Rating:
  Release Date: September 27, 2005
  Website: Blackalicious Website
  Label: Anti

Blackalicious “The Craft” Album Review
My car got broken into last week. Smashed right through the driver’s side window. Got me for everything, too. Stereo; portable CD and MiniDisc players; headphones; a bunch of discs and CDs; a couple hoodies; my ski jacket; and even a glass piece given to me as a college graduation present. Ironically, the only thing they left behind was my newly purchased and unopened copy of Blackalicious’ “The Craft.”

A Reason Behind Everything
Despite the fact that I drive a Chevy Prism, the cheapest automobile ever made (based on average family income and cost of living at the time of its creation), my stuff tends to get jacked a lot. This has continued to confuse me over the past couple years. I mean, why would someone want to break my window for an in-dash tape player and some plug-in portable audio? Why would they steal such simple things that I have worked for? Are people really that hard up? Or do they just not care?

Honestly, I’ve never really thought that people were that hard up. I’ve always thought that although our way of life may create rich and poor, and thus help influence materialism and thievery, this does not justify stealing from people who have become successful within this way of life. After all, our society was created to allow people to live their dreams if they just work hard enough, right? Why couldn’t those kids do that instead of stealing from me? So when my car got broken into, I was only capable of seeing myself as the victim.

Regardless, I tend to be a pretty spiritual cat. I think there’s a reason behind everything. A reason behind why some kids decided to rob me. A reason behind why they took everything except a brand new Blackalicious CD. A reason behind why they were there in the first place. Although I know they were probably just junked up on crystal meth (an increasing problem in my neighborhood and the country, as kids are up all night long blasting music, fighting and stealing stuff) and decided to break in the car upon passing, I like to think that the reasons are deeper than that. Although I know that a police car probably drove by causing one of them to bolt before getting a hand on “The Craft,” I like to think that maybe the universe blocked it out of their site in order to keep it in my possession for some reason. Therefore, I decided to throw the album on while calming down and contemplating my questions. Maybe it would help me understand what had happened a little better.

Would I Be That Cat Steeling Car Radios?
As I was relaxing and listening to “The Craft,” a verse jumped out at me from the album’s second track, “Supreme People.”

Trapped like rats in mazes for the cheese
Every natural resource is here
We don’t really need money
But certain people need power over people
They act like that cause they trapped inside their egos
And now you can’t feel free
Without material possessions, you just can’t be
And without them you’re left stressing so anxiously
So you grab the Smith & Wesson
Them aim then squeeze

As I listened to the Gift of Gab’s words (Gift of Gab is the head lyricist in Blackalicious, a highly respected rapper in hip-hop music), I immediately questioned myself. Am I one of these “supreme people” who is “trapped inside their egos”? Does my practice of obtaining material possessions actually cause people to “grab the Smith & Wesson, then aim, then squeeze”?

Gift of Gab followed up with the song’s closing verse, which follows:

Supreme people only want the best and a
Supreme people won’t settle for less and a
Straight from royalty put inside projects in a
Capitalist system that don’t make sense to ya
Supreme people put against the fence get a
Bit irate and hostile if you ain’t fixing the
Problems you created that make these conditions a
Little reparation for your acts of sin to us
Supreme people ride or die to get the bucks
Some by any means
So hey lock your Benzes up
Tuck your chain and watch
And keep your defenses up
All they want to do is live it up like you

As the song concluded, I started thinking about all the things I have. Then I started to think about what I would do without them. If I didn’t have a good job, or a nice apartment, or a decent car, what would I do to get things? Would I be that cat stealing car radios?

“Capitalist System that Don’t Make Sense To Ya”?
I suddenly felt really low, as if maybe the whole situation was my fault after all. Perhaps “all they want to do is live it up like me.” Perhaps it was the “problems I created to make these conditions.” Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t and won’t condone stealing. But within hip-hop culture, a worldview that has created such philosophical knowledge as “don’t hate the player, hate the game,” it would be kind of hypocritical for me to blame the individuals without taking into account the environment that put them there.

Maybe I did deserve to have my car broken into. After all, one of my weaknesses is that I like to have nice things. This causes me to take advantage of our capitalist society that seems to force others to not have in order for me to have. As long as I have these nice things, there will be people who don’t, and who are willing to take mine to get theirs. Or, as Mos Def would say, “the harder you flash, harder you get flashed on.” All of a sudden, I could clearly see the holes in capitalism, and the problems it can create in society … thanks in part to Blackalicious and the hip-hop persepective. And this is an example of the thought patterns hip-hop influences in me on a daily basis.

The Craft
After listening to “Supreme People,” Blackalicious’ “The Craft” became a regular album in my current rotation. The production is hot, the content is amazing, and the lyricism of the Gift of Gab is among the best around today. The album was inspirationally spiritual and positive, especially in the storytelling mode. The main topics include the effects of a society that creates rich and poor, a handful of uplifting stories about people who have succeeded in that society, and the spiritual attributes of hip-hop and making hip-hop music.

The Effects of a Society that Creates Rich and Poor
The Gift of Gab furthered his cause-and-effect questioning of capitalist society in several verses on this album. Similar to my conclusions, Blackalicious takes the stance that our way of life may be to blame for crime and violence.

Supreme people living with their back aligned
Up against the wall cause these days are asinine
Living in a money matrix, how cats survive
Some will fade away and wither, others will blast a nine
Kings and queens working nine to fives
And making nothing
Searching for a deeper purpose in life
This can’t be life With all this work this can’t be right
Without no money in my pocket I just can’t see right

Trapped like rats in mazes for the cheese
Every natural resource is here
We don’t really need money
But certain people need power over people
They act like that cause they trapped inside their egos
And now you can’t feel free Without material possessions, you just can’t be
And without them you’re left stressing so anxiously
So you grab the Smith & Wesson
Then aim then squeeze

Supreme people only want the best and a
Supreme people won’t settle for less and a
Straight from royalty put inside projects in a
Capitalist system that don’t make sense to ya
Supreme people put against the fence get a
Bit irate and hostile if you ain’t fixing the
Problems you created that make these conditions a
Little reparation for your acts of sin to us
Supreme people ride or die to get the bucks
Some by any means
So hey lock your Benzes up
Tuck your chain and watch
And keep your defenses up
All they want to do is live it up like you

Blackalicious warns of people who “ride or die to get the bucks,” those who will “fade away and wither,” and “others (who) will blast a nine.” They blame society “cause these days are asinine,” as it forces people to “work nine to fives,” search for “a deeper purpose in life,” and often “grab the Smith & Wesson.”

Uplifting Stories
My favorite part of “The Craft” was its positive and uplifting stories. Despite the group’s anger toward capitalist society, they manage to tell several stories about people in desperate situations rising up to overcome the negativity that surrounds them.

For some time he sat and pondered
Trapped in a cell filled with criminals and convicts
Time had arrived to confront the real problem
Looking within, not without, he got honest
Started to read and acquire that self-knowledge
Learned he was royalty and didn’t come from garbage
How to embrace struggle and learn from his problems
And true wealth is health, family, and a higher consciousness
Learned most of what he was taught was nonsense
Read up on economics and how to start a business
Self-determination and dedication empowered him
Something inside of him told him only God could stop him
Now he’s out living
What others said was impossible
Thought he would be another victim of ghetto obstacles
Through the concrete a rosebud started to blossom
Remember change is really all that remains constant

Young sister had a child
Still young herself now
And it’s others all around screaming turmoil
Ain’t done with school
How are you going to make it now?
Life is going to be a little harder on you girl
Some how
She sees the face of her child
And on her face is a smile
And now it’s brighter up in her world
Makes her stronger
Now she’s got to carry on
And be a very good mama
This is life let it unfurl
And she’s doing it, mother of the earth now
Found a blessing through the struggle of her first child
Keep going, keep growing
Keep climbing, keep moving, keep knowing
God would make a way somehow
Live your life girl
Show them how it’s done now
I believe in you so keep it moving until the sun’s down
Never let them hold you back
From anything you want now
Life is but a ride
So find the treasures that are unfound

Young brother
Taking care of his mother
Making bread gotta hustle
Cause the table’s looking thin now
Stress ridden
As he walks his little sister
To her preschool which is up the road just a few miles
Back at the house
His mom seeks magic
Through the pipe smoke traveling
Through her lungs out and back down
Worst part
That breaks the young man’s heart
Is he’s the one that’s supplying it
He feels like he’s trapped now
Cause every time he says no then she’ll spaz out
Start shaking, mama please where is dad now?
Guess he’s gotta be the home’s only man now
Left the life alone, and got a whole other plan now
Stacked enough to put her in a rehab found
Work and got a G.E.D.
His sister’s in his hands now
And with support from other members of his fam
Gonna make it out the struggle
Young people here’s your chance

In these examples, Blackalicious talks about a rehabilitated criminal who got out of jail to grow and succeed, a young girl who overcame the struggle of childbirth at such a young age, and a drug dealer who left the game behind to live a better life. These stories are inspirational to me, and show the listener the possibilities of hard work and dedication.

Spirituality and Hip-Hop
Like myself, the members of Blackalicious obviously see much more than music in hip-hop. They use it as a worldview, one which often comes across as spiritual. The Gift of Gab often refers to his rhyming ability as a blessing, something bestowed upon him by a greater power.

Play this on your play list
I like dough
But musically I’m transcending the physical
And don’t blame me for the slang and the words
God writes these rhymes through me I just listen to him
I’m just living duke
Matrix driven rules haven’t fooled me
Cause I still think abstract
And stay metaphysical and challenge what is really real
And keep creating with the force to bring rap back
Not that it’s away
But everybody got something to say
So let me speak the opposite of what’s hot now
And make that hot
So it will get exploited
And the corporations will only back dudes that bite my style

Take time with the pad and the pen to dig within
In a world full of BS that we’re living in
To my ears music sounds sweet as cinnamon
So I stay pounding out tunes again and again

Up and Down the trails
Of many styles we go
What’s in store for the future
Doubt that we can know
But in Ourself we can create
And we can grow
To be a vessel for these days

Whether you’re heavy or Libra
Or Aries or Lebanese
Vegetarian, Ebony, Ivory
Seventeen or ninety-three
I don’t care if you’re arrogant
Or inherit inheritance
From your parent’s parents
And didn’t share it with N’er nigga
Prepare if you dare
To get your hands in the air

Styling infinite and passion
Make me mash on
Till the last song is done
So fasten
Your belt and let’s run
To intersessions
You’re probably stressin’
I didn’t come to rhyme about Using a Smith & Wesson

Back on a journey again
Tool is the pad and the pen
Cool is the fan as the wind
Cooling you after I send
True inter vision driven
While living and giving you my
Isms of intuition
While niggas is still living a lie
Syllables spill as I fly
High as the pittacle rhyme
Not to belittle a fool
But try to get into you my
Lyrics inherited from inheritance somewhere in the sky
Clearly you’ll give them merit and cherish them better with time
There is none
Ever and on like rivers so clever I shine
Verbal ambassador travel in this endeavor of mine
Never an anti-gangster
Cause ghetto is still in the mind
If I was not rapping
A nigga might be up inside
All of your terraces stealing wallets and necklaces
I give hella gratefulness for the blessing to share this and fly
Everywhere the people outside the culture now try to define
What it is, but it is mine
Such it is, love it with blind
Vision but no division is vivid we living inside
Vicious vindictive and mental prisons
From within the mind
I sit and find stillness
Within this is written the rhyme

If you only just believe and act
Right here today inside
Is where I find my freedom at
As simple as a lyric from my soul
To yours
That’s felt I didn’t write this I just let the pen move by itself

Across the nation
A loss of patience
Cost inflation
So caught in waiting
And contemplating
Obligations
Rigged up inaugurations
Politicians
Violating
And all the hate is
A lot
But it cannot invade
The honest ancient
True art of sacred

I didn’t have to be
Given the gift to rip
I’ll never master me
I know that it’s from him
Or her, or it
Dimensions that sit
Waiting to sift through me

I give thanks for my rhyming ability
I don’t front like it’s not a responsibility
I can open the mind if the youth will listen to me
I’m not going to front like I’m on some killing spree

I take it real serious
The vibe’s so mysterious
Not just one more day to kill
And if I goof off neglected
And I do not respect it enough
Fade away it will
Day to day it gives me energies
That replenish me
If I believe and I say it will
And act on it
Cause action is the key to freedom
Only way to be a leader
Lead by the way you live

In these examples, Blackalicious refers to hip-hop as something that replenishes and “gives me energies,” giving them the ability to “transcend the physical.” They “don’t front like it’s not a responsibility,” and make clear their intentions to reach and influence the youth, because the “only way to be a leader” is to “lead by the way you live.”