Gift of Gab, of Blackalicious fame, is, in my opinion, a canonized rhymesayer. One of the emcees nobody knew can replicate or replace, one of the emcees that is truly just on the upper echelon and always will be. So, seeing a new release from him was pretty exciting–kind of like The Shins the other day, it feels weird when someone you grew up with but haven’t heard from in a while releases a new track or project.
Gift of Gab – Protocol ft. Samantha Kravitz || Download
This track starts with Samantha Kravitz, a singer I have never heard of but really enjoyed. She adds a really great hook to the song, and you can hear her soulful voice come in and out with some doo-woops throughout Gab’s verses.
“Emcees come and emcees go/ Street cred big but they can’t blow/ Please respect my protocol/ One by one I’ll drop them all/ Just call me a conscious fool/ Who rhymes circles around you/ Please respect my protocol/ One by one I’ll kill you all”
Gab’s flow on this track is almost dumbfoundingly good; he just keeps going and going, with intricate rhyme structures that seem to always build off of one another, changing up yet always adding to itself. To me, in a lot of ways his opening line is a perfect, and honest, introduction;
“Party people you’re about to witness something you’ve never heard before/ Thank y’all for listening“
This is a pop rap track–it has poppy production and a poppy hook. But you cannot say that Gab sounds anything similar to your typical, popular rapper. His flow is interesting, his rhyme structure is complex, and his lyrics are meaningful. He knows this is a pop sounding track–his introduction, to me, functions as a subtler, perhaps politer way of saying; “listen up, mother fuckers. Those rappers you’ve been listening to suck. Let me show you how it’s really done.”
Hoping to see a lot of new Gab in the future. He is forever a hip hop legend.
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Dream Big
