Madlib Medicine Show No.3…Beat Konducta in Africa

Posted by Geoff Ross

Yeah...Madlib has another album out...and the more I listen to it the more I realize just how great it is.

Filled with interesting percussive rhythms, that very often take all your attention away from the more meaty parts of the track, Beat Konducta in Africa highlights the complex bounce that said continent is known for, while integrating his signature blunted Hip Hop thump. Being his third installment in the Medicine Show series, a monthly release project through 2010, and the 4th (7th & 8th?) installment in his Beat Konducta catalogue started in 2006, Madlib could be thought of as a quantity not quality artist in the age of the yearly EP.

I can with no doubt tell you here today that he is the embodiment of the fact that quality and quantity can coalesce, creating a brand new type of recording, both smash-mouth and delicate.

With similarities to his past releases (especially BK in India), while listening to this record you might find yourself thinking it could be any one of his BK releases...

Listen Closer.

The percussion has a swing on it that reminds me of a constant echo in the distance, heard while you are watching Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas hunt man-eating lions.

The samples feel familiar as that pair of jeans that already have my belt, wallet and lighter in them. But for some reason there is a bottle cap in my back pocket from a beer I have never had.

The voice's littered throughout the record haunt and educate, giving me the feeling that I am listening to NPR on Goree Island, Senegal.

With BKIA, Madlib has made as strong an instrumental album as he has ever put out. He seamlessly blends the old world organics of Afro-Rock, Soul and Funk, with his own style of handcrafted Cali-basement beats. This is not African Hip Hop, this is Beat Konducta in Africa.