Posted by Budgie at May 23, 2005 04:33 PM

From the mind of Madlib...

He's The Bad Character, The Astral Traveller, The Loop Digga and probably the most inventive and prolific producer working in Hip Hop and some other fields today. In the past few years he has amassed a huge back catalogue of stuff with some of it released and some not. His work has crossed various genres with no sign of his output or quality control letting up. The word "genius" is often banded about when describing him. Is Madlib a genius? Time will tell...

Track : QUASIMOTO - "RETURN OF THE LOOP DIGGA"
Track : QUASIMOTO - "RAPPCATS pt.3"

I first stumbled across his work when he released "The Unseen" album a few years back under his Quasimoto guise. As most modern hip hop can be a bit dull, bland and lifeless, "The Unseen" harked back to the good old days but at the same time he was pushing things forward. Aside from the killer beats he had managed to find and the samples that dropped in when you least expected them, the thing that struck me most was the rapping. You have what sounds like 2 sometimes 3 guys all dropping words on top of one another with one of the guys sounding like he has been inhaling helium. It was impressive stuff. But what impressed me more though was that a few months down the line it turned out that all the vocal interplay was actually only one guy. Madlib was all the characters. It spun my head. Here was a guy who more or less has created his own hip hop world, producing the whole thing, and then taking turns with himself to rap whilst pitching the vocals up a bit on one of his alter egos and making it sound like it was the combined effort of a whole crew.

"Return Of The Loop Digga" is from "The Unseen". Madlib gets the boot in at lazy producers who use basic and overplayed hip hop breaks. It's a great example of what Quasimoto is about. You get the beats stopping, starting, changing when you least expect them and then you get the vocal skills of him and his alter ego bouncing off of one another.

"Rappcats pt.3", from the current album, "The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas", is Madlib paying homage to all the old skool rappers and producers that have influenced him. Although there is not so much of the high pitched one on this short track, he still manages to convey the feel of a crew of rappers while they flow over the top of some more inventive breaks and samples.

Track : YESTERDAYS NEW QUINTET - "TOO HIGH"

After Quasimoto flipped me out, the next thing I heard from Madlib was his "Angles Without Edges" CD under the guise of Yesterdays New Quintet. His love of Jazz was obvious from "The Unseen", what I did not expect though was that he would release a proper Jazz album. With more than a passing nod to the late 60's early 70's Jazz sounds, the album, though good, was a bit hard going. But hey, it's Jazz, that's what you expect. What I did not expect, after reading the sleeve notes and seeing the names of the band members, was again for it to turn out a couple of months down the line that it was all the work of Madlib himself. The band didn't exist. Even more astounding was the fact thet he set himself a challenge to see if he could do it, picked up some cheap instruments and then taught himself how to play.

"Too High" is from his second Yesterdays New Quintet album. This time, the self taught musician paid homage to Stevie Wonder by getting his ficticious band to give Wonder's back catalogue the YNQ treatment. Very impressive it is too with "Too High" being one of the highlights.

Track : MADVILLAIN - "FANCY CLOWN"

Aside from producing his own faux hip hop tracks, Madlib has been known to produce for other people. His album "Madvillainry" with hip hop artist MF Doom was well received and "Fancy Clown" was definitely one of the most memorable tracks on the CD. Unfortunately it only clocked it around about the 2 minute mark. The version above is an unreleased mix of "Fancy Clown" and is longer and better.

It gives MF Doom more scope to spin out his dissing rhyme, on himself, under his guise of Viktor Vaughan. The tale is of Vaughan having a go at his girlfriend who is cheating on him with Metalface, another of MF Doom's alter ego's. The beauty here is that this version being double the length features more of Madlib's phenomenal production skills. A great vocal refrain is chopped up over a piano loop to provide the backdrop for Doom's schizophrenic rap. Just when it starts to settle down the atmosphere is broken up with Madlib dropping a fight into the mix before the vocal kicks back in and everything returns to normal.

The above tracks are just a small insight into the musical world Madlib inhabits. There are numerous other things I could have posted, stuff from his "Shades Of Blue" compilation in which he remixed a handpicked selection of Blue Note classics, then there was his Reggae / Dub mix for Trojan records and not to mention his Broken Beat-esque guise of DJ Rels. He's a tremendously prolific and always interesting artist. His music has messed with my head and kept me entertained for years and long may it continue to do so.

Go Visit : Madlib @ Stones Throw Records
(worth checking out the Stones Thrown Jukebox as Madlib's mix from a couple of weeks agao for Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show is up for downloading and on the Video section is the psychadelic animated promo for Quasimoto's "Bullyshit".)

Go Buy - Quasimoto - The Unseen
Go Buy - Quasimoto - The Further Adventures OF Lord Quas
Go Buy - Yesterdays New Quintet - Stevie
Go Buy - Madvillain - Madvillainry

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie.