9th Wonder- The Listening (with Little Brother)

I was chilling in Waltham for celtics game 2, against the heat, at my friend nates, and through the game my friend Greg V and I got to talking some classic hip hop production, mostly stemming from my rediscovery of Bizarre Ride by the Pharcyde. My hip hop collection came by deep recommendation, and incurring hands on analysis, from my highschool pal DJ Shinyo, mister Matt H. Hes responsible for my love of Pharcyde, and my discovery of Madlib through Quasimoto on some blunted cruises, and so much of that classic production that makes good damn rhyming great.

Greg got to recommending the producer 9th Wonder, and a few choice albums through his long career. As Greg left for the night, i sighted checking out The Minstrel Show, and he said "yeah thats cool, but im really talking his earlier stuff". I checked the wikipedia again, and saw that the first album by Phontes group Little Brother also happened to be one of dudes first releases as a producer.

This song, the title track from The Listening, uses an arrangement style of building a song similarly to much of Madlibs work, starting a track with a short musical skit, then adding a tight band with MCs for a verse or two, breaking into a skit midsong, adding background music throughout the skit, and diving back in and out of verses and choruses. The album is awesome; thanks Greg.



the listening

Madlib-The Unseen (as Quasimoto)

I feel like I should smoke a blunt while I write this.

Initially, Madlib was best known as a beatsmith with a library of vinyl that he studied intimately, using it with great love and affection to throw together awesome jazz-inflected boombap or absurdist introductions, filled with dialogue taken from blaxploitation and classic comedic acts. Between mainstream releases, he perpetually puts out mixtapes, such as Blunted in the Bombshelter and his Medicine Show series, instrumental jazz, and collaborations with many of his close industry friends, like the classic Champion Sound, a team-up between Mablib and J. Dilla (RIP). Safe to say: dude is a fiend, prolific beyond belief. That said, one of his most loved records is The Unseen, an album dedicated to his blunt-smuggling Anteater alter-ego, Quasimato, the helium-voiced anti-hero first heard on the Lootpack track, Answers.

The first two tracks introduce us to a raw rap dystopia, welcoming us to violence before the Bad Character jumps in over chill as hell music and vocal samples darting in and out over rhymes about stabbing [fools] in the chest with pitchforks. The voice of Lord Quas turns some people off immediately, which I understand, but in a way it's a necessary tool used to express certain ideas and contradictions as Lord Quas continually attacks detractors for "phoniness" over the course of the album. Madlib appears as himself on many tracks with his conversational flow, sometimes acting as rational counterpoint, other times just showing up to school record clerks on the illest breakbeats.

But that voice. Like Joanna Newsom or Bjork, there's incredible skill in the composition and arrangement throughout, but when some people hear that voice they just cringe. It's a major problem, but it grows on you and soon you're accustomed to hearing him talk to Madlib about things like M.H.B.'s and their favorite Jazz Cats.

His jam Come On Feet arrives at track ten, as Quas tries to command his feet to help him escape an untimely fate after nine tracks of various misdeeds, segueing into some seriously crazy production. The great Melvin Van Peebles lends his voice (in sample form) with the classic line:

Come on feet, do your thing/
Cruise for me/
Trouble ain't no place to be



I'm not sure who did this claymation video for the song, but apparently it was official?

Thanks for the madness, Lord Quas.

Madlib Sampler 2

I wanted to do another post of some of the various work Madlib has put out through his career. Theres just so much great shit to chose from; my itunes is chock full of projects of his, and its really tough to find 3-4 tracks that really showcase his skills.. his shit runs deep. Certain albums could be posted alone and do him good justice, but i want to spread it out a bit.

Im going to start with a track from the Strong Arm Steady album he produced in summer 2010. This one is especially relevant because not only does it feature great madlib production with some smooth MCs, but its got Phonte from The Foreign Exchange/ Little Brother on vocals for that awesome chorus. I just recently picked up The Foreign Exchanges recent album, Authenticity, and it is some really great stuff. I will probably be writing about it soon.



Next, a track from the killer collaboration album Jaylib, where madlib and j dilla got together to fuse their skills and drop something sick. In their track The Red, a few things really show through in the recording; how great madlib and dilla both were, throughout their work, at finding really nice vocal samples to line the choruses of their songs; how hilariously bombed out madlibs rhyming is; and also how much fun the two of them must have had together.



Up next, short and sweet, is madlib getting down and dirty with Guilty Simpson on their album OJ Simpson; dude has a great aggressive flow a lot of the time, and madlib backs him up right with such a great sounding assembly of instruments.



Finally, another track from his collaboration with MF Doom, Madvillainy, which i have decided is the showcase album for you all to start on if you havent heard much madlib previously. It is the best of hip hop, and Accordian is one of many tracks i could have chose from to post, but not only is it a great song but it was apparently also released as a single; at least, thats the only reason i could see them producing a nice video for it. Love that line "ive got more lyrics than the church got 'oh lords'"