Nia

With Nia, Blackalicious hit their stride as leaders of the hip-hop true school. The Sacramento-based duo of producer/DJ Chief Xcel and lyricist The Gift of Gab has been creating luscious, intelligent music since they started out in 1994, and Nia shows them at their best. Gab's rhyming skills are supreme, ranging from evocative storytelling about fame and misfortune ("Deception") to rapped reflections on the state of his art ("Shallow Days") and scathing straight spitting ("Trouble"). A true master of ceremonies, Gab keeps it right by grounding his lyrics in his own experience, preventing his antiestablishment message from getting boring. On the musical front, Xcel's beats fit Gab's wordplay like a glove. They range from the funky, caffeinated drum stutters of "Fabulous Ones," to knowing piano-laced patterns (on the genius "Deception") and slinky, serpentine, Middle Eastern styles ("Smithzonian Institute of Rhyme"). Nia is honest music: from Xcel's carefully stitched-together, relentlessly inventive beats, to Gab's personal poetics. This is soul food for your ears. --Lizz Mendez Berry