Photo credit: NICOLE MAGO

With their critically-acclaimed new album Imani, Vol. 1 still generating massive attention (last Fall, it was the #1 Hip Hop album on CMJ), Sacramento's BLACKALICIOUS is getting ready to continue turning heads with their provocative new video for "On Fire Tonight". Premiering on UK's prominent and prestigious The Guardian, the video features incendiary footage of police/race-related crimes and incidents from Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island, North Charleston, and more. It can be seen here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/11/watch-blackalicious-video-for-on-fire-tonight.

In addition, Blackalicious are kicking off 2016 with a run of Spring dates on the East Coast. Kicking off on Feb. 18 at Atlanta's Terminal West, the legendary hip hop duo prove that even after a ten-year album hiatus, they're still fresh, vital and as relevant as ever.

Recently, the band was tapped by sports authority THE BLEACHER REPORT to rework their classic "Alphabet Aerobics", transforming all the lyrics into sports-oriented jargon and christening it "Sports Alphabet". The video which has racked up nearly 2million views in less than two months can be seen here and will be used throughout 2016 in The Bleacher Report's advertising campaign on television, internet and radio. AdWeek wrote, "As in the iconic original, Gift of Gab's rapping gains intensity and speed as he burns through lyrics tied to letters of the al phabet. The original's dizzying cascade of cultural references and nonsense rhymes, however, have been replaced by sports-themed lyrics, with fabulously fun, vivacious visuals driving the message home." The original track coincidentally had experienced a resurgence last year when actor Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, The Woman in Black) rapped it effortlessly on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (that video which can be seen here has already racked up over 54.5 million views on YouTube).

"ON FIRE TONIGHT" video http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/11/watch-blackalicious-video-for-on-fire-tonight

Named for the the Swahili word for "faith", Imani Vol. 1 has been unanimously praised by the media including Rolling Stone, NPR, Paste, Entertainment Weekly, XXL, Noisey, Pitchfork, Chicago Tribune, Relix, New York Times, Sound Opinions, NME, among many others. The audacious album is only the beginning as Imani, Vol. 1 is the first volume of a trilogy and features appearances from Lifesavas, Lateef, Japanese-American rapper Lyrics Born, funk band Monophonics, polyphonic Afro-Pop singer Zap Mama, and Fantastic Negrito. Bosko (Big Boi, Kanye West), Myron of retro soul duo Myron & E,Imani Coppola, and Amde Hamilton also appear on the record.

"We wanted to keep the focus closer to us," Gab says. "Volume 2 may be a bit more guest-heavy, but this one, we want people to get Blackalicious." Past albums have featured the likes of Zack de la Rocha and ?uestlove, among others.

Imani Vol. 1 was released in September 2015 on OGM Recordings/Mahogany Sun/Quannum Projects. Blackalicious isGift of Gab and Chief Xcel.