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9/26/2005 HipHopGame sits down with one of the most cutting-edge lyricists in the game today. Check out what Gift of Gab has to say about the new Blackalicious album "The Craft," as well as what "The Craft" means and where he sees Blackalicious heading next. What's good man? I'm good man. We just started the tour, right now we're out in Texas. "The Craft" is about to drop, what can you tell us about that? I would definitely say it's an evolution for Blackalicious, with myself as a lyricist and Excel as a producer. I think this is just one more step forward for us. This is a very full album, depth-wise. There's a lot to it. What do you want everyone to get from "The Craft?" Basically, we just want to give people something refreshing, something that they can relate to as well as something that can take them somewhere. When I grew up and listened to Hip Hop, I listened to KRS, Chuck D, Run-D.M.C., and I always liked the stuff that made me say "wow, Hip Hop can be this too." Hopefully that's what Blackalicious can do, that we're adding on. Hopefully we're adding on to the continuum of rap music. What surprises do you have on this album? We have a lot of good guest appearances. We have a song with George Clinton called "Lotus Flower." He came through our studio in Oakland and laid it down. I wouldn't really call this a record where I do a lot of busting on. I do it, but that's not really the focus of this record. There's a lot of conceptual songs and story-telling on this. So what was it like recording with George Clinton? It was amazing. It was a great experience being in the studio with a true master. He knew what he was doing and where he wanted to go, effortlessly. It was a trip. It was an honor to do this. You've already did concept songs with the alphabet and the periodic table, any new ones coming up? I'm sure we'll have one in the future. There's nothing of that nature in "The Craft." I think the most out there song we have on the album is a song we did with P.E.A.C.E. from Freestyle Fellowship called "Egosonic War Drums." What does the title "The Craft" mean to you? "The Craft" is about honoring the craft. It's about honoring whatever your calling is, whether you're an artist, a journalist, a chef…it's about honoring the craft and being a vessel to a certain extent for something greater than ourselves. The thing about art is that it comes from somewhere else and human beings are blessed to be able to be vessels for it. Do you feel as though a lot of artists have forgotten about honoring "the craft?" I'm not going to say the artists have forgotten about it. I think that when you get a lot of labels and executives and A&R people that get to control the music and people's perception of the music, you get people that control how music is presented, and they may not have an understanding of the music. They may think that something hot sounds like this and everything has to sound like this, so then you don't get the full spectrum of what's going on. When I say that A&R's don't understand the culture, I think that the money makes the art get exploited. You still have artists to where the art is sacred. Don't get me wrong, because we live in a society where we're in a sort of matrix where you need money and if you don't have money you won't survive. But I think that the focus gets taken away from the craft itself and the interest and focus becomes money, and in that case, it kind of dilutes the overall art. You dropped a solo album last year. How does Gift of Gab change as a solo MC and one-half of Blackalicious? Gift of Gab is a lyricist. Blackalicious is a chemistry between Gift of Gab's lyricism and Chief Xcel's production. How is a Blackalicious song born? Most of the time, X will give me a beat. He'll give me like a skeleton track, and I'll write to that. Once I write to that, I'll put the vocals down, and then we'll write the hooks. If we need singers, we'll get the singers to come in and do their part. And then he'll add more music to the track and finish it like that. It's been two years since the last Blackalicious record, what have you both been doing the past two years? Just creating man. We've been working on this record. X did the record with Lateef as The Maroons. X also did a remix record of Fela Kuti. We're always working on stuff and thinking about the next project. What's your next project going to be? I'm working on another solo record and X is working on another record with Lateef and working on a record with a singer named Legacy. We're also formulating ideas for the next Blackalicious record as well. You have a lot of dope ideas in your lyrics, what's your inspiration? Just every day man. Everyday life. I would say all of my interactions with people. There's other artists that inspire me. There's a lot of different things. How important is positivity in Blackalicious' music? To me, it's important that it's honest. My whole thing is honesty. I think that everyone should be who they are. If you're a conscious person, I think that should come out in your lyrics, whatever it means to be conscious, it's just a label. If you're a gangster person, I think that should come out in your lyrics. I think it's important to be the person that you are. How was it working with Gil Scott-Heron on "First in Flight?" That was another just amazing experience. He's a very cool, down-to-earth person. It's cool when you meet somebody of that status and he's down-to-earth person. You and Chali 2na have a dope chemistry when you've worked together, how is it working with him? Chali is one of the most creative cats, most creative lyricists in the game, bar none. That's my dog. It's an honor to work with Chali 2na. "Nia" is considered an underground classic by a lot of people, how do you feel looking back on that? It was definitely the album it was supposed to be. I'm definitely proud of that record, like all of the records we put out. "Melodica" is a collector's item now. How do you feel about the way that EP is looked at today? It's incredible man. It's amazing. Wow. Just to hear you say that statement, it's like, wow, there's still a demand for that. That's really cool man. How would you say that your style has evolved from "Melodica" to "The Craft?" I have grown more as a songwriter. I have gone from just being a battle lyricist to being able to write songs and just being interested in writing hooks and songs. I think I'm a full songwriter now. I'm always going to be a lyricist, don't get me wrong, but I don't feel that I have to write raps anymore. At this point, I could write a soul song, I could write a rock song, and I could write a country song if I wanted to. You always have to be able to grow. I'm growing to where I can be a full songwriter. Blackalicious has so many different sounds, do you see you guys outside the Hip Hop genre? I think we already have. I think when you listen to songs like "Day One," "As the World Turns," and "Attica Black," show songwriting capacity that's not just rapping. I think it's limitless. I'm in a place where I want to understand all forms of music, even cultural music, music that I may not have identified with as a younger person. I really want to understand the full spectrum of songwriting. How important is the live show to Blackalicious? That's half of the package. The album is the other half. The audience, the viewer, has to be able to have an experience when they listen to our music. You don't have a hype man, especially in today's day when one MC needs 30 hype-men…how come? I think it's whatever works for the group. With us, it may not be necessary. It all depends on the vibe. What's been your favorite place to rock so far? There's a lot of places man. The one thing that I realized is music is universal, and when you throw a certain energy out, you get a certain energy back and it doesn't really matter where you are. You could be in L.A., New York, Africa, or Japan. Music is universal, I love rocking anywhere. Do you feel like you get more love overseas or in the states? We get love everywhere. I don't think it's more in either place. You guys have stayed with Quannum instead of hopping to a major, how important is it to keep building Quannum? Quannum is the family, Quannum is the base, Quannum is where we all came from and started from with Xcel, myself, Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. Quannum is like our umbrella. We know that wherever we go with our music, we always will have an outlet to put it out. We're also able to bring new artists in and add to that roster. We haven't heard much from DJ Shadow lately, what's he been up to? He's working on another album. It's coming out incredible. It'll probably come out sometime in 2006. What do you want to say to everyone out there? Check out the album man. It's real music, it's showmanship, dope lyricism, dope production, check it out.

By Brian Kayser

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