Low Budget High Fi Music

Madlib got a bit lost in his detour into jazz - Madlib Medicine Show's 7 (High Jazz) and 8 (Advanced Jazz). He was supposed to circle back with a punch-you-in-the-face return to hip-hop form - a collaborative album with Detroit rapper Frank Nitti - but instead he found himself lost in the Lost Gates... a place where Black Soul (Madlib Medicine Show 10) really means Disco Funk. Sorry about that. The good news is: he's back. And that hip-hop album, for which the Medicine Show faithfully have been holding their tickets, is finally here. It's called Lowbudget High-Fi Music and it's a interesting look back at the Madlib Medicine Show and a prelude of what is to come in the 12th, 13th and - maybe - 9th releases in the series. All of the regular Madlib collaborators - MED, Guilty Simpson, Strong Arm Steady - are represented here with exclusive tracks. Karriem Riggins pops in for a Supreme Team interlude, as does A.G. Madlib digs out a Jaylib-era track that was earmarked for the never-realized second album and, of course, interludes, outerludes and - probably - queludes abound. The Madlib Medicine Show series is a combination of Madlib's new hip-hop productions, remixes, beat tapes, and jazz, as well as mixtapes of funk, soul, Brazilian, psych, jazz and other undefined forms of music from the Beat Konducta's 4-ton stack of vinyl.