Blackalicious
Blazing Arrow
MCA / Quannum Projects

As leading lights of the Solesides/Quannum collective, which also boasts the talents of sample innovator DJ Shadow, the Bay Area's Blackalicious is one of the most compelling acts in hip-hop. When they're "on" performing live, they operate as somewhat of a mini-supergroup, with platter spinner Chief Xcel laying down funky tracks that move the crowd and mic handler Gift of Gab laying legitimate claim as the most skilled rapper going, displaying whip-smart lyrics and a pure love for language.

Until recently, they'd come up short of matching the live sweat with recorded brilliance. Melodica, their hard-to-find 1995 EP, was followed by 1999's slightly underwhelming A2G EP, which also saw limited distribution. Debut long-player Nia came out the next year, rocking in places but too often foundering in hippy-dippy indulgences.

Blackalicious have shaken up the formula a bit with Blazing Arrow and finally produced a document worthy of their talents. Gift of Gab notes, quite astutely, "I'm merely just a rapper/ I probably don't fit into the current state/ of what you consider that to be" on the autobiographical "Purest Love." And Blackalicious' resolve to avoid various clichés of the genre — overblown concepts, lame skits, gun-lust, bling-bling boasts — is part of what makes Arrow so rewarding.

Which is not to say the album succeeds only in terms of what it is not. Many of the tracks overflow with deep, '70s funk-soul grooves. The key is live instrumentalists brought in to augment Xcel's cuts and add some heat to the music, an approach previously taken on hip-hop classics like Dr. Dre's The Chronic and A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory. The influence of Tribe and the rest of the Native Tongues crew comes across strongly throughout, as Blackalicious pulls off the rare feat of accentuating the positive without being just plain soft. "Nowhere Fast" mutates from a lost-love lament to an affirmation of self-improvement as a refrain of "yesterday" shifts to "today" then "tomorrow," and "Make You Feel That Way" takes a "few of my favorite things" route similar to Ice Cube's big 1992 single "It Was A Good Day."

Quannum fellow-travelers Latyrx, Chali 2NA (from L.A. old-school revivalists Jurassic 5), rap progenitor Gil Scott-Heron and others appear as guests, lending the disc a communal vibe rather than an air of mix-tape schizophrenia. Saul Williams, possibly the only good thing to come out of NYC's stale "slam poetry" fad, makes the most impact with dense, mind-blowing verse on "Release."

Blackalicious' stunt raps have always been standouts. The alliterative race through A2G's "Alphabet Aerobics" is an amazing live staple, and on Blazing Arrow, "Chemical Calesthenics" serves as that jam's sequel. Gift of Gab kicks some occasionally dubious science while pitting his mic skills against an ever-changing backing track courtesy of Xcel and guest producer Cut Chemist, another J5-er. It's thrilling, guaranteed to be the most talked-about track on the record and proof positive of Gift of Gab's opening boast "I can do anything, I can do anything."

While there are a few missteps on Arrow — Gift of Gab's crooning on closer "Day One" is serviceable at best and the mawkish choruses of "Passion" and "Sky Is Falling" nearly sink those songs — it remains a satisfying listen, thoughtful, varied and catchy. It probably won't find an audience amongst the crowd who takes their break beats with gangsta fantasy, cartoon sex and materialist obsession, but it could nonetheless break the duo beyond the commercial ghetto of the college kid/record store clerk demo.

— Wayne Lewis (capsighs@pacbell.net)