Interview Exclusive: Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab
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In anticipation of Bayside Bowl’s NYE Bash featuring performances from Quannum MCs, I reached out to Gift of Gab who is a celebrated MC known for his solo work, as well as one half of the duo known as Blackalicious.
What do you love about making music?
I love the act of creating something out of nothing. I love the high of creating music. I love being the channel for something greater than I am. I love being a creator.
You’ve been creating music for a long time, and I’m sure you’ve seen significant changes in the culture and in the industry. If you had to narrow it down to one, what would you cite as the most critical difference in the way things work now in contrast to when you started?
It used to be a culture, and now it’s all business. And it’s good that it’s a business because people are making great livings, but there was a certain level of pride you had in your hip hop, it was a counter-culture vibe. “No, we’re not on the radio, we don’t do mainstream, because this is our private thing.” Now it’s so big that money — don’t get me wrong, money’s a good thing, but money can dilute things too because you could say “hey, I want to portray the image of being shot eight times,” but that’s not gonna sell records. Rather than just being good, having good skills, mesmerize people with your lyrics — that’s still going on, but at the same time, certain people in control take over, just like everything. Just like everything, you know? And the pureness of it gets diluted a little bit. At least that’s what I see, I don’t know about anybody else.
I feel like hip hop is kind of split in two worlds right now, where some people are making basically pop music, the stuff you hear at the club, but then there are still folks out there carrying the torch, having really brilliant lyricism.
Absolutely, absolutely. I just heard this new group from Atlanta called EarthGang, they’re really really dope.
Oh cool, I’ll check them out!
Yeah yeah, they’re very OutKast influenced. They’re really dope.
Sweet! I am really grateful that we as a culture have hip hop right now, I think it’s a way that people really listen to each other who otherwise maybe wouldn’t hear those perspectives, and I think it’s essential.
Yeah absolutely. Music has always been a way for us to understand each other. People will be afraid of other cultures because they don’t understand them. With music, you’ve got black people that listen to rock, white people that listen to hip hop — and it’s more of that now than ever. You never know what kind of music a person listens to til you really talk to them. You know what I mean? I think that’s one of the things that music — and maybe sports — do, is they break down all the barriers so people can come together and do the same thing, and feel the same emotion.
I agree, and I think that’s vitally important during a time like this where we’re experiencing so much conflict and division.
Mhm. It’s very important that we have some kind of unity amongst the people, and when I say the people I mean the people of the world as opposed to the 1% that’s in control, you know?
Absolutely, and hip hop is extraordinary because more so than any other genre, lyricism is really at the forefront of the vocalist’s job. Where in other genres there’s more of a culture of the lyrics being a vessel for the melody of the vocal part and meaning being more obscure and abstract, rap pays more service to excellency in clarity of purpose. You have well-earned respect for your eloquence and dedication to craft. How do you approach the power of the word and crafting a message?
It’s all about feeling for me. I have things that I wanna say. All the artist does is observe and then express what they’ve observed. So as an artist, all I really have to do is clearly observe the situation and then express what it means to me. In my own way. Because there’s no point of view like your own, no one can see the world like you see it or express how they see it like you see it, so it’s always your unique individual view. I usually write to the beat. Sometimes I’ll write acapella, but for me, it has to hit me a certain way. I’m looking for a beat that will hit me on a certain frequency and send me in a direction to write to it.
When you guys released Imani Vol. 1, it seems like it was kind of a turning point for you guys, like a reawakening. What’s different about this phase of the project’s evolution?
We’re older, and we’re wiser. We get along better, because we’re older and we’re wiser and because we’ve had our issues as brothers on the open road. It’s kind of like a seasoned machine now.
And there’s a Volume 2 on its way, right?
Yeah! Hah, we’ve got about a hundred songs done, and we’re gonna pull about 14 from those — we’ve just been making songs. But yeah, Imani Volume 2 is absolutely on its way.
Awesome! That’s so exciting. What are you excited about in 2020, and what keeps you hopeful about the future?
Well, the biggest thing that I’m excited about is, I have been on dialysis for the last 7 years, but I just found out that I will be getting a kidney sometime between the end of January and the beginning of February.
Oh my gosh! Congratulations!
Thank you, thank you. So I’m pretty excited about that, and number two is that Blackalicious is putting out the new album, number three is that I have a new solo album coming out on Nature Sounds, and it’s just a good time in life right now! You know, for me. Now the presidency, and the world — that’s a different story. I think that we all just have to be seekers of truth and seekers of justice, and as I said, we have to inform each other as much as we can, and we have to unite. At some point, we have to get together and say, “how do we want to do this?” This is not up to them. This is not up to the small group of people that rule the world. This is up to the millions and billions of people — or, the citizens of the planet earth. It’s our planet. So I think that I have some personal things going on that are really good, and really, I feel like the Creator is always there, but I’m just grateful right now for a lot of things. Also, I see a lot of challenges on the world/humanity level that we’re gonna be facing in the next — I mean, depending on how this election goes.
So you guys recently did an ad campaign with Door Dash, how was that?
Oh yeah, that was great! Whenever we get licensing, it’s great, our music gets heard by the whole world pretty much. It was easy to do. Really fun. I had a great time doing it.
I’m really excited to see you guys on New Year’s Eve. It’s gonna be so awesome!
Yeah, we’re looking forward to it! That’s gonna be a Quannum MCs show, so it’s me, Lyrics Born, and Lateef, with Chief XL DJing.
See I don’t believe in the myth that you get too old to rap. There’s this whole thing like, “oh, why are you still rapping? Rapping is for young men!” like no, it’s art! If you can do it, do it! That’s how I feel.
Totally! In so many creative fields, there’s such prioritization of youth, and who’s new on the scene, but you just keep getting better at anything you do the older you get.
Exactly! Like a fine wine. You become seasoned. Absolutely correct. Now I’m not gonna say how old I am… but you know I’m getting up there, and the passion for creating albums doesn’t go away. This is just what I do. Creating art, creating hip hop.
Absolutely! It’s on its way. We do this cuz we love to do it.
Get your tickets soon for the last Quannum MC’s show of the decade at Bayside Bowl! And stay tuned, we’ll be speaking with Lyrics Born soon. If you dig this article, tap that clap, and follow us on Medium!
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