Fake For Real - Tag - Chief XcelThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearBLACKALICIOUS - Niaurn:md5:4201457047722533e3781c96c07868ec2017-01-09T21:41:00+01:002022-11-22T09:15:13+01:00codotusylvAlbumsChief XcelThe Gift of Gab <p>Though he was more visible than others, DJ Shadow has never been a lone wolf. Even before his fame and the monumental <em>Endtroducing…</em> album, he was a part of Solesides, a label from the Bay Area, the very place which, after pioneers like Del or Digital Underground - and in parallel to the more scandalous rap of Too $hort or E-40 - had birthed one of the most creative hip-hop scenes from California.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1999/blackalicious-nia.jpg" alt="BLACKALICIOUS - Nia" title="BLACKALICIOUS - Nia" /></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.quannum.com" hreflang="en">Solesides</a> :: 1999 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004KD4V/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00004KD4V&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20&linkId=ZLU7DYLTN2DISK3O" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>The other members of the crew were Lateef the Truth Speaker and Lyrics Born, a.k.a. Latyrx, and Chief Xcel and The Gift of Gab, from Blackalicious. However, and despite a few anthological songs like "The Quickening", "Balcony Beach", "Storm Warning", "Jada's Vengeance" or "Bombonyall", it took years before the Solesides artists – renamed the Quannum collective in the early 2000's – released their <em>opus magnum</em>. <em>Spectrum</em>, indeed, their first album, was uneven. And though Latyrx's soberly titled <em>The Album</em> was strong, it was more a compilation than an album.</p>
<p>Recorded after two outstandingly good EPs – the cult <em>Melodica</em>, in 1995, and <em>A2G</em>, in 1999 – the first Blackalicious album was the first true masterpiece ever released by the solesides crew. Their playful and diverse kind of rap, indeed, was constantly good on <em>Nia</em>. Most tracks were on par with the brilliant "Deception", which had been the lead single on <em>A2G</em>. While The Gift of Gab, both a conscious rapper and a fantasist, played with all kinds of flows – he could even sing, sometimes seconded by Erinn Anova's voice, like with the splendid "If I May" – and demonstrated his lyrical versality, like with the acrobatic "A To G", Chief Xcel displayed a funky sound, reminiscent of the hip-hop collages from the 80's. His beats were so powerful, actually, that they would appeal to other people than the usual rap fans.</p>
<p>The duo excelled at everything. Thanks to the old school influenced "The Fabulous Ones", the magnificent soul music of "If I May", the weird "Cliff Hanger" (produced by DJ Shadow), the ballads "Shallow Days", "As the World Turns" and "Sleep", or angrier tracks, like "Trouble" and its crazy turntablism finale, Chief Xcel and The Gift of Gab delivered the accomplished record expected from Solesides. In Swahili, "Nia" means something like "goal", or "objective". For sure, Blackalicious reached their own with this almost homogeneously fantastic album, an album which might still be the best entry point to this kind of alternative hip-hop born in the Bay Area.</p>
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https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2017/BLACKALICIOUS-Nia#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2542QUANNUM - Solesides Greatest Bumpsurn:md5:2671758b07eedfc2aeccc1e2fb7cb3952014-03-23T22:51:00+01:002023-02-09T18:08:29+01:00codotusylvAlbumsChief XcelDJ ShadowLateefLyrics BornThe Gift of Gab <p>The records from the Solesides – now Quannum – stable can be split into two categories: some of them are solid and consistent albums, now true classics (<em>Nia</em>, <em>Endtroducing...</em>); and some others are more heterogeneous, consolidating very diverse tracks, sometimes from different periods (<em>The Album</em>, <em>Spectrum</em>). Without any doubt, <em>Solesides Greatest Bumps</em> belongs to the second category. In order to celebrate their joining Ninja Tune, all five hip-hop artists proposed this compilation, full of unheard tracks, rarities or singles released at the heroic time of their own label, some of them even before electronica fans decided abusively that DJ Shadow would belong to their musical genre of choice.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2000/quannum-solesides-greatest-bumps.jpg" alt="QUANNUM - Solesides Greatest Bumps" title="QUANNUM - Solesides Greatest Bumps" /></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.quannum.com" hreflang="en">Quannum Projects</a> :: 2000 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005086N/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00005086N&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>As a result, one can find anything on both CDs of <em>Greatest Bumps</em>: some songs from Lateef, Lyrics Born and The Gift of Gab, for example, from the times when they were still solo artists; some others from the duos they would create a bit later, Latyrx and Blackalicious; the first instrumental experiments of DJ Shadow ("Entropy"), premises of the future "abstract hip-hop" subgenre; many singles, including the classic and astonishing "The Quickening", from Lateef the Truth Speaker, produced by Shadow, and also present on Latyrx's <em>The Album</em>; "Lyric Fathom", the first Blackalicious track; an extract from <em>Melodica</em>, the legendary first EP of the duo; and the excellent and surprising "Lady don’t Tek no", a track designed for the dance-floors with its catchy and famous bass gimmick.</p>
<p>In addition to these, the record contained some freestyle exercises, for example from Lateef, maybe the best MC in Quannum, and also one of the craziest in the whole underground scene; or an <em>a cappella</em> version of an already released track ("Last Chance to Comprehend"). Last but not least, this record delivered some rarities, previously available on cassettes only, like "Rhyme like a Nut!" from The Gift of Gab, produced again by DJ Shadow, and praised in its time by <em>The Source</em> magazine, in its "Unsigned Hype" section. And at the very end, all Quannum MCs completed this release by a more recent but nonetheless great "Blue Flames".</p>
<p><em>Greatest Bumps</em> had 20 tracks, all important enough to deserve a full review. And by chance, the Solesides crew did exactly this: with the inner notes, they presented with minutiae the history behind each song, and the defunct label in general. It provided great details, allowing the very large audience of DJ Shadow to understand where this guy was really coming from, helping them to discover the Bay Area indie hip-hop scene and, in the best case scenario, to get familiar with names like Freestyle Fellowship, the Good Life Café, Peanut Butter Wolf, Bobbito Garcia, Cut Chemist, and David Paul, all mentioned into the notes.</p>
<p>Of course, the greatest assets of this compilation came from its historical perspective. Its quality was exceptional, most songs had aged well, but it was not that cohesive. The freestyle tracks, for example, were always refreshing, and full of verbal ease and virtuosity, but they didn't really fit with the rest of the record. Until 2000, let's say it again, the Solesides crew albums were either definitive classics or heterogeneous compilations, but all were absolute must-have. And <em>Greatest Bumps</em>, which belonged to the latter, was no exception.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2014/QUANNUM-Solesides-Greatest-Bumps#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2069