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Complex June/July 2003 Full Page | Text Only
TO CALL MADLIB PROLIFIC is the understatement of 2003. The Lootpack member who first earned props in 1994 with his beats for Tha Alkaholiks' "Mary Jane," will be juggling projects all year. This spring, he dropped Blunted In The Bomb Shelter, a 45-track reggae comp that plays like a hip-hop mix but sounds like pure, vintage Kingston. Two full-length collaborations, one with Jay Dee (as Jaylib) and another with MF Doom (as MadVillian), are due by fall. And that's not even counting assorted alter egos such as Yesterday's New Quintet and helium-voiced MC Quasimoto. Another current project, Shades Of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note, marks a return to his first love. "About 70 percent of my record collection is jazz," the rapper-DJ-producer says. "I grew up listening to Blue Note. My uncle and grandparents always said it was the highest-quality music." The legendary label let Madlib put his funky imprint on its catalog, via remixes and new recordings, and the-notorious Loop Digga was happy to trawl through the vault: "I knew most of this shit since I was young, like, nine-years old... but I didn't have all of the records. My grandparents did. I had Donald Byrd, the Three Sounds, Horace Silver-but that's basic."–Kurt B. Reighley BOBBI HUMPHREY Blacks And Blues (1973) "This is one of my favorite Mizell Brothers productions. They're one of my favorite teams of producers and arrangers. They had that L.A. pimp sound. Imagine that-doing some funky pimp music for Blue Note. The way they got the back- ground vocals to work was dope, too. They can't really sing too well, but it works. Just like with Dudley Perkins." HERBIE HANCOCK The Prisoner (1969) "That's when he flipped his whole style from doing pretty melodies to doing out bugged-out jazz. This was around the same time as Fat Albert Rotunda, and before the Death Wish soundtrack. So it was a completely different sound than, say, the Blow-Up soundtrack. This was in the Black Panther days. Rebellious." THE THREE SOUNDS Soul Symphony (1969) "It's all about [arranger] Monk Higgins. This album has the classic Higgins sound. Funky, funky piano by Gene Harris, with strings, and a funky electric bass- with acoustic bass alongside it, of course. The way Pete Rock and Large Professor flipped it for 'Vamos A Rapiar' on Main Source's Breaking Atoms LP was dope." LARRY YOUNG Heaven On Earth (1968) "I flipped the bass line for a Quasimoto song. Matter of fact, I used [all] the music, the guitar and everything, for the original version of 'Disciple 99,' with the Lee Dorsey drums. The album's all Hammond organ and bass lines, not the usual stuff. I like some of his later records, like [1975's] Fuel, but some of it's too funky for me, with that poppy bass sound." JOHN COLTRANE Blue Train (1957) "The guy that's on my shirt as I speak these words. That's just a great album to cool out to, whip up some food, hit some skins.., whatever. It was before Coltrane became all bugged-out. It's amazing bebop, after the bebop era." |
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