Madlib Medicine Show No. 12 - Raw Medicine: Madlib Remixes

Remixed and Produced by Madlib

I feel like the Madlib Medicine Show ended up being a bit of a disappointment in the end.  The monthly schedule was abandoned a while ago, and the last few entries (particularly the 9th one) weren't all that impressive.  When I first heard this twelfth (and final?) disc, I didn't much like it at first.  With repeated listening it grew on me, but I still feel like it's a little too long and self-indulgent (despite being, at 60 minutes, one of the shorter entries in this series).

Basically, Madlib has taken a bunch of older hip-hop songs, and remixed them, filling in the space between them with way too many interludes and skits that may be funny the first couple of times you hear them (especially if you're high), but quickly become tired and played out.  Artists that appear on this disc include J Dilla, MF Doom, Ghostface, Q-Tip, Phil da Agony, Sadat X, Guilty Simpson, MED, Cappadonna, The Clipse, Royce the 5'9, Musiq Soulchild, Frank N Dank, AZ, Royal Flush, Kardinal Offishall, and a bunch more.

As a background mix, it's pretty nice, and Madlib's beats are great, as always, but the disc lacks any kind of unity or consistency, and that makes it pretty forgettable.

The Renaissance

by Q-Tip
Q-Tip is one of the people who I credit for inspiring much of the underground - his work with A Tribe Called Quest remains a cornerstone of the genre, and it's really nice to see that he is still recording, and creating good music.

Sadly, it's not great music. This is very much a commercial album - hip-hop Adult Contemporary if you will. There is nothing wrong with any of the tracks on this disk, or with the overall feel of the album, but at the same time, it doesn't really stand out all that much. It's fantastic background music, and the kind of hip-hop album you can play when you have people over that don't really like hip-hop, and they'll be cool with it. It just doesn't do much to advance things.

Q-Tip handles the production on all the tracks, except for 'Move', which features a beat by J Dilla. Two actually, as it splits itself into two songs, which could have each held their own as separate tracks, especially when the second one is the best part of the album.

There are some lovely guest appearances by Norah Jones, Raphael Saadiq, and D'Angelo, but again, nothing particularly noteworthy (I liked Jones's appearance on Kweli's last album better). Q-Tip can still write and deliver some excellent lyrics - I just wish this album was a stronger example of that.