Madlib’s Medicine Show and my impressions [Curiosities #81]

By Curt Busch

This last week I caught up with Madlib’s Medicine Show project, his unique cycle of monthly releases that have featured new instrumentals, remixes and genre-specified DJ sets. He’s taking September off, which is giving me and his fans the opportunity to exhale and review what one of the most prolific hip-hop producers of all-time has been up to in 2010.

Short answer? He’s making more music than anyone else.

I was originally going to write a long piece explaining why I think the Medicine Show is comparable to modern art in the Digital/Internet/Information Age because of its traits as an “ongoing performance,” an aesthetic that draws attention over time, revealing itself slowly and steadily, staying relevant amongst our overwhelming barrage of media content, essentially creating what comes together as a puzzle (a puzzle of art!).

Yeah, so that’s why I didn’t keep going with that. I was also going to shout-out Stones Throw as being well-ran in every way and say that they are leading the way in innovative business models and such. But really, I just want to write about the music, so below are my impressions (some of which are “first”) of the first eight volumes of Otis Jackson Jr.’s Medicine Show cycle.

No. 1: Before the Verdict

These are mostly new hip-hop beats that sound dark and stressed, with that abrupt, lo-fi signature production. Fans will be reminded of Madlib’s Mind Fusion volumes, even recognizing a few beats re-used here.

Madlib uses label-mate Guilty Simpson’s vocals throughout. Some are remixes, some are from OJ Simpson. The gruff Simpson raps in a clear, unaffected gangster style with enough talent to leave your opinion of him up to a matter of taste. I dismissed him at first; he sounded too limited and clumsy, but multiple listens reveal a consistency in his meat-and-potatoes flow that becomes mesmerizing.

It’s a strange pair though. However engaging Madlib’s subtle production qualities become, they sometimes don’t accentuate Simpson’s style, which is stadium-sized and better fit for party anthems. Someone hook him up with Shawty Redd (Young Jeezy’s best producer).

No. 2: Flight to Brazil

Possibly the most universally pleasing mix in the series, No. 2, has me tempted to forge a low-profile DJ career in which I purchase a Mac and play Madlib mixes on it. His selections are agreeable, probably very much so if you are interested in ’60s and ’70s Latin American funk and jazz. Listen long enough and fall into a trance until you’re unexpectedly awoken by a shift in sound.

No. 3: Beat Konducta in Africa

A series within a series, this is the fourth of the themed Beat Konducta albums, his series of hip-hop beats. You always have to expect Madlib to ignore any semblance of convention, but No. 3 is especially brilliant and insane. Example? Over the course of a 2-minute song he will cram two different beats into it, as if 43 tracks weren’t enough. The man grows ideas out of ideas.

Beat Konducta in Africa‘s source material seems hardly chopped up, barely put into what qualifies as a “beat,” which separates it from the rest of the series; it’s more Medicine Show than Beat Konducta. There’s a strange blurring of duties; you don’t know what’s being produced and whats being DJ’d.  It’s a display of Madlib’s waning interest in hip-hop as we know hip-hop to sound. I still haven’t decided if this is a good thing.

No. 4: 420 Chalice All-Stars

Madlib is your favorite stoner’s favorite stoner, or something. This mix reminded me that Medicine Show is probably a reference to medical marijuana. I’m slow.

No. 4 will be familiar to those who have heard Madlib’s 2002 reggae mix, Blunted in the Bombshelter, in which he was given access to the Trojan Records catalog. Here we have another 70 minutes of DJing like time is running out, like vinyl across the globe is about to spontaneously combust. It’s pretty simple in the case of No. 4: You like reggae? Here you go.

No. 5: History of the Loop Digga (1990-2000)

I own a Roland SP-404 sampler/drum machine. It’s become a pretty archaic tool in times of computer software and it’s sort of a difficult little thing to work with. It takes patience and manual skill. Most professional producers (even when it was new) would choose to upgrade if recording.

So here’s an insight: Madlib made at least two tracks (according to the Stones Throw website) on Madvillain’s Madvillainy, arguably the best hip-hop album of last decade, using an SP-303, an even lesser machine. Yeah. This is who we’re dealing with.

For me, this is the most interesting release in the Medicine Show cycle, since Madlib has never been an artist to dwell, or look back. No. 5 chronicles the decade (mostly) before the producer’s “career” began (Lootpack’s debut was from 1999). There’s nothing shocking about the beats, minimal soul, funk and jazz loops put over break-beats with home-studio production quality. Madlib raps on a few and we hear his first experiments with voice modification in what are maybe the earliest recordings of his shroomed-out alter-ego, Quasimoto.

No. 6: The Brain Wreck Show

Because Madlib’s “sound” is determined by what he’s sampling, No. 6 compiles the producer’s latest interests, which lean on chopping up weirdo prog-psych-acid-funk-rock from exotic locale like Germany, Nigeria and Brazil. About the half of the mix finds Madlib creating an ambiance out of extended interludes and vocal samples. It can veer toward boring if you’re not into that sort of thing, but I was excited when a few sources from the second Quasimoto LP “The Further Adventures of Lord Quas” were revealed.

No. 6 is the most diverse volume in the series, with maybe the most unrecognizable records; definitely not a party-starter. Save this one for the after party, or at least that room at the party with an active Volcano (the non-deadly kind) and Adult Swim on the tube.

No. 7: High Jazz

This, along with No. 1, is Madlib the arranger … I think. Very similar to his Yesterday’s Universe project, which was arguably the man’s best jazz album, No. 7 is full of his made-up jazz bands. OK, this is going to get weird, awesomely weird.

Essentially (please, Stones Throw, correct me if I’m wrong), Madlib creates “bands” – The Otis Jackson Jr. Trio (just him), The Joe McDuphey Experience (just him), The Jahari Massamba Unit (a unit consisting of him), his prolific Yesterday’s New Quintet (yeah, a quintet of himself) – and covers compositions, in wildly original ways that almost make them his own. There are dozens of other “bands” he plays under; thanks Wikipedia.

There are at least two collaborations here, both of which may be original joints. The opening track is from Jackson Conti, a project with Ivan Conti, drummer of ’70s Brazilian funk band Azymuth. Their 2009 LP involved Madlib (last name Jackson) sending weird jazz-funk originals to Conti, who would drum over them in Brazil and send them back; check that teriffic LP out here.

The second collaboration is under the name Poyser, Riggins, and Jackson, which, I presume, is Madlib joining with James Poyser, veteran hip-hop/R&B producer, and Karriem Riggins, a Detroit jazz drummer (worked a lot with J Dilla; supposedly did a full-length with Madlib that’s hiding somewhere). It’s called “Funky Butt, Part 1” and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything better or more progressive amongst new jazzy funk music; it’s Headhunters-esque. If you like nu-jazz, or any of Madlib’s jazz projects, this is the number you want.

No. 8: Advanced Jazz

Though he’s abstract in nearly everything else, Otis Jackson Jr. is quite literal in his naming of things. Track titles include “Miles,” “Ornette,” “Pharoah,” “Herbie,” “Mingus,” and “Ra” … ‘cause you know, those guys are “advanced”, or whatever. Jackson Jr. mixes in his normal “Madlibisms,” re-asserting the fact that he definitely has a medical marijuana card and definitely has more jazz records than you.

PHEEWWWW, just going to relax and listen to some weird Sun Ra track now …