As he has since day one, Xcel drops
the boom bap, and Gab spits the bars. There are a few
guests: old friends like Zap Mama, Lateef, Lifesavas and
Lyrics Born; and new friends like Bay Area punk blues
sensation Fantastic Negrito. In light of their time apart,
however, Xcel and Gab were eager to keep ‘Imani’ “a
Blackalicious thing” as much as possible.
What’s it like coming back to the Blackalicious thing?
CHIEF XCEL: “I liken it a lot to childhood friends who
start in the third grade on the same basketball team
and now they’re in the NBA together.”
GAB: “I liken it to traveling. You like to go out and see
other cities and experience other countries. That helps
you grow. You bring that home and that makes home
stronger. To me, hip-hop is universal. It’s humbling
when fans go out of their way to say they love our
music. As long as they’re not being willfully ignorant or
disrespectful.”
Speaking of respect, what do you make of all the
beefs that have been going on lately? How do you
guys avoid getting caught up in them?
XCEL: “We’re very focused. We have so much ground
that we want to cover and so many things that we
want to get to creatively. The creation of music is what
consumes us. We don’t have time to focus on anything
else.”
What are your thoughts on ghostwriting in rap?
GAB: “A true MC writes his own rhymes, but it depends
on the situation. You can judge it based on ‘Is this a real
MC or not?’ or you can judge by ‘If I sit down and put on
some headphones, is this going to be a good song?’ I
write all of my own stuff. Everybody in our crew, we all
write on our stuff. But maybe someone has a good voice
but not good words. The only thing I’m going to judge
is someone walking around saying that they’re the best
and they’re not writing anything. You can’t really take
that credit like that.”
The drums sound great on this album.
XCEL: “On this record I was really, really blessed to
come into contact with an incredible band called
the Monophonics. They were kind of my go-to studio
musicians. They helped me craft a sound that I’m
always digging for in records. It’s a combination of live
drums and drum machines, MPCs. I really worked hard
to create something drum-wise where it always has that
boom bap feel – that’s us, but I also want it to grow and
expand.”
016 djmag.com
DJMAGUS36.makinnoise blackalicious.indd 16
9/23/15 7:56 AM