Madlib Medicine Show No. 7 - High Jazz

by Madlib

With this entry in the on-going Madlib Medicine Show, the Loop Digga gives us fifteen tracks of high-minded and beautiful jazz.  As with most of his jazz projects, the work here is attributed to no less than eleven different bands or groups of artists, although I'm quite certain that most of these people are fictional, and that Madlib has done the whole thing himself.

It does become easy to question that assumption though, as the liner notes are full of pictures of the different records that these tracks were taken off of, and there is much to suggest that all these people exist.

Not that it matters though, because we're here for the music.  This cd is full of lovely, effervescent jazz.  It's easily my favourite of Madlib's jazz albums (competing with Sujinho, the Jackson Conti collabo), as it doesn't have much that is 'challenging' or hard to listen to.  That is not to say that it's an "easy-listening" jazz album, it just doesn't ever hurt.

Of note on here is 'Funky Butt, Part 1', which is a collaboration with James Poyser and Karriem Riggins, two artists who are always working the underside of hip-hop, and never receive much recognition.  This is probably the most consistent of the Medicine Show projects released so far.

Crate Digging: Electric Circus

by Common

It felt like it was time to re-examine Common's much maligned and misunderstood 2002 album Electric Circus, which was mostly produced by the Soulquarians - ?uestlove, J Dilla, and James Poyser, although the Neptunes step in on a few tracks.

The album starts with an innocuous and bland intro, before moving into a nice Dilla track, 'Soul Power'.  'Aquarius' is another strong track, but 'Electric Wire Hustler Flower' is exactly the type of song that led to this album being criticized so heavily.  It's actually a decent piece of music, but I think that 2002 wasn't quite ready for it.

From there, the album moves back and forth through a few different moods.  Karriem Riggins provides a cool beat for 'The Hustle', and then we get the Neptunes's version of 'Come Close', which is a great song, but not as good as the Dilla remix which came out afterwards.

A big part of the problem with this album is that it moves from nice airy optimistic songs like 'New Wave' to countrified bangers like 'I Got a Right Ta', to story-based songs like 'Between Me, You & Liberation'.  It's a little like Common had a vision for the album, one best matched by the barely hip-hop songs like 'Jimi Was A Rock Star', but then got cold feet and had to include some slightly more traditional numbers.

The album ends with 'Heaven Somewhere', a long and lovely piece that features a number of incredible singers like Cee-Lo, Bilal, Jill Scott, Mary J. Blige, and Erykah Badu, before being given over to Common's 'Pops', who always closes his albums with a spoken word piece.

At the end of it, it's easy to see why this album wasn't very well-liked when it was released, but after being allowed to age a few years, it appears to have predicted some of the more spaced out hip-hop of artists like Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow, and is an important piece in the evolution of Dilla and ?uestlove's production.

New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh

by Erykah Badu

This is a very cool album, although it has some interesting differences from its predecessor, New Amerykah Part One.  The earlier album had a number of stand-out hip-hop tracks produced by Madlib and Karriem Riggins, while this is a much softer affair.

There are still some amazing drums, but the general feeling of this album is both more gentle and laconic.  There are a number of gifted producers working with her on this, including Madlib, Riggins, Shafiq Husayn, James Poyser, and, at the very end, Georgia Anne Muldrow, her musical sibling.  Many of the tracks have live instrumentals, including drums by ?uestlove.  And, of course, there is a lovely little Dilla beat.

Lyrically, the songs are quite sparse and thoughtful, as Badu uses her small voice to great effect.  This is a rare album; it's consistent and unique.  I know that much of this disk got overshadowed by the short-lived controversy surrounding the video to 'Window Seat', but it deserves to be listened to and examined on its own merits.