Madlib- WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip (Review)

The loop digga is back with his new album for the BBE Beat Generation series. This new project has a bunch of features and many of the tracks are only produced by Madlib with no rhyme input.

I really enjoyed this new album even though I only got part of it for this review (Holla at me BBE!!). I’ll go track by track.

Track 1- The New Resident
A great instrumental introduction to the album. A very eerie opener.

Track 5- Gamble on Your Boy (ft. Defari)

The hook on this song is kinda dumb. But on the verses Defari rips it. The loop is really smooth, some crazy bass with an awesome vocal sample.

Track 10- Heat

Madlib raps on this song, but I don’t know how. The beat seems impossible to rap on. Its just some distant distorted drums, with a hi-hat. Until you hear the xylophones and what might be an accordian. Producers need to get on his level.

Track 13- Life (ft. Karriem Riggins)

Karriem Riggins is a triple threat: Drummer, Producer, and Rapper. For this track he drops some pretty slow, basic rhymes over a fantastic beat. Madlib is really going wild with the soul samples on this album.

Track 15- Yo Yo Affair Pt. 1 & 2 (Frezna)

Remember that track “Eye” on Madvillainy? This is like that, but more lyrical substance.

Track 17- Disco Dance

This is an instrumental. I wanna hear Kweli rap over this…

Track 18- What It Do (Talib Kweli)

Kweli raps over this (cue laughter). He delivers 3 great verses on being real. The second verse is actually some crazy shit. Maybe one of my new favorite Kweli joints.

Track 20- Drinks Up (Frank N Dank)

Dilla associates Frank N Dank come with some pretty funny rhymes on this one. The beat is kind of like that Black Rob song “Ready” but much better in every way.

Track 23- Go! (Guilty Simpson)

This is a ridiculously hard track. Guilty Simpson murders, as expected. My favorite bars on this album might be these: You want lyrics? Try these fam./ You a joke like Black Man, White Man, and Chinese Man.

Track 24- Stop

The last track was called Go!. This one is called Stop. See what he did there? A real knee slapper that Madlib. This is another instrumental, to close out the album. Its a great beat but I just hope Madlib raps more on the full version of the album. (*Edit* When I checked the tracklist it looks like Lib only raps twice.)

I really want to hear the rest of this album. I’m a big Madlib fan so I’ll most likely cop when it drops in September. The features on the preview were all pretty solid, and judging from the Tracklist it looks like the full joint will continue that trend. Like any Madlib album it contains a bunch of stuff before and after each track that has nothing to do with the song. Some people love that. Some don’t.

This drops September 30th on BBE.