If you’d have told me, back in 1991, that I would be able to see LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Ice Cube and De La Soul on tour, on the same bill, I might have spontaneously combusted. Then, you wouldn’t be reading this lovely blog that’s in front of you. Wouldn’t that have been a tragedy?

Flash forward to 2013. The same four hip-hop legends are on the same bill. I’m twenty-some years older. They’re twenty-some years older. I’m not in danger of spontaneously combusting anymore, but I’m still pretty geeked. The “King of the Mic” tour kicks off in late May, and continues through a July date at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.

LL is getting ready to release his fourteenth album, Authentic, later this spring, and is ostensibly the headliner (plus, he has to get his touring in before going back to work on CSI: Los Angeles.) Cube must be between movies. PE and De La are touring warhorses. All are among the best live acts in hip-hop history, and they can do it without hypemen (Flav is a special case,) pyro or any sort of choreography (shit, I forgot about the S1Ws. Anyway…)

Check out the tour dates below. I would fuck people up for a seat at this show. Bring your kids-make sure they get an idea of where this music came from.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

May 23 – Ava Amphitheater – Tucson, AZ
May 24 – Hard Rock Casino – Las Vegas, NV
May 25 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – San Francisco, CA
May 26 – Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
May 30 – Target Center – Minneapolis, MN
May 31 – Harrah’s Council Bluffs – Stir Cove – Council Bluffs, IA
June 1 – Scottrade Center – St. Louis, MO
June 4 – Fox Theatre – Atlanta, GA
June 6 – Mahaffey Theater – Saint Petersburg, FL
June 7 – St. Augustine Amphitheatre – St. Augustine, FL
June 12 – Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric – Baltimore, MD
June 14 – Charter Amphitheatre – Simpsonville, SC
June 15 – nTelos Wireless Pavilion – Portsmouth, VA
June 16 – Durham Performing Arts Center – Durham, NC
June 18 – New Jersey Performing Arts Center – Newark, NJ
June 19 – Bank of America Pavilion – Boston, MA
June 20 – Roseland Ballroom – New York, NY
June 22 – Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center – Canandaigua, NY
June 23 – Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort – Mount Pleasant, MI
June 25 – Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica – Cleveland, OH
June 26 – DTE Energy Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
June 27 – Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
July 1 – Verizon Theatre – Grand Prairie, TX
July 2 – Stubb’s Waller Creek Outdoor Amphitheater – Austin, TX
July 3 – Bayou Music Center – Houston, TX
July 5 – Essence Music Festival – New Orleans, LA