Madlib Invasion US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Madlib's mad one a month release mission continues with his fifth outing on his own imprint, Madlib Invazion. The odd numbers in the series are joints produced by the man himself, while the evens are mixtapes. This one looks at his personal history as a the loop digga over a ten year span in which Madlib cranked out a whole slew of mixtapes. They were his early productions for the Alkaholiks in about 1992, while his popular Quasimoto album came in 2000, before a sabbatical saw him go and work on his fictional jazz outfit Yesterdays New Quintet.

Review: If you like Madlib then you will like this - a new and exclusive 28-track collection of the legendary hip-hop icon's best collaborations. Featuring are the likes of A.G., Guilty Simpson, MED, Oh No and Strong Arm Steady, with Karriem Riggins appearing for a Supreme Team session. There is also a special track taken from the Jaylib-era that was meant to be on a second album which never ended up being released. To finish it off, plenty of Loop Digga instrumentals, as well as some textbook interludes and outerludes also help colour this one and make it such a vivid listen.

Review: These are two serious legends right here: Madlib the extraordinary beatmaker behind countless seminal albums and collabs and Guilty Simpson the man who has voiced just as many classic records of his own. This limited edition gold vinyl double album version of Before The Verdict: Madlib Medicine Show #1 is considered a prelude to this pair's collaborative album O.J. and has a mix of original cuts as well as remixes from Simpson's own solo debut album Ode to the Ghetto. It's as real and raw as rap gets and features two brief guest appearances from J Dilla and MED.

Review: Yesterdays Universe was a loosely connected group of jazz musicians performing under various different and mysterious names and projects. Everything they did was produced and arranged by Madlib and this latest collection is a load of new and unreleased works from the mad talented collective. It copperas a rabid array of styles from the more hip hop leaning to the full experimental and wildly improvisational. Some of the band names alone are worth the cover price, from The Big Black Foot Band to Russell Jenkins Jazz Express.

Review: The Jahari Massamba Unit is an all new jazz project from the legendary Madlib and Karriem Riggins. Madlib is responsible for all the instrumentals bar the drums, which Riggins takes care of, and both bring a wealth of jazz and hip hop experience and knowledge to the collaboration. The sounds are best described as spiritual jazz, or as Madlib calls it 'Black classical music', and are steeped in history while also offering up a vision of the future. There are moments of abstract sun worshiping, lush broken beat grooves with exquisite solos and more prickly pieces. This sure is another vital entry into the ever excellent discography of Madlib.

Review: Originally released in 2010, this album from Madlib's Medicine Show series saw him delving deep into the pocket of mother Africa for his source material, coming up with new slants on his unmistakable grooves. The samples centred around African records from the early 70s, from Afrobeat to funk, psych rock to soul, from all over the continent. Of course, Madlib is one of those artists whose signature is so strong, it all ends up sounding like him, but these high-life guitar licks and dusty drum beatdowns add an extra layer of vibe to one of the illest producers to ever do it. 37 beats taking you deep into the continent where it all began.