Blackalicious: Nia : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Talent tends to come in clusters. Blackalicious are a case in point: Lyricist The Gift of Gab and DJ-producer Chief Xcel hail from the same tight Northern California Solesides crew that birthed DJ Shadow and Latyrx (and the Quannum Projects label). Like their compadres, Blackalicious have concocted a debut album -- which follows several underground singles and EPs -- celebrating old-school hip-hop while infusing it with inspired new twists. The rhyme patterns on Nia recall Eighties rap classics, but the break beats are broken up and fueled by whimsical samples, Xcel's turntablist-inspired scratching and new pan-African patterns. Just as in Public Enemy's heyday, cultural politics abound, whether it's Gab lambasting modern-rap-star ethics in the dry, drawling "Deception" or poet Nikki Giovanni reciting her resonant poem "Ego Trip" on a track of the same name. At times, this ethical bent can verge on sanctimony, but when the beat is moving, as it usually is on Nia, why quibble? Besides, the lectures ring true. As Gab states in "Shallow Days," "It's time for a new day." This longing for post-gangsta hip-hop has been expressed before but has seldom rocked so well. (RS 839)

NEVA CHONIN