There are very few albums that hip-hop truly needed. Sure, there is a long list of classics, but very few changed the genre; the short list inclued It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back<\/i> and The Chronic<\/i>, which represented a different side of hip hop and vaunted their artists to luminaries of the genre.<\/p>\n
Blackalicious’ debut Nia <\/i>was a disc hip hop needed, but sadly it did not have an impact. The duo consists of MC Gift of Gab and producer Chief Xcel, and they did not receive a record deal until after this album. It’s no surprise that nobody heard this debut, but it is a shame that an album of such importance will go relatively unnoticed. <\/p>\n
Nia <\/i>is very well produced and full of completely positive and introspective lyrics courtesy of Gift of Gab and his very talented friends. Even the intro, \u201cSearching,\u201d consists of elegant poetry instead of the usual nonsense included in a hip-hop intro, and Gift of Gab wastes no time displaying his lyrical ability on \u201cThe Fabulous Ones.\u201d <\/p>\n
Out of all the highlights on this album, the real gem is \u201cShallow Days,\u201d an intelligent critique of hip-hop through a conversation Gift of Gab has with a stereotypical rap fan. It alone is worth the admission price and is among the best songs I have ever heard. Six years before Nas was telling the mainstream Hip Hop Is Dead<\/i>, Gift of Gab was telling anyone who would listen the problems with mainstream hip-hop. However, Gift of Gab never claims hip-hop is dead because his lyrics shine light on the dwindling genre.<\/p>\n
\u201cShallow Days\u201d is one of those songs that needs to be played in high rotation, as opposed to the idiotic Jim Jones gibberish \u201cWe Fly High,\u201d a low point here. Other highlights include the lyrical onslaught \u201cTrouble,\u201d the fascinating fantasy of \u201cHanger, Cliff,\u201d the original alphabetical slaughter \u201cA To G\u201d and the Gift of Gab\/Lateef The Truth Speaker duet \u201cSmithzonian Institute Of Rhyme.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nia <\/i>contains a perfect balance of upbeat bangers and slow-paced grooves. There is even the excellent \u201cEgo Trip By Nikki Giovanni,\u201d which does nothing but enhance the experience of Nia<\/i>. Even Blackalicious\u2019s interludes are far superior to the majority of the ones found on many hip-hop albums. <\/p>\n
Both \u201cDream Seasons\u201d and \u201cSleep\u201d fail to live up to the rest of the album, but that\u2019s not saying much, because very few songs do in fact live up to the excellent arrangements here. The biggest problem with \u201cSleep\u201d is that it slows the album down too much between \u201cMaking Progress\u201d and \u201cFinding.\u201d Nia <\/i>would have a smoother ending if the song was removed or placed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Andre 3000\u2019s quote from \u201cHumble Mumble\u201d sums up this album\u2019s significance better than I can: \u201cSpeeches only reaches those who already know about it.\u201d Replace speeches with Nia <\/i>and the depressing thought of this album never seeing the light of day haunts me like Paul Crewe\u2019s gambling woes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":28652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6797],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40138","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blackalicious","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40138"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}