Andy Stonehouse
March 7, 2006

Oakland, Calif.-based hip-hop act Blacklicious has been a lot of things to a lot of people. Launched as a high school music project between producer Chief Xcel and rapper/lyricist Gift of Gab, Blackalicious has grown to be one of the most well-respected contemporary West Coast hip-hop acts on the circuit, with a musical and lyrical depth that goes light years beyond much of the more pedantic elements of the genre.

Blackalicious’ fourth CD, “The Craft,” was released to great acclaim last year, following in the footsteps of 1995’s “Melodica,” 1999’s “A2G,” 1999’s “Nia” and 2002’s “Blazing Arrow.” The new disc goes off in musical directions only hinted at on the previous CDs, with complexity, warmth and sheer power unmatched by the ensemble’s contemporaries.

Work on “The Craft” began almost two years ago as Xcel gathered a group of musicians to create basic tracks for the album. The band included French cellist Vincent Segal, bassists Teak Underdue (Dead Prez) and Carl Young (Spearhead), percussionist Alfredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys), guitarist Sebastian Martel (Femi Kuti) and keyboardist Herve Salters.

The project, explains Xcel, resulted in the creation of almost 120 basic tracks.

“We really wanted to amass a lot of song ideas and see which ones would come out best,” he says. “That 100 or so was broken down to about 64, then 30 or so, and finally to the 14 tracks that are now on the disc. And it actually went pretty fast … a bulk of those early songs were recorded within a month’s time.”

Distilled into a more completed form, “The Craft” features a sonic landscape that meanders from Beck-esque electronic experimentalism to the complexities of Stereolab and Prince. Xcel turned the tracks over to Gab to craft lyrics for the material, producing an epic match-up that’s proven especially powerful.

In finalizing the project, the duo added the voices of a variety of new and old friends.
“Each collaboration was like a new piece of work,” Xcel says. “We got George Clinton and Floetry to perform on a couple of tracks, and we also got our old friends Lyrics Born, Pigeon John and Lateef the Truth Speaker to participate. The whole thing was a really educational process.”

On the road, Xcel concentrates on the turntables with keyboardist Salters and a pair of back-up singers providing the core of the live Blackalicious sound; Gab and a rotating cast of guest vocalists work to bring “The Craft” to life.

“We’ll be traveling with a lot of the people from the CD but we always leave the exact line-up as a surprise,” Xcel says. 8150’s show is known to feature gifted MC Pigeon John and, in all likelihood, a few other of the aforementioned special surprises.

With “The Craft” still new in music stores, Xcel says he hasn’t given a lot of thought to upcoming recording projects, but admits that the process is always under way.

“I’m pretty much always working on some new ideas, trying to work on beats and ideas no matter where I go. We started formulating ideas for this album just six months after we finished ‘Blazing Arrow;’ now I’m just looking forward to spending some time on the road, as we always have a good time doing shows. I still feel very blessed that we get to do this and travel all over the world with our music.” VT

E-mail comments about this story to editor@vailtrail.com