Nia is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Blackalicious. It was released in Europe by Mo' Wax on August 30, 1999, and re-released in the United States by Quannum Projects on February 29, 2000, with a slightly altered track listing. John Bush of AllMusic called Nia "an album that stakes the claim of Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab as not only the best pair of rappers in the underground, but also the best pair of producers." Patrick Jones of PopMatters commented that it "renews your faith in the power and potential of hip-hop." Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club said, "Blackalicious' work will strike some listeners as hopelessly naïve and New Age-ish, but Nia is nevertheless an audacious, uncompromised, enormously promising album by a group with the courage to disregard hip-hop's codes and unwritten rules to create music that is vitally, distinctly its own." Exclaim!'s Del F. Cowie praised the album's "superior conceptual execution and soulful statement".
Wow, this is great! "Hour long hip hop album I've never heard of" is usually a groan-worthy addition for me, but this was enjoyable all the way through. Great flows, great beats. Very cool. 4/5.
This was a pleasure to hear. Funky and lyrically clever, with old school Afrocentric hip hop vibes. Starts to feel a bit overstuffed on the back half, but still a great listen. Thanks for sharing it. Fave Songs: Deception, A to G, The Fabulous Ones, If I May, Shallow Days, You Didn't Know That Though, Do This My Way, As the World Turns
very much an underground sounding album. reminds me a lot of MF Doom. The last couple tracks are pretty annoyingly positive and almost preachy, especially Making Progress.
Rap progresivo. Me ha gustado. Un 4.
I was a college kid in the early 2000s, so obviously I have a lot of experience with Blackalicious just being played in the background a lot. It seems fairly ubiquitous in that time and place. That being said, Blackalicious has always been sweet and always been something I enjoyed. It was nice listening to an album separate from that context. Good stuff for sure.