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Many debut albums come with all the raw energy and heart a group contains, and after they empty out their guts onto a wax plate, they move on to an inevitable sophomore slump, leaving fans wondering what happened to the amazing music of the first. With Nia, Blackalicious drops a debut album that isn't: With Quannum (né Solesides) colleagues Latyrx and DJ Shadow, they are veterans of the scene with two distinctive EP's to their credit, the deeply reflective Melodica and Nia's prelude, A2G. Blackalicious, with the Gift of Gab on the mic and Chief Excel on beats, proudly marches out Nia with all the soul of a collective making its debut and the refined maturity of a group with solid experience under its belt. Nia represents a thoughtful b-boy's dream, where hip-hop still means something, can still educate, but at the same time breaks from the pontification to just enjoy life.
Nia, just to prime you, means "purpose" in Swahili. The concept permeates itself as motif, both in terms of song concept and song interlude (passages of lilting female vocals chanting "Nia" crop up throughout the album). As a concept album, Nia successfully manages to avoid pounding the message into the listener, unlike, for instance, Aceyalone's brilliant but sometimes pedantic A Book of Human Language. While the lifestyle choice is often cast in the realm of hip-hop, such as the tale of Cisco's fall from hip-hop nirvana into muddled materialism on "Deceptions" or Gab's self-conscious avoidance of violent subject matter on "Shadow Days," the situations presented strike down the essence of life and death. Better yet, messages aren't handed down from on high; Gab has always taken the listener into his own private thoughts, from the introspection of Melodica's "40 Oz. for Breakfast" to the self-defining "Shadow Days," in which "Time and time, a brother asks why the rhyme is not laced with the gangsta touch / I said simply because I don't live that way / Still kickin' them rhymes that's rugged and rough." Unlike some self-righteous rappers who feel the need to preach to their people abstract lessons, Gab doesn't presume to know, just offers his own take on matters.
Such heady material might drag were it not for Blackalicious' lighter side. Beyond the Gift of Gab's voice, which snakes and flows like a forking river, he'll bring classic braggadoccio or linguistic creativity to a track to create a song existing just to be a song. "A to G" perhaps best represents Blackalicious as b-boy essence. Gab riffs on an "A is for … " theme, with Excel coming in to scratch the track on G (for Gift of Gab, of course). Blackalicious didn't invent the concept (hell, even Third Bass had a skit along the same lines), but it's presented with such energy and creativity here that the group makes it its own. Sadly for those without A2G, Nia lacks the remix featuring Gab running down the whole alphabet over a backing track, steadily increasing in tempo, provided by Cut Chemist.
Chief Excel shows off a gift for invention on Nia, pulling a few new tricks out of his record crate. By placing "Deceptions" and "A to G" back to back, we get to witness the piano used first as insistent backbeat and then as counterpoint to a guitar (nicely adorned with piccolo sample). On "Smithzonian Institute of Rhymes," Excel's humor matches the whimsy of the lyrics, with a playful horn and keyboard effects reminiscent of stereotypical snake-charming music. The Chief excels at fitting music to the mood, as with the soulful guitar licks and female vocals on "If I May" and the appropriately deconstructed ending of "Trouble (Eve of Destruction)." Though DJ Shadow takes the award for experimentation on the bizarre "Cliff Hanger," Chief Excel shows a true mastery of his musical technique on Nia.
Nia's effortless soul earns puts it somewhere in the vicinity of other thoughtful classics like A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory. Blackalicious meets and surpasses the promise they've shown on previous EPs and in a fair world would sell as much as the Cash Money Millionaires. Its experimental side may scare away some, but at the core of this album lies the essence of hip-hop, without the smugness of some holier-than-thou underground b-boys. Nia's purpose and voice need to be heard.
Eric Solomon | January 25, 2000
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