Madlib Medicine Show: The Brick

• February 21, 2012

IN THE STORE:
MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW: THE BRICK

13 albums – original Madlib productions, hip-hop, jazz, beat tapes – and DJ mixes from Madlib's 4-ton* mountain of vinyl. A grand experiment, a year in music. Thirteen CDs, thirteen booklets.

Originally announced in 2010: “Madlib is launching Madlib Medicine Show, a 12-part music series (12 CD's, 6 LP's) on his own imprint, Madlib Invazion. Odd numbers, beginning with #1 in Jan. 2010, will be original hip-hop, remix, beat tape and jazz productions; even numbers will be mixtapes of funk, soul, Brazilian, psych, jazz and other undefined forms of music from the Beat Konducta's 4-ton* stack of vinyl.”

Years before this series was announced Madlib had talked about an idea to release an album a month. For this producer, whose work thrives on a freestyle cut & paste, sometimes blurring the lines between original work and DJ mixing, there was little time or patience for the normal marketing and promotion norms of the music industry. By the start of 2010, it was time to experiment.

All told, the series became 13 releases, plus a few extra cuts of vinyl, and took nearly twice as long as expected. Along the way, some records got complicated, a few other projects took hold, some of the listeners lost track, while many others stayed for the whole trip.

Also see: Stand-alone edition of Madlib Medicine Show #13: Black Tape

THE BRICK is the complete collection, 13 CD's, 13 booklets. The releases are...

1. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #1: BEFORE THE VERDICT / (discussion)
Hip-hop Album feat. Guilty Simpson. Full-length, 17-tracks, combining new material and remixes.
2. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #2: FLIGHT TO BRAZIL / (discussion)
Mixtape. 80-minutes of Brazilian psyche, folk and jazz.
3. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #3: BEAT KONDUCTA IN AFRICA / (discussion)
Hip-hop Album.  Inspired by and based on African records of the early 1970s – obscure & independent vinyl gems from afro-beat, funk, psych-rock, garage-rock & soul movements from Africa.
4. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #4: 420 CHALICE ALL-STARS / (discussion)
Mixtape. All Jamaican sounds, 80 minutes. Complete with Los Angeles medicinal marijuana guide.
5. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #5: HISTORY OF THE LOOP DIGGA / (discussion)
Hip-Hop Album. Madlib's early years, 1990-2000, from beat cassettes produced for local rap crew Crate Digga's Palace.
6. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #6: THE BRAIN WRECK SHOW / (discussion)
Mixtape.  Psych-prog-avante-freak-out-funk rock mix CD.
7. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #7: HIGH JAZZ / (discussion)
Jazz Album. All new Madlib productions from his collective of jazz groups and musicians known as Yesterdays Universe.
8. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #8: ADVANCED JAZZ / (discussion)
Mixtape. A jazz music course with no grades, lecturer or tests - just a room of dusty jazz vinyl and Madlib at the turntable.
9. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #9: CHANNEL 85 PRESENTS NITTYVILLE / (discussion)
Hip-Hop Album feat. Frank Nitt. Loosely-based concept album around an obscure TV show, Nittyville, running on Channel 85. Full-length, 14 tracks.
10. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #10: BLACK SOUL / (discussion)
Mixtape. The Disco era, 80 mins, mixed by Madlib.
11. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #11: LOW BUDGET HIGH FI / (discussion)
Hip-Hop Album. Dirty Demos produced by Madlib, with The Professionals (Madlib+Oh No), MED, Strong Arm Steady, AG, Guilty Simpson, J. Rocc, Supreme Team (Madlib+Karriem Riggins), and Jaylib.
12. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW #12: RAW MEDICINE  
Hip-Hop Remixes. Part mixtape, part beat tape, featuring a host of un-suspecting collaborators that run the gamut from thugs, street poets, star emcees and underdogs. The show runs 60 minute with 30+ tracks.
13. MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW: 13: BLACK TAPE
Hip-Hop Remixes. The previously-unannounced encore to the Medicine Show series, and continuation of number 12. 60 minutes, 35 tracks.

(*4-tons of vinyl, this is true.)

www.stonesthrow.com/madlib