Madlib, The Beat Konducta

Album Reviews • Friday October 24th, 2008 • 11:00 am

Madlib, the man who is “DJ first, producer second, and MC last” has done it again with his new album WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip. Heir to a lineage that includes jazz, soul, R&B, and beat poetry, he mixes it up like a good producer should and ends up with a product that draws from the past while reaching to the future. The press release states that the album “plays like the days when AM radio ruled the airwaves, transmitting a crackling, low-fi mélange of endless sample fodder, vocal snippets, and sonic intuition, turning singles into stars and flipping wigs with each twist of the dial.” So that’s what a Wigflip is. An accurate description if I ever heard one. With the DJ’ing and producing locked down, who cares if he is an MC last when he has Guilty Simpson, Murs, and Talib Kweli, amongst others, helping him out.

When I think AM radio, I think the ’70s. Apparently so does he with vinyl records crackling and old school R&B samples scattered throughout the CD. Whether it is a nod to the short attention span of today’s listeners or simply a matter of style, the samples tend to be clipped at one or two bars and repeated until they are replaced. Most of the tracks open and close with unrelated sound snippets. In days past these might have been stand alone interludes but now are rolled into the tracks themselves. Tracks such as the opening operatic, “The New Resident,” the funky bass lined “Disco Dance,” and the curse filled closing, “Stop,” are short instrumentals. This all serves to give the entire album a staccato feel that keeps you on your toes, not unlike a clip being emptied in the ‘hood.

Speaking of, there are plenty of elements to remind the listener that this is West Coast hip hop. “Get your pistol, launch your missile…I got a feeling somebody’s gonna die tonight,” Guilt Simpson raps in “Go.” Craps is the game of the evening in “Gamble On Ya Boy,” while crack pipes and needles find their way into “Life.” Hood life is further explored in “Blow the Horns on Em” and “The Ox.” A bit too violent for me but it fits. If you’re a lover not a fighter there’s “Ratrace,” about those women that are “heavy on the top with the itty bitty waist.” “The Plan Pt.1” is an N’degeocello style soul song sung by Georgia Anne Muldrow. Or, if you prefer drugs to women, “Yo Yo Affair” is a Brand New Heavies style ode to marijuana, the drug that ties the beat era and jazz to modern hip hop.

In “I Want It Back,” Madlib raps, “Theoretically speaking it was stole and duplicated but the new generation don’t know the old.” With this one line he sums up both his intention with the album and hip hop in general. By taking samples and style from the past he introduces kids to musical history while creating a history of his own. Weaving music like so much hair in a wig, “King of the Wigflip” is more than just a boast.

Tagged as: BBe Music, Hip-hop, Rap