I know the news cycle spins quickly these days, but I’m still sitting here thinking about the passing of Gift of Gab. There have been hundreds of articles written about the man, the rhymes, his flows, the master craftmanship, etc. You know what though? For all the accolades and praise, I still think he was underrated.

Blackalicious “Make You Feel that Way”

Appropriately, it is this very song that makes you feel the way the examples in the song make you feel. Its the most meta approach to lyricism, evoking a feeling by rapping about how other activities evoke that same feeling. The lyrics provide a great primer for few things that can break you out of a funk to truly make you feel “that way”.

Examples of things that make you feel that way

  • See a homie you ain’t seen since back in the day
  • End of work, we chilling on a Saturday
  • Find a hundred dollar bill (man, that’s great)
  • Get promoted at your job up to management
  • Put in hard work finally you’re living your dream
  • LISTENING TO THIS SONG

Blackalicious “Swan Lake”

This was a lot of people’s introduction to the group, but I was late to the game. Our friend Jem spun the A2G EP and the Blazing Arrow teaser CD when taking us to Mt. Bonnell in Austin a few times. We were big fans from then on, and wore out a few copies of Blazing Arrow between us. However, it was within the past few years I explored the back catalogue before Nia. A decade+ later, but really damn impressed. It is interesting to hear Gift of Gab’s voice sound so young.

The track has one of the bass lines that makes it really hard to not bob your head to. Layer in the guitar and trumpet sounds, and you’ve got a groove going before Gift of Gab even starts rhyming.

Manipulated minds need to make an escape,
And the name of this song is Swan Lake

Blackalicious

Gift of Gab “Flashback”

My daughter and I used to listen this one in Sara 2. She was a big fan of the line (The Fila Mickey Mouse shirt that said “yo baby yo”) despite probably never having seen any Fila merchandise. I guess it is funny because neither of us were really flashing back to any of these times. I’m quite familiar with the majority of the references here, but can’t say I experienced many of them. It doesn’t make it less of a dope song though.

Other album highlights for us: the sound of the 4th dimensional rocket ship going up (see “The Ride of Your Life”).

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