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Bay-area hip-hop duo Blackalicious put the "granola" in G-funk. On their major-label debut, lyricist the Gift of Gab and DJ-producer Chief Xcel sling together an organic blend of almost baroquely convoluted yet very juicy grooves. There's a breezy, easy roll to the chorus of "4,000 Miles," wherein Gab and guest stars Lateef and Chali 2NA croon, "Music!" while their vocal butter is punctuated by a slo-mo burst of wah-wah. The tune epitomizes the lazy, lovely flow of Blazing Arrow, most of which is made all the more mellow by the gently bumping lines of bassist Harley White Jr. Even within a genre obsessed with its own history and history lessons, Arrow is erudite and ambitious. On "Paragraph President," Blackalicious sample De La Soul, then segue into a thundering beat interlude by DJ Shadow, as if to suggest that both the Daisy Age rappers and the trip-hop pioneer graduated from the same old school. It's not just a hip-hop-history rewrite -- Gab and Xcel also mean to suggest an alternate hip-hop future, in which master DJs will never fade behind thugged-out MCs, and conscious lyrics always weigh
a ton.
PAT BLASHILL
(RS 899/900 - July 4, 2002)
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Track List
- Intro: Bow & Fire
- Blazing Arrow
- Sky Is Falling
- First In Flight Featuring Gil Scott-Heron
- Green Light: Now Begin
- 4000 Miles Featuring Chali 2NA of Jurassic 5 and Lateef The Truth Speaker
- Nowhere Fast
-
Paragraph President (track not available in Rhapsody)
- It's Going Down Featuring Lateef The Truth Speaker and Keke Wyatt
-
Make You Feel That Way (track not available in Rhapsody)
- Brain Washers Featuring Ben Harper
- Chemical Calisthenics Featuring Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5
- Aural Pleasure Featuring Jaguar Wright
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©Copyright 2008 Rolling Stone
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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