REVIEWSMadlib the Beat Konducta, ‘WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip’

6

• SPIN Rating:6 of 10

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    Spotify

Label: BBE/Rapster

What better metaphor for the prolific Madlib -- whose 2008 résumé includes R&B auteur Erykah Badu, hard-guy MC Guilty Simpson, and Brazilian drummer Ivan Conti -- than WLIB AM, the community-minded, black-owned New York talk-radio station? Here, the Los Angeles producer runs through 24 tracks, crafting oddball breaks and loops out of tasteful disco, doo-wop, and scratchy funk. Too bad inconsistent vocal performances, from Prince Po (who provides an ice-cold flow on "The Thang-Thang") to MED (whose boorish rhymes saddle "The Ox [805]"), tempt you to switch the dial on this hour-long jam.

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