For over a decade, the Bay Area duo Blackalicious has been churning out slabs of intoxicating, retro-revolutionary hip-hop. The unbelievable vocal flexibility and hefty vocabulary of the group’s lone MC The Gift Of Gab has always been its driving force. Unsurprisingly, Gab’s first solo album is very much an MC’s record, leaving the loose soul and classic funk sounds of Blackalicious behind, in favor of tighter, sparser beats.
Gab’s longtime partner Chief Xcel is replaced by producers Jake One and Vitamin D, whose carefully constructed soundscapes nimbly avoid Gab’s awesome lyrical attacks. He has the skills to back up grandiose statements like, “All the bull stops here, I’m a matador/Here to introduce a new rap category,” which he announces over the smooth synths and bass trombones of “Rat Race.”
Gab exhibits incredible vocal control throughout, and consistently paints powerful images with his rhymes. He begins the album by spouting an astonishing chain of triplets; his naturally percussive style leaves the time signature in shreds. The result is a pure reflection of the MC. It is apparent that Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up was written and recorded with total artistic freedom. As a complete work, however, it’s not as fresh and awe-inspiring as a Blackalicious album. Xcel’s production talents are missed in spots, especially towards the end, where the disc starts to lose steam.
But as a sheer example of rap’s lyricism, this is the essence of what makes the music great. The Gift Of Gab’s solo debut is a clinic for any aspiring MC, and it’s worth picking up, just to hear what this man can do when you put a microphone in his hand.
Appeared in the June 10, 2004, issue of Artvoice.