We make no secret of how Madlib is one of our absolute heroes, and we’re confident we’ve heard almost every beat he’s ever produced. If you are not familiar with some of his lesser-known work, then check this stream of instrumentals released by Rappcats. The tracks first featured as bonuses on the Beat Konducta in Africa release, part of Madlib’s epic Medicine Show series.
Category: Madlib
Random YouTube man puts pictures to Dilla’s classic Donuts
Hip-hop music videos just ain’t what they used to be, and they weren’t that great even when they were. They still have a place though, but what do you do when you want to put pictures to a work that never had videos, years after the fact?
If you are video maker Houston Loves J Dilla, you make your own video by stitching together hours of random footage. But when the music you are working with happens to be J Dilla’s Donuts, one of the most revered albums in hip-hop, you have to tread carefully. Thankfully, the boy has done good.
Coming off more like a short film, the clip illustrates the entire 43 minutes of the Donuts album, gifting us a respectful and skilful pastiche of an absolute classic. Watch below for yourself and let us know what you think.
Why we are all just hypocrites (but with good taste)
The Music Snobs is one of our favorite podcasts, and on the latest episode, the panel of experts discuss that age old problem. In short, the issue is this; are we hypocritical for liking the music of an artist we know has either done or claimed to be doing bad shit? And are we super-hypocritical if we stop liking some artists for the bad shit they have been accused of having done, but give a pass to others, purely because they are so good (case in point: MJ).
It’s an argument that has and always will be most relevant to hip-hop, where a lot of what we like is music about negative subjects. Even the naive rap fan knows that most of what comes out of a rapper’s mouth is fiction, but many rappers would like us to believe that what they are saying is real. We also know for sure that some really have lived the life they rap about, from drug dealing to murder charges, assaults to sexual misdemeanors. Should we be supporting and helping to make wealthy a person we know has broken the law in a horrible way? Here in lies the conflict.
Ultimately, we are all more than a little hypocritical in our tastes. Personally, we pride ourselves on liking only the finest, intelligent, non-commercial hip-hop, yet we’ll confess to having many guilty pleasures, even if we know the content of the song we are listening to is down right immature and several types of wrong.
We’ll also give a pass to a work like Pinata, justifying our love of an album all about slanging dope largely because the whole thing is produced by Madlib. We find ourselves sugar-coating Royce Da 5’9″ and his frequent misogyny on the latest PRhyme album because he’s saying those words over a DJ Premier beat, just like how we’ll excuse the casual homophobia on a Tyler, The Creator or Mac Miller record. And the reason why we’ll do all of this is because we are massive hypocrites. Albeit hypocrites with impeccable taste.
It’s a debate that will rage on forever, but one that can’t be fully ignored. Most of us got into hip-hop because we were intrigued by the stories the songs told us, mostly negative. Over the years, as we have grown up with rap and matured into responsible adults, our tastes in hip-hop have matured too. Yet we’ll still regularly listen to a track like Put it in your Mouth by Akinyele or Bridgette by The Doc, or tracks from M.O.P., Kool G Rap and Biggie Smalls, where they rap about murdering people in all manner of bloody and violent ways, and hundreds of other songs about seemingly bad people doing bad things. And that’s because we are hypocrites.
Listen to the debate for yourself below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Dilla Day 2015
February 10, 2006. For many hip-hop heads, it was the day the music died, for it was the date that the great J Dilla passed away. His legacy lives on in all of us though, and for several years since his death, his mother, the much-loved Ma Dukes, has organized the annual Dilla Day event.
The 2015 edition is leaving Dilla’s hometown of Detroit for Miami instead, and the confirmed line-up of artists is already incredible. His old group Slum Village will be there, as will frequent Dilla collaborators Talib Kweli and Madlib, plus the legend Pete Rock. Other guests include Black Milk, whose music has been inspired by Jay Dee, alongside Joey Badas$$, Camp Lo and more. That adds up to a fine selection of talent paying their respect to one of the greatest of all time.
This year the event is also being extended to an entire weekend, from February 5-8. Tickets are available from here right now. Peep the flyer below for more.
Let’s hope 2015 is full of MF Doom goodness
DJ Premier has been busy conducting interviews over the last few days, documenting the sad demise of his beloved D&D Studios. We’ve been reading along with a few tears in our eyes, but there was also some enticing details from Primo about an extended deluxe version of the PRyhme album. That alone would be exciting enough, but when Preem added that one of the tracks will feature MF Doom, us and everybody else started losing our shit.
There’s many artists we’ve dreamed about hooking up with Metal Fingaz over the years, but Premier has always been right around the top. Catch them both at their best, which is pretty much always, and this could be incredible. It would also be the prefect way to kick off a year that, metal fingers crossed, will bring us a lot of Doom.
There’s that long-delayed and almost mythical full length album with Ghostface Killer. GFK himself recently hinted it is coming this year, and for now it has at least been confirmed that Doom will feature with Ghost on his upcoming Sour Soul album with BADBADNOTGOOD.
In a rare interview with Bonafide magazine last year, Madlib also seemed to suggest that he and MF are at the very least throwing around ideas for the next Madvillain project. That news almost trumps everything else listed above.
Who else is on that list of our dream MF Doom collabs, you ask? Well, some are from way back, like the thought of him sharing the mic with Sir Menelik (currently somewhat AWOL from the game), Company Flow era El-P, Edan, Ill Bill and Kool Keith (before you purists go nuts at us, we know Kool Keith was on Venomous Villain, and there are also tracks with El-P dotted around online, but we want a more significant set of hookups).
Current artists on the wishlist include Action Bronson, Your Old Droog, and the modern era El-P (riding shotgun with his Run The Jewels partner Killer Mike of course). A few months back, 9th Wonder also mentioned how he’d love to work with Doom, and the prospect of that is equally incredible.
If just some of these projects see the light of day, this could be another vintage year for good hip-hop music.
Watch Oh No sample video games in the latest Rhythm Roulette
The new episode of Mass Appeal’s brilliant Rhythm Roulette series features one of our favorite producers, Oh No. Although sometimes lost under the huge shadow of his brother Madlib, Oh has proved himself to be one of the most consistent beat makers of the past decade, crafting incredible sounds for his own albums, and on classics by Mos Def, Guilty Simpson, Murs, Talib Kweli, MED and many others.
In a twist to the normal process, Oh No visits a video game store to make his three selections, where his hands fall upon Karate Champ, Nascar 99 and NWO/WCW Revenge, all for Nintendo 64 (remember that?).
Back in the lab, Oh No gives each game a play, and seems to have some trouble figuring the controls for the wrestling joint. He then starts working his magic, and before long we have a credible beat, sourcing a loop and various vocal stabs from the games.
Check the video below to hear the end result. All we need now is for his older brother to take up the Rhythm Roulette challenge.
Rare old video of MF Doom way before the mask
Images of MF Doom without the mask on are rare. Dig around YouTube and you’ll find some of those old KMD videos with him in, back when he was known as Zed Love X. Since then though, clear shots of the man with the government name Daniel Dumile have been hard to come by.
Look closely at the Viktor Vaughn Mr Clean video and you do catch some glimpses, but these are obscured by the animation. It all adds to the mystique of course, and its one of the things we love most about the mythical Metal Face Doom.
A little insight is nice once in a while though, which makes this little gem of a video doing the rounds yesterday a bit special. Its from 1991, where a fresh-faced 19 year old Zed Love X addresses congress peeps about Rock the Vote and other initiatives to get young people voting.
It’s interesting to hear him drop knowledge, but even more fascinating when you remember this is the same man that has gone on to give us so much good music since. Watch the clip here:
http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4513596
Read our review of NehruvianDOOM here.
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Knicks remix, feat. Action Bronson and Joey Bada$$
Madlib and Freddie Gibbs recently announced a new EP of remixes from their already-certified-classic Piñata. The internet predictably lost it’s shit, and we can understand why.
A couple of tracks have already surfaced from the project, the standout being a remix of Knicks, featuring none other than Flushing’s finest chef Action Bronson, and the always-impressive Joey Bada$$.
The other track is Home, featuring new verses from Gangster Gibbs, plus a guest spot from BJ the Chicago Kid. It was available online, but has recently been pulled.
The Gibbs and Madlib Kicks Remix EP will be released November 18. No word yet on exactly when the much-anticipated full length debuts from Joey Bada$$ and Action Bronson will arrive.