Are you experienced?

“Expect an experience,” warns Blackalicious’ MC Gift Of Gab about their upcoming tour throughout the Northwestern part of the United States and Canada. “Expect for a lot of crowd participation and a lot of pure, raw hip-hop. We like to leave the audience with the feeling that they’ve had an experience.”
The name Blackalicious should ring a bell for a few reasons. First, the critically acclaimed group, which was founded in Davis, California, has been relentlessly putting out successful music for over a decade, with four highly praised releases, including the early ‘90s, near flawless Melodica EP. Since then, the duo, which consists of producer Chief Xcel and rapper Gift Of Gab, has released another EP and two full-length albums, much to the approval of underground hip-hop fans across the world. It seems like the more music they create, the more their fans want and expect from them.
Secondly, Blackalicious should stand out because of their touring schedule. Not only are they notorious for an excellent live show, but they are also constantly on the road, both in North America and overseas. In fact, when the Synthesis spoke with Gab, he had just gotten back to the States from Europe three days earlier and was getting ready to start touring again the next day; a whole four days off from the road.
“Aw, man, we’re all over,” states Gab. “We’ve been all over Europe, all over England, Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Italy. We’ve been to a lot of places.” And he’s right; they even went as far as South Africa for a show, which Gift Of Gab explains as the most beautiful place he has visited. “Some promoters wanted to get us out there and we were able to do it. That was just really dope, real beautiful.” Gab goes on to describe Europe as a great place, the only downside was he didn’t get to do as much sightseeing as he would have liked to. “It’s mostly traveling, but every now and then we get to do a little sightseeing. But on the road, it’s just getting as much sleep as you can possibly can. Then get up and do the same thing over again. That’s touring.”
It seems that almost nothing can stop Blackalicious from touring. For example, earlier this year, due to an emergency eye surgery that left Gift Of Gab in the hospital, some tour date had to be postponed.
“I’m diabetic,” explains Gab. “I experienced some things going on with the blood vessels in my eye, based on my diabetes. I had to have surgery on both of my eyes.” Gift Of Gab asserts enthusiastically that everything’s better now. “100 percent,” he affirms. “We got it handled. I mean, health always comes first, because without health we wouldn’t be able to do shows. We got it taken care of. The doc said I had to stay off my feet for a couple of weeks, and then after that we were back on the road as usual.”
The name Blackalicious should also stand out because they’re a big part of the legendary Bay Area Solesides / Quannum crew. Gab tells, “The crew is doing great, man. Stronger than ever.” And apparently busier than ever. “The Lifesavas album just came out, The Maroons are coming out with Ambush. Lyrics Born is coming out with his solo record this fall, [DJ] Shadow is working on some stuff. It’s a lot of music coming out from everybody,” Gab explains. In fact, the crew is in the midst of planning a Quannum tour. “We’re about to do a Quannum tour in Europe, and we’re trying to put one together in America early next year. So yeah, we’re stronger than ever.”
Gift Of Gab also mentions that he himself was busy working on his solo album which should be in store by early next year. “Fourth Dimensional Rockets Going Up is the name of my [solo] album,” asserts Gab. “It’s a long title, but sometimes you gotta do it like that.”
The Blackalicious MC goes on to explain that the album will be produced by Seattle native Vitamin D and Jake One. “The did pretty much all of the production on the record. They are two incredible producers. Two of my favorite,” Gab continues.
Because of constant touring, Gab admits he has met a fair amount of people. “When I’m on tour, I get about a million beat tapes,” Gab states. “But a friend of mine gave me a Vitamin D tape, and I was just mesmerized, like, wow, these guys are incredible. They gave me like over 500 beats to choose from. So I kinda had a ball doing that record. I really excited about this record.”
So even if the name Blackalicious doesn’t set off an imaginary light bulb above your head, it should be painfully obvious that he duo work hard to give their audience a sense of satisfaction. When he is asked about performing in front of people who were unfamiliar with his music Gab energetically states, “I think it’s always dope when we get the opportunity to perform in front of people who may not have heard of us. That’s the challenge of being able to win over new fans. It’s always a good thing.”

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