Thursday 2 October 2008

'WLIB AM King of the Wigflip' - Madlib (album review)

If I’m honest, Madlib confuses me what with all the aliases and collaborations and the HUGE back catalogue. To become a fan - where to begin?!

On the intriguingly entitled ‘WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip’ Madlib sticks to his Beat Konducta moniker. What is immediately clear from listening to this LP is that Madlib, despite what his die-hard fans may think, shines far brighter when providing beatscapes for quality MC’s.

The tracks solely accredited to The Beat Konducta are nothing more than filler to my ears, albeit filler that, if a rapper had stepped to it, would probably be hot. The tracks with singers don’t do anything for me either – props for branching out but when the album is blessed by heavy weight MC’s the sung tracks flop with the only exception being ‘Yo Yo Affair pt. 1 & 2.

The album is more than worth a purchase for the rocking stand out moments such Guilty Simpson’s ‘Blow the Horns on ‘Em’, Defari’s awesome ‘Gamble On Ya Boy’, Prince Po’s eccentric ‘The Thang-Thang’, Talib’s Reflection Eternal-ish ‘What it Do’ and the stripped down Murs track, ‘Ratrace’.

Madlib closes BBE’s Beat Generation in style leaving this reviewer ready to hear more Madlib/MC collaborations old and new.

3 comments:

theneedledrop said...

There are some tracks that I didn't like, but I know others must be digging them a lot. I just like how the album has a wide array of different hip hop styles. I guess it just plays to the versatility of Madlib.

Anonymous said...

Madlib is at his best with himself (Quasimoto, YNQ) or with one great collaborator (MF DOOM, Dilla). This album's got some cool tracks, but not a highlight in his exciting career.

Travis said...

I'm not usually the biggest Madlib fan, but I like this release a lot, but I've heard of a lot of diehard Madlib fans that don't care for it...