Hip-hop lyricists Ghostface Killah [ tickets ], Rakim [ tickets ] and Brother Ali [ tickets ] will team up for the first Hip Hop Live tour, with all three performing in front of a 10-piece backing band.

The three MCs will each perform separate sets during the outing, which kicks off Oct. 29 in West Hollywood, CA, with all three backed by The Rhythm Roots Allstars, a Los Angeles-based funk/worldbeat outfit that specializes in providing musical backdrops for rap vocal acts. The 19-city tour--which is sponsored by Flow TV and Dodge--runs through late November. All dates are included below.

Wu-Tang Clan founding member Ghostface Killah's latest album, "Big Dough Rehab," ships Dec. 4, which is also the same date that Wu-Tang's "8 Diagrams," the rap collective's first new album in six years, hits stores. "Rehab" follows a pair of 2006 solo efforts, "Fishscale" and the subsequent "More Fish," which offered outtakes and extra cuts from the former album's recording sessions.

Rakim, who rose to fame in the '80s as one half of the hip-hop duo Eric B. and Rakim, has told various interviewers in recent months that he's working on a new disc, tentatively titled "The Seventh Seal." The rapper hasn't released a studio album since his 1999 solo effort, "The Master."

Brother Ali's second full-length, "The Undisputed Truth," hit stores earlier this year.

"Hip-Hop's roots are nourished by live music," Rakim said in a press release. "For artists who dug through crates searching for the perfect sample, always trying to replicate the sounds of a full band, standing on a stage, moving the crowd in front of this talent is both the nexus and the pinnacle of what we do."

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