Blackalicious”The Craft”Any hip-hop act lives or dies…

Blackalicious

“The Craft”

Any hip-hop act lives or dies based on the interplay between MC and producer, and in Gift of Gab and DJ Xcel, Blackalicious has a pretty unbeatable combo. The pair isn’t afraid to turn its back on hip-hop cliches. Rather, “The Craft” is a free-ranging and funky experiment, a pop hodge-podge that doesn’t differentiate between the lightweight sing-along “Powers” and the dramatic, soulful tongue twister “The Fall and Rise of Elliot Brown.”

Best track: The psychedelic “Egosonic War Drums” has Gift of Gab rapping at the speed of sound.

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Edited by Curt Wagner ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])