Madlib, Madlib, Madlib
He's actually the reason I make beats today, well not make beats but he had a HEAVY influence on what the machine I picked.
I remember when I first heard about Madlib it was in a Scratch Magazine article. After reading the article, I quickly went out and bought The Further Adventures of Lord Quas. I bumped that shit on the regular (can't do it so much, my disc is scratched now; isn't that ironic?).
I had knowledge of him before that article though because I went and bought Madvillany. After finding out he produced it, my favorite joint on there "Raid", I really wanted to know more about him. In the article he said that he used a Boss Sp 303 to make most of the beats. I was like damn, I wanna be like this guy.
Now lets not forget, I'm a total Wu-Stan. So when I heard that shit he did with Ghostface, the "Block Rocks" joint, I went nuts. I'm still trying to figure out what is he sampling. Which will bring me to another point I will make in another blog. But Madlib, that dude, don't forget, loop digga. He even outshined, J Dilla on the beats on the Jaylib joint in my opinion (Dilla got him on rhymes though). He just flips so many styles and it seems like he's not even trying. He even laced Erykah Badu something terrible. God. Madlib, top 10 producer, fuck your favorite.

You guys should have saw this coming, I've been talking about sir Jay Electronica for a minute. To go on some Act 1 or Eardrum type shit, I first heard of Jay Electronica back in 2004 I believe. Ghostface is my favorite emcee of all time so I have the Source magazine where he is on the cover. After looking through the articles I went to the unsigned hype column and guess who was there.

I was reading about dude through this article and was like "damn dude must be hot". I spent the longest time trying to figure out how to get a hold of this cd that the source got a change to listen to. I never did get a chance to get that cd.

But as the future would have it, Mr. Electronica would emerge on the internet. I was doing my usual readings of the posts at Sohh.com and saw someone post the name, Jay Electronica. I then thought back to my old source magazine, read it again real quick and downloaded that shit. Since then I've been sucked in. Theres nothing I haven't heard from dude, with the exception of the infamous "War With The Dragon" mixtape. But dude is fire, if you haven't checked him, what the fuck are you waiting for?

I don't know what to say. I will say that I am very intune with Miss Erykah. I think that she is a wonderful artist. With that said, who has listened to New AmErykah? Well I did and I'm already looking forward to the second disc coming out in June.
Basically this album is straight, straight, straight hip hop. I personally think that this is the most hip hop album to come out in the last couple of months or this year at least. She got Madlib, Sa-Ra, 9th Wonder and someone else (i forgot whom) on the boards. Personally after hearing her and Madlib I think that they should do an album together on some Liberation type shit. This album reminds me of Baduizm and Madvillian all messed together. Picture Erykah singing over shit like "Fancy Clown" or "All Caps" and thats what you get from this. I will say that if you don't buy this album you should at least hear "The Healer", "Me", "Soldier", "Master Teacher" (nice Curtis Mayfield flip), and "That Hump".

The first artist in my artist of the week profile will be Elzhi of Slum Village. Why? Simply cause he's fucking dope. My first introduction to Elzhi was on Little Brother's second cd, The Minstrel Show, on the song "Hiding Places". I've heard him before on "Selfish" but this was the first time I actually paid attention to his lyrics. Peep them

"Don't compare me to jokes I'll strangle the air in your throat
Like you jump from a chair and choke in mid-air from a rope
Got a big gun and carry a scope the flair of the smoke
Keep niggaz quiet like words that librarians spoke I'm arrogant,
Outlandish blow your face out, and shake out the dandruff
The jakes wont make out the handprints
I'm as real as it gets, with the steel and the clips
Bark and make niggaz duck, and kneel and do splits"

God how could you not want to hear more of this guy after that? But he has no solo album out so i had to do a lot of research and he did record a solo album in 97 but it was never released. In about 2001 he got his masters for the album and it leaked the internet. I d/l'd it and if that album was in stores I'd go get it.

I can't really explain how geninuely good this dude is with the multisymbolic flow. So you gotta be the judge for you self check him out.

http://www.myspace.com/zhifi