Still,
I know my weird music, and I know some weird hip hop via MF DOOM. His
Operation: Doomsday
preceded The Unseen by
a year, and in many ways they feel like long lost cousins. That
Madlib would work with DOOM on 2004's Madvillain project speaks to
this, sure, but it's also the eccentric style, beats, and samples
that both used which make this connection stronger. Well, I mean, the
two albums do sample
Scooby Doo, so the connection is already strong...though I didn't
mean it that literally. It's more like how Madlib's stoned flow and
his I-just-inhaled-some-helium voice as alter ego Quasimoto are a
perfect foil to DOOM's sleepy and congested style. But I digress.
While
Doomsday may have a
higher percentage of classic hooks and beats, The Unseen
is better overall. It's safe to say, you've never quite heard an
album, hip hop or otherwise, that sounds like this. 'Return Of The
Loop Digga' is like a miniature epic, stopping in a record store for
a skit halfway through before the beat is switched up and the song
continues. Sure, Madlib may also showcase some killer beats in a more
traditional way, like the addictive organ loop of 'Discipline 99 Pt.
0', but The Unseen is
defined by tracks like 'Return Of The Loop Digga' and 'Come On Feet',
the latter of which singlehandedly could justify hip hop to an
ignorant friend who thinks rap is all posturing, bragging, sex, and
violence (watch the video for even more oddness). No, Quasimoto is
not as outright weird as, say, Captain Beefheart, but like that
legend's most out-there moments, no one else sounds like this,
either.
And
make no mistake: you will have to go through a slight learning curve
to truly dig this record as you would with something by Beefheart.
Again, the comparison is as direct as their eccentric
learn-to-love-it vocals, but I refer more to how you don't know quite
what to make of this music right away. It's true that Madlib never
was and never will be a gifted MC, so there isn't an immediate draw
there, but his style is a brilliant match for the eccentric, spaced
out production. As with Trout Mask Replica,
The Unseen will take
some patience to unlock. Especially because, like most hip hop albums
of its era, The Unseen
is 10 to 15 minutes too long.
Hold
on, though. Unlike most hip hop albums of its era, The
Unseen has made this sprawl into
part of the appeal. Where skits become annoying tracks you skip over
by the third listen on, say, Ghostface Killah's Supreme
Clientele, Madlib as Quasimoto
incorporates them into his songs. Similarly, where there's two or
three tracks you could drop from MF DOOM's Operation:
Doomsday to make it a better
record, there is no obvious filler or weak material here.
The Unseen
was supposedly recorded over the course of a weeklong magic
mushroom binge, and while that may
help explain some of the weirdness going on here, it can't account
for the imagination and talent on display. From this 2000 release,
Madlib would go on to become one of the most prolific and influential
producers/musicians of his generation, and many of his projects would
gain greater recognition and praise. Yet The Unseen
is a perfect distillation of what makes him so compelling as well as
being a perfect case for how much can still be done with hip hop.
5 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment