Blackalicious Emoni

The dynamic rap duo Blackalicious has annoucned their new LP is titled Emoni. The rappers caused excitement by releasing "Alphabet Aerobics", a YouTube hit with over 2,000,000 views. The track also gained more publicity when actor Daniel Radcliffe ("Woman In Black", "Harry Potter") performed it on Jimmy Fallon. The members, Gift of Gab and Xcel met in Sacramento and became fats friends. The two began making music together. When Gab graduated and moved to Los Angeles, he kept in touch with Xcel. “[Xcel] would play beat over the phone and I would write to the beats over the phone,” said Gab. When Xcel started at UC Davis, they reunited and founded Blackalicious. Through a special program and some classes at Sacramento City College, Gab got into UC Davis too, but he found he spent most of his classes writing rhymes, so he dropped out of school but stayed in Davis.“I got to experience the college lifestyle without being in school,” said Gab about his days in Davis. “That’s where the whole crew met.”“Sacramento is really where I got my battle chops at. I’m originally a battle lyricist - someone who does it for the love of the sport,” said Gab. “There were a lot of really dope emcees out there.”

He said after coming back from LA he had an attitude, thinking he could coast into the Sacramento scene.

“I was taught not to sleep on the scene when I went out to Sacramento,” said Gab. “I really learned how to get fierce. It could’ve happened in LA - but it happened in Sacramento.”

Gab now lives in the Bay Area, but still has friends and family in Sacramento and considers the city a second home.

Blackalicious’s style of hip-hop is typified by the socially conscious, honest and positive attitude, and Gab’s relentlessly intelligent tongue-twisting rhymes. In one song Gab uses fountains of alliteration to move alphabetically through thoughts, while all the words start with the same letter from one section to the next. It all makes perfect sense.

For another song Gab raps the entire periodic table of elements. The song is so accurate and makes so much sense, you’d think Gab was really into chemistry.

“I don’t really know any of that stuff,” explained Gab. “We came up for the concept of the song - and I had to go get a periodic table. Which was this booklet with chemistry definitions. Everything makes sense because as I would write I was studying the book. I studied it for the purpose of writing rhyme.”

He said teachers tell him they’ve played his songs for their classes, he said he’s just happy to spread some positivity.

“It’s just the type of person I am. I believe in God, I believe in karma, I believe in being a good person. It’s not really deep to me - it’s the way I look at life. It’s my point of view,” Gab said about his positive outlook. “The best thing to do as an artist is to be honest. To express how you see the world and how you want to see the world.”

Gab said he keeps his positive outlook by staying in the moment and surrounding himself with good people.

This year Blackalicious re-released their first EP Melodica and they are set to release their fourth LP, titled Emoni, in March of next year.

“We’re tightening up some things,” said Gab about the new album.

He said they’ll be bringing some new songs to TBD Fest this Sunday around 4:30 on the Beautiful Buzz Stage, along with the classics.