Gift of Gab
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November 5th, 2009 - Hollywood
Buy Escape 2 Mars here!
Download the Free MP3 track " Dreamin (Aqua Sawtooth Remix)" from the new album!
Escape 2 Mars comes out November 3rd on Cornerstone and Gift of Gab celebrates with a live show at Amoeba! Best known as the technically adept frontman of Blackalicious, he unleashes the follow-up to his much-lauded solo debut and the next groundbreaking voyage in the career of an MC who is nothing short of iconic.
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Gift of Gab, best known as the technically adept of the vaunted Blackalicious, knew that after waiting over five years for a follow-up solo release that he would have to really take this one far. Like other planet kind of far. Escape 2 Mars signifies the next groundbreaking voyage in the career of an MC who is nothing short of iconic.
Production on Escape was placed mainly in the hands of the Bay Area's talented DNAEBEATS, with a few tracks also helmed by Headnodic, from Gab's most recent star collabo project The Mighty Underdogs and Crown City Rockers. Del the Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali, another two undeniably iconic MCs, are featured on "Dreamin'," one of the record's stand out cuts. Gab also recruited some of the talent from the Quannum Collective he helped pioneer, including Joyo Velarde, Lateef The Truthspeaker, and Honeycut's vocalist Bart Davenport.
His hopes of keeping things close to home set the stage for the album's inspiration. "People are gonna think this is about Martians, but it's not," Gab explains. "It's more so about taking care of the planet we're on. We might have to escape to Mars or somewhere else if we keep taking the planet we live on for granted."
"I'm not trying to preach to anyone," he continues. "I just think it's important for us to raise the level of consciousness and consideration of these things." On songs like "Electric Waterfalls" and the title track, lyrically he journey's into these topics directly. Musically speaking, it was also a space age inspiration that led him to break some new personal ground.
"Some of the more electronic feeling songs were new territory me," Gab states. "I didn't really connect with much of that until we went out and did some shows with Bassnectar and I saw the culture shifting in front of me and thought it was a great thing."
He is often praised by critics for his rapping skills – Allmusic says he is “one of the very finest MCs to ever pick up a microphone”, “one of the best underground rappers in the business”, “his raps are jam-packed with internal rhymes, allusions, metaphors, ten-cent words, and amazing tongue-twisting feats of skill”, and he has been able to “redefine the art of lyrical technique”. Peter Shapiro describes him as “a walking encyclopedia of MCing styles”, Pitchfork Media refers to his “astonishing verbal dexterity and enunciation”, Popmatters says he has a “nearly impenetrable reputation for style and innovation”, and Stylus Magazine calls him “one of the top MCs in the game”.
____________________________________________
Gift of Gab is also performing at Amoeba San Francisco November 3, 2009 at 6pm. More info.
Download the Free MP3 track " Dreamin (Aqua Sawtooth Remix)" from the new album!
Escape 2 Mars comes out November 3rd on Cornerstone and Gift of Gab celebrates with a live show at Amoeba! Best known as the technically adept frontman of Blackalicious, he unleashes the follow-up to his much-lauded solo debut and the next groundbreaking voyage in the career of an MC who is nothing short of iconic.
____________________________________________
Gift of Gab, best known as the technically adept of the vaunted Blackalicious, knew that after waiting over five years for a follow-up solo release that he would have to really take this one far. Like other planet kind of far. Escape 2 Mars signifies the next groundbreaking voyage in the career of an MC who is nothing short of iconic.
Production on Escape was placed mainly in the hands of the Bay Area's talented DNAEBEATS, with a few tracks also helmed by Headnodic, from Gab's most recent star collabo project The Mighty Underdogs and Crown City Rockers. Del the Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali, another two undeniably iconic MCs, are featured on "Dreamin'," one of the record's stand out cuts. Gab also recruited some of the talent from the Quannum Collective he helped pioneer, including Joyo Velarde, Lateef The Truthspeaker, and Honeycut's vocalist Bart Davenport.
His hopes of keeping things close to home set the stage for the album's inspiration. "People are gonna think this is about Martians, but it's not," Gab explains. "It's more so about taking care of the planet we're on. We might have to escape to Mars or somewhere else if we keep taking the planet we live on for granted."
"I'm not trying to preach to anyone," he continues. "I just think it's important for us to raise the level of consciousness and consideration of these things." On songs like "Electric Waterfalls" and the title track, lyrically he journey's into these topics directly. Musically speaking, it was also a space age inspiration that led him to break some new personal ground.
"Some of the more electronic feeling songs were new territory me," Gab states. "I didn't really connect with much of that until we went out and did some shows with Bassnectar and I saw the culture shifting in front of me and thought it was a great thing."
He is often praised by critics for his rapping skills – Allmusic says he is “one of the very finest MCs to ever pick up a microphone”, “one of the best underground rappers in the business”, “his raps are jam-packed with internal rhymes, allusions, metaphors, ten-cent words, and amazing tongue-twisting feats of skill”, and he has been able to “redefine the art of lyrical technique”. Peter Shapiro describes him as “a walking encyclopedia of MCing styles”, Pitchfork Media refers to his “astonishing verbal dexterity and enunciation”, Popmatters says he has a “nearly impenetrable reputation for style and innovation”, and Stylus Magazine calls him “one of the top MCs in the game”.
____________________________________________
Gift of Gab is also performing at Amoeba San Francisco November 3, 2009 at 6pm. More info.
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