Pitchfork

Remember when the Wu-Tang Clan promising to "form like Voltron" was new and cool? These days, fuck gun violence-- if Hillary Rodham Clinton were really worried about the media's effects on kids, she'd be researching how to keep hip-hop fans from turning into giant robots or annihilating enemies with space lasers. Mr. Lif has long been at the forefront of the sci-fi carnage scene, but as for the team-up action, he's sometimes looked like the lone wolf of Def Jux's roster.

But now, after years of hint-dropping, he and longtime friend Akrobatik are collaborating-- sorry, supertransforming-- to make an album as the Perceptionists. The result, Black Dialogue, emerges from its undersea cave on March 22, followed by a massive U.S.-wide tour. Dialogue tracklist:

01 Let's Move
02 People 4 Prez
03 Blo
04 Memorial Day
05 Love Letters
06 Black Dialogue
07 Frame Rupture
08 What Have We Got to Lose?!?
09 Party Hard [ft. Guru & Camutao]
10 Career Finders [ft. Humpty Hump aka Shock G]
11 5 O'Clock [ft. Phonte of Little Brother]
12 Breathe in the Sun

We'll skip the Godzilla jokes (sort of), but the ensuing tour really is long, especially with Lif having just complained on his webpage about a grueling European tour: "Shit was all good when we were in Amsterdam chillin' n shit. Then all fuckin' hell broke loose. London, Brussels, Paris, Oslo, and Stockholm all in a row. I don't know up from down." That's right, blaze all the weed you want in Amsterdam; it's that last stop at the Nobel Museum that'll knock you out. Le tour:

03-19 Austin, TX - Emo's
03-23 Boston MA - Paradise (with Vast Aire, C Rayz Walz, and EDO.G.)
03-24 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (with Edan, C Rayz Walz, and EDO.G.)
04-13 Providence, RI - The Living Room
04-14 Albany, NY - Valentines
04-15 Burlington, VT - Nectars
04-17 Toronto, Ontario - The Reverb
04-19 Indianapolis, IN - The Patio
04-20 Carbondale, IL - The Hangar 9
04-21 Iowa City, IA - Gabes Oasis
04-22 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Club
04-23 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
04-24 Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill St
04-25 Lawrence, KS - The Jackpot Saloon
04-26 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
04-28 Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theatre
04-29 Denver, CO - Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
05-01 Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music Arts Festival
05-03 Salt Lake City, UT - Ego's
05-04 Bozeman, MT - Zebra Cocktail Lounge
05-05 Nelson, British Columbia - Fluid Lounge
05-06 Vancouver, British Columbia - Sonar
05-07 Bellingham, WA - Viking Union Multipurpose Room
05-08 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
05-09 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
05-10 Sacramento, CA - Harlow's
05-11 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
05-13 Diego, CA - Casbah San
05-14 Phoenix, AZ - Old Brickhouse
05-15 Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
05-17 Denton, TX - Haileys
05-18 Austin, TX - The Parish
05-20 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues Parish
05-21 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
05-22 Richmond, VA - Alley Katz
06-11 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music Festival