Medicine Show # 11

Madlib got a bit lost in his detour into jazz with Medicine Shows # 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 ‘Black Soul’, the disco-funk zones explored in Medicine Show # 10. The good news is: that hip hop album, for which the Medicine Show faithful have been holding their tickets, is finally on the starting blocks. ‘Lowbudget High-Fi Music’ is an interesting look back at the Madlib Medicine Show thus far 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 he and Oh No reveal their new group The Professionals. Plus, of course, interludes, outerludes and – possibly – quaaludes abound.