So remember what I said about no more music this year? Yeah, that wasn’t true. What I actually meant (hey! I’m serious!) was that I’m not going to review any more current music until the year-end list is done. What is making that harder is my curiosity. I’m having a hard time with sticking to review.
Last night I went on a downloading binge (legal, if anyone asks, I guess), focusing on Madlib and J Dilla, two hip hop producers that got hot around the mid- to late-90’s, and started making their own music in the early 2000’s for the most part. Their production is really interesting and a joy to discover, but they collaborated once before J Dilla died of a rare blood disease in 2006. That collaboritive team was called Jaylib (get it?) and they released one album in 2003, titled Champion Sound, bred from each of them rapping over each other’s beats. That album has become my favorite hip hop album of all time in the space of hearing it twice over the past two days.
When it comes to hip hop, I guess I cheat a little bit when it comes to how I approach listening to the music. Because my primary interest in music is rock and things resembling it, I tend to take a step back when listening to something and try to take in as much as possible. Most of my “effort” with listening comes from trying to absorb the piece as a whole (probably the reason why I like complicated music like Animal Collective, but have a harder time with noise and stuff). As a result, I have to really concentrate hard to listen to the lyrics of something unless they’re really prominent. Which means that when I listen to hip hop, I get more preoccupied with production than most. That’s why I love Spank Rock so much – it’s so interestingly put together. And that’s why I love J Dilla and Madlib so much.
Which is why Jaylib is mindblowingly good to me. Now, reviewing hip hop is almost as much of a challenge for me as reviewing things like dubstep – it makes me insecure not being tapped into the greater culture, because I fear having some guy who’s like, “I know hip hop, and you’re a stupid asshole.” I know that would probably never happen, but then again, that’s why it’s an insecurity. But the way I see it, having a visionary producer rapping means that that rap has a finely tuned ear for how to flow with the production. As I noticed (and as was pointed out to me by some other reviews I read), the lyrics here aren’t all that deep or all that interesting – they’re fun, but pretty shallow, not dumb, but not at all contemplative or declarative either (except as far as declarations of Jaylib’s prowess or simply, their new existence). But their production. Oh, their production.
It’s not exactly like nothing I’ve ever heard (it seems to take influence from instrumental hip hop producers, most notably [and most famous] DJ Shadow), it’s put together so interestingly that it’s this whole new animal when combined with the vocals. It’s just, music. It’s hip hop by every defining definition, but if you’re someone who’s heard too much absolute shit blasted at you by top-40 stations and mixtape rappers who have great rhymes but couldn’t care less what it’s over, it doesn’t sound like hip hop. It sounds like something too fully formed.
The whole album has this laid back, but still energized vibe to it that’s really engaging for me, and it’s really conducive to full-album listening. When your production is good enough, your only worry is overloading the listeners, and they do a great job of not doing much. But their first proper track, after cool intro “L.A. to Detroit” (each of their hometowns), is “McNasty Filth” (cool name, right?), and it blew me away entirely. They loaded so much into it and it’s not fast-paced, but extraordinarily high-energy. It’s definitely a statement track – the duo saying that they are a force to be reckoned with.
Some other highlights are “The Heist” and “The Mission,” back to back, and for the same reason – their ability to keep downtempo hip hop interesting and fresh is absolutely astounding to me. But really, after “McNasty Filth”, Champion Sound tends to maintain about the same level of laid-back awesomeness. And that’s good enough for me. Honestly, this is the best thing I’ve heard all year, and I’m seriously considering putting it in my all-time top 20, but I feel like it would kind of decrease the stature of the list if something could break into it after two days. I’ll wait a while with it.
Thanks for the feedback on the changes, guys. And keep those comments coming, it’s nice to know I’m still relevant in some way or another.
I Ate My DVD Collection 
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