Blackalicious's Gift of Gab Readies Solo LP

(swiped from Pitchfork Media)

The Cali rapper Gift of Gab has put in well more than a decade of work with the backpack-rap institution Blackalicious, but up until now he's only released one solo album, 2004's awesomely titled 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up. On October 27, he'll finally drop the follow-up LP Escape to Mars via Cornerstone Recording Arts Society.

That's the album cover above, and for some reason it looks almost exactly like the cover of the forthcoming album from metal supergroup Shrinebuilder if Dr. Manhattan teleported it to Mars. Seriously.

Anyway, Escape 2 Mars will feature a collaboration with fellow underground rap heavyweights Brother Ali and Del the Funky Homosapien. Gab's Quannum compatriot Lateef the Truth Speaker will also stop by. You can download one track, the vaguely Latin-inflected workout "El Gifto Magnifico", right here, and the tracklist is below.

Escape 2 Mars:

01 E2MTRO
02 El Gifto Magnifico
03 Lightyears
04 Dreamin' [ft. Del the Funky Homosapien & Brother Ali]
05 In Las Vegas
06 Escape 2 Mars
07 Electric Waterfalls
08 Richman, Poorman
09 Someofthepeople
10 Spotlight
11 Rhyme Travel
12 Dreamin' (Aqua Sawtooth Remix) *

* Vinyl-only bonus track

Del the Funky Homosapien Signs to Def Jux for New LP

(Swiped from Pitchfork Media)

Because of his involvement in records like Deltron 3030 and the first Gorillaz album, it's easy to think of Del the Funky Homosapien (formerly Del tha Funkee Homosapien) as just a sci-fi rapper. But dig a little further back in his catalog (like back to his killer 1991 debut, I Wish My Brother George Was Here), and you find an MC geeked on making genuinely quirky everyman anthems-- like "Pissin' on Your Steps", "The Wacky World of Rapid Transit", and "Sleepin' on My Couch".

We're not sure which of the two Dels (or maybe an amalgamation of them both?) will appear on his forthcoming full-length, The 11th Hour, but we're psyched that it exists and is coming out via Definitive Jux on February 26.

Produced entirely by Del himself, The 11th Hour is the Hieroglyphics crew member's first solo record since 2000's Both Sides of the Brain. And while February is still a little ways away, Del is currently touring the U.S. in front of the album's release, alongside Devin the Dude and friends.

The tour's next stop is November 8, in Portland, Oregon.

Dates (all with Devin the Dude):

11-08 Portland, OR - Roseland

11-09 Seattle, WA - Showbox

11-10 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall

11-11 Chico, CA - Senator Theater

11-13 San Francisco, CA - Slim's

11-14 San Francisco, CA - Slim's

Stream: Del the Funky Homosapien: Various Tracks