Blackalicious

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• Genre: West Coast Lyricists
• Hometown: Bay Area
• Blackalicious Website

About

With precise, jazz-heated production, dexterous scratching and deftly executed lyrical acrobatics, Blackalicious take their place among the creme de la creme of the West Coast's underground community. The crew's lyrical swashbuckler the Gift of Gab is blessed (or perhaps cursed) with a brain permanently overloaded with rhymes. In his never-ending quest to rid himself of the massive pile of words that press against his skull, he hammers out gushing raps, saturating his verses with as many lines as he can discharge in a single breath. Space is rarely wasted. He often rocks beats in triple time, with frenzied freestyles that are always on point and never seem to cease. DJ Chief Xcel makes sure he never runs out of beat. With the help of guest producers Cut Chemist and labelmate DJ Shadow, Xcel keeps up with the verbal tirades by looping potent jazz and ripe Funk clips until Gift runs out of breath.

- Alex Henning