Blackalicious

Blackalicious
The world of hip-hop music has witnessed some of the great artists and musicians who provided the best of the Rap music to the listeners.This interesting and innovative form of music that started in the United States in 1980s, is ruling the world music from 1990s till now. Today, hip-hop music has gain an unprecedented popularity and is among the best-selling genres of music.

The credit for this fame goes to those Rap artists and bands that keep discovering new dimensions in this genre of music. Blackalicious is one such band that is providing the best of hip-hop music to music lovers through their inimitable work.

Blackalicious is a famous rap and hip-hop band that rose from ashes to skies in the span of ten years by the sheer dint of hard work, passion and determination. Regarded now as one of the hot-shots of rap music, the band started off as an underground one with minimal resources but high aims.

This California-based hip hop act consists of a famous duo of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel. The two joined hands to pursue their love for music and gave some of most appreciated and classic rap music as Blackalicious.

Blackalicious traces its roots back to 1980?s at John F. Kennedy High School where Timothy Parker and Xavier Mosley were studying together. Known to as today as Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel, the two formed a band named Blackalicious in 1992 in Davis, California.

They made their initial tunes there and gained some recognition in the underground scene. Their debut single Swan Lake was released by in 1994 by SoleSides Crew's Northern California record company and it fared well among alternative rap audiences.

Blackalicious continued recording a string of singles and EPs stretching back to 1994 until they decided to release a full length album.

Blackalicious released their first EP Melodica on August 16, 1995. The album was released by Solesides records. This marked the coming of a new-age rappers and their association with Solesides records that was transformed into Quannum Records, and in 1997.

A2G was their second venture, another of Quannum Projects, released in 1999. Although Blackalicious earned considerable respect through their initial work, they started working more rigorously in order to venture in the world market.

With Nia, they realized their dreams as this work got him fame on wider level. Released in 2000, Nia had an airy and laconic feel. The album was garnished with some very impressive and faultless tracks. The hooks were sharper and more plentiful, and the album showed the improved craft of the group on hip-hop music.

Next came the ultimate rapping bonanza from Blackalicious, their 2002 super hit album ?Blazing Arrow?. The album was released under Record Label MCA and created waves all over the world with its unique blend of different music.

This extraordinary album contained the plethora of funk, jazz, and old school elements that resulted into visionary sound and structure loved by many for years. The success of the album brought the duo to the forefront of the progressive hip-hop pack and they continued with their unique and delectable style.

With two more acclaimed releases back to back, titled 4th Dimensional and Ambush, the unstoppable duo of Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel ruled the music scene in 2004. They reached the peak of their career and got worldwide recognition for their work.

By then, they had contributed a lot in the world of rap music, but the biggest and most important milestone of their career was yet to come. It happened in 2005 when Blackalicious released Craft which is now regarded their biggest hit to date.

True to its title, ?Craft? proved a musical masterpiece that has gathered astounding commercial success and unanimous critical acclaim.

The album saw Gab and Xcel achieving another artistic breakthrough as they came up with brilliant sound and well-written lyrics with this stylistic, elegant and brilliant record that proved their most accomplished album to date.

The album reflected their maturing approach to the music and made them to stand proud among the global hip-hop's best-loved crews.

Today, Blackalicious is considered a top notch Hip-Hop band that is mass-produced and well distributed in every corner of the world. The band creates represents state-of-the-art hip-hop by blending the elements of jazz-funk, straight pop, rare-groove, smooth soul and sampladelic old-school rap.

Gab and Xcel are the masterminds behind the success of this band. They create a record of such sonic depth, breadth and lyrical ambition that no one can ignore it.Blackalicious is rightly attributed to its two founders. Both of them are the masters of their art. Gift of Gab's rhymes are denser and remind us of the lyrical expertise of many of hip-hop's most versatile lyricists, still formulating a style that is uniquely his own.

He always raps a fresh lyric and flips it in a way nobody's heard before. His raps are jam-packed with internal rhymes, allusions, metaphors, ten-cent words, and amazing tongue-twisting feats that made him one of the hip-hop's premier lyricists.

While Gab continues with his astonishing lyrical technique, Xcel's production is more breathtakingly lush, and his arrangements more sophisticated.

He surely crafts some of hip-hop's most blended and distinctive sounds to date by mixing jazz, disco, rock 'n' roll, blues, R&B, and hip-hop into a cohesive and comprehensible creation. He always find a beat you've never heard and use it in a way nobody else could ever do like that.

Xcel and Gab are the master artisans with a magical ability to transcend the mere act of making music. ?Craft?, ?Nia? and ?Blazing Arrow? are the supreme examples of this artistry. These certified classics like have inspired many hip-hop fans and rap musicians through supreme mastery of their craft.

From an ambitious young underground rap artists to one of the most sought after hip-hop bands of United States, Blackalicious has truly come a long way. They redefine the art of lyrical technique and revive the era of hip-hop with their brilliant work.

The magic of their music is that it doesn't get stale with time. It is open to new interpretation each time you hear it, and the beats and rhymes only get fresher and fresher. So experience the magic of Blackalicious as rap music can?t get better than this.