Track Listing
1. Searching
2. Fabulous Ones, The
3. Do This My Way
4. Deception
5. to G, A
6. Cliff Hanger
7. Shallow Days
8. Ego Trip by Nikki Giovani
9. You Didn't Know That Though
10. If I May
11. Dream Seasons
12. Trouble (Eve of Destruction)
13. Smithzonian Institute of Rhyme
14. As the World Turns
15. Reanimation
16. Beyonder
17. Making Progress
18. Sleep
19. Finding
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Nikki Giovanni | | Distributor: | Caroline Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Blackalicious: Erinn Anova, The Gift Of Gab, Lyrics Born, Lateef (vocals); Harley White (bass); Chief Xcel, DJ Ice Water (turntables).
Additional personnel includes: Nikki Giovanni (spoken vocals).
Producers: Chief Xcel, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born.
The debut album from West Coast indie outfit Blackalicous, NIA introduces the unique hip-hop sound of MC Gift of Gab and producer DJ Chief XCel. With an off-kilter approach to production that recalls the best elements of Dan the Automator, Godfather Don, and Howie B, and an elevated lyricism that never drifts into hackneyed gangsta-ism, NIA consistently entertains, surprises, and contradicts conventional stereotypes of hip-hop. Far and away the album's brightest moment, "A to G" has Gift of Gab wielding his mic skills as he exhausts the first six letters of the alphabet, pummeling listeners with a staggering two-minute alliterative onslaught while Chief XCel closes the track with an equally impressive scratch extravaganza.
Editorial Reviews
3 mics out of 5 - ...refreshingly distict...an elaborate fusion of jazz, soul, hip-hop and spoken-word-style rhymes....you gotta be in the hip-hop, bohemian, coffee house state of mind....evidence of a group willing to take creative risks...
The Source (03/01/2000)
...identify themselves as the lost children of the socially conscious soul stirrers of the '60s and '70s....an ecstatic declaration that asserts the affirmative power of music in consciousness elevation...
Vibe (04/01/2000)
3 stars out of 5 - ...Celebrates old-school hip-hop while infusing it with inspired new twists....This longing for post-gangsta hip-hop has been expressed before but has seldom rocked so well.
Rolling Stone (04/27/2000)
8 out of 10 - ...deeply sussed funk....NIA is cogent, committed songwriting; it bumps to the hardheaded notion that hip-hop can change minds...
Spin (03/01/2000)
4 out of 5 - ...combines '99s excellent A2G EP with new material, much of it every bit as absorbing....that classic combo of brainiac wit, old-skool positivity and funkadelic freestyling is [their] stock in trade...
Alternative Press (04/01/2000)
...defines West Coast indie rap aesthetic....bringing hip-hop morality plays, mad-libbibg freestyles, videogame-worthy adventure tales and poet Nikki Giovanni's final word on rap braggadocio, all riding taut, jazzy funk... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (02/18/2000)
...does for West Coast underground hip-hop what Mos Def and Black Star have been doing for the Big East - matching fierce, uplifting poetics to irresistible beats....gospel music of the 21st century.
CMJ (01/31/2000)
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