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Blackalicious

Blackalicious

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Encyclopedia
Blackalicious is an American hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 duo from Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

 made up of rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 Gift of Gab
Gift of Gab (rapper)
Gift of Gab is an American MC best known for performing in the Bay Area hip-hop duo Blackalicious with DJ Chief Xcel...

 (born Tim Parker) and DJ/producer
Hip hop production
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...

 Chief Xcel (born Xavier Mosley). They are noted for Gift of Gab's often "tongue-twisting", multisyllabic
Multisyllabic rhymes
In rapping and poetry, multisyllabic rhymes are rhymes that contain two or more syllables In rapping and poetry, multisyllabic rhymes (also known as compound rhymes, polysyllable rhymes, and sometimes colloquially in hip-hop as multies) are rhymes that contain two or more syllables In rapping...

, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's "classic" beats. The pair have released three full-length albums (1999's Nia, 2002's Blazing Arrow
Blazing Arrow
Blazing Arrow is the second full-length album by Blackalicious, the follow-up to 2000's Nia. It was released on April 30, 2002 on MCA Records.- Track listing :All tracks by Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab# "Introduction: Bow and Fire" – 1:06...

 and 2005's The Craft
The Craft (album)
The Craft is the third full-length album by hip hop duo Blackalicious, released on ANTI- on September 27, 2005. The group worked with Grammy Award-winning engineer Russell Elevado who previous work includes D'Angelo's Voodoo, Alicia Key's Songs In A Minor, Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun. Chief Xcel went...

), and have been described as "one of the most popular groups in the independent hip-hop scene.". At a solo show in June, 2010, Gift of Gab announced that he and Chief Xcel were 7 songs into their new album, and hoping for an early 2011 release.

Albums

  • Nia (Mo' Wax
    Mo' Wax
    Mo' Wax was a UK-based record label owned by James Lavelle, who founded it in the early 1990s with Tim Goldsworthy. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after. The label came to recognition for being at the forefront of trip hop, turntablism and alternative rap during the mid-90s...

    /Quannum Projects
    Quannum Projects
    Quannum Projects is a hip hop collective based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been active since 1992, when it was formed at UC Davis under the moniker Solesides Records. It is also the name of the independent record label that releases their records, as well as those of a number of other...

    , 1999)
  • Blazing Arrow
    Blazing Arrow
    Blazing Arrow is the second full-length album by Blackalicious, the follow-up to 2000's Nia. It was released on April 30, 2002 on MCA Records.- Track listing :All tracks by Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab# "Introduction: Bow and Fire" – 1:06...

     (MCA Records
    MCA Records
    MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...

    /Quannum Projects, 2002)
  • The Craft
    The Craft (album)
    The Craft is the third full-length album by hip hop duo Blackalicious, released on ANTI- on September 27, 2005. The group worked with Grammy Award-winning engineer Russell Elevado who previous work includes D'Angelo's Voodoo, Alicia Key's Songs In A Minor, Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun. Chief Xcel went...

     (ANTI Records/Quannum Projects, 2005)

EPs

  • Melodica (Mo Wax, 1994)
  • A2G
    A2G
    The A2G EP by Blackalicious was released in 1999 by Quannum Projects and served as a precursor to Blackalicious' full length debut Nia, which shares three tracks with this EP. Perhaps the EP's most famous track is "Alphabet Aerobics", a collaboration with Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist.The EP was also...

     (Quannum Projects, 1999)
  • Deception remixes (Quannum Projects, 1999)

Singles

  • "Swan Lake" / "Lyric Fathom" 12" (Solesides, 1994)
  • "Deception" 12" (Quannum Projects, 1999)
  • "If I May" / "Reanimation" 12" (Mo' Wax/Quannum Projects, 2002)
  • "Paragraph President" / "Passion" 12" (MCA Records/Quannum Projects, 2001)
  • "Make You Feel That Way" / "Sky Is Falling" 12" (MCA Records/Quannum Projects, 2002)
  • "Your Move" / "My Pen And Pad" 12" (ANTI-/Quannum Projects, 2005)
  • "Powers" (ANTI-/Quannum Projects, 2006)
  • "Toy Jackpot" (Song in the new 2010 Target Commercial)

External links