MED has always been one of those emcees whose best asset is
the people in his circle. His 2005 debut album Push Comes to Shove was mostly produced by Madlib, with J Dilla, Oh
No, and Just Blaze handling the rest of the beats. Those beats were the most
memorable part of that album. MED was fine as a rapper then, but he wasn’t yet
great at constructing albums, and his best verses tended to appear on songs by
other artists (Madvillain’s “Raid” being the main example). As early as the
late nineties Lootpack days, MED seemed like he would go down as a weed
carrier, rapping on his friends' tracks just because he was around the studio during
recording sessions.
He took a long six years to release his second album, the
hubristically named Classic, but that
time did him well. His roster of collaborators, including Georgia Anne Muldrow,
Oh No, the Alchemist, Karriem Riggins, Talib Kweli, Aloe Blacc, and of course
Madlib, remains amazing, but as Push
Comes to Shove made clear, great beats and good features does not a good
album make. But those six years between albums were not wasted. MED came back a
better emcee than he’s ever been, riding the beat like a pro on “Flying High”
and adjusting his delivery to compliment the beat on every track, and he was
able to step back and craft a satisfying start-to-finish album experience the
second time around.
MED’s most appealing quality as an artist remains his beat
selection, but since Classic he’s
defied expectations and become a rapper that actually warrants excitement when
you see the word “featuring” before his name. He went toe-to-toe with Guilty
Simpson at his most rugged on Quakers’ “Fitta Happier” and did the same on his
own loosie “Ain’t Bragging.” He put out an EP with the amazing Blu and ably
matched him on every song. On Madlib’s sprawling 42-track Madlib Medicine Show No. 11: Low Budget Hi Fi Music three of the
best songs are by MED (“Cheaters (Episode #3),” “Snakes 101,” and “Real Talk”
by L.M.D., a group made up of LMNO, MED, and Dudley Perkins).
Now he’s blessed us with a set of Madlib-produced outtakes
from Classic. It seems that most of
these songs were recorded before 2010, as a good chunk of the beats ended up being
reused by Strong Arm Steady on In Search
of Stoney Jackson and Guilty Simpson on O.J.
Simpson, both of which came out that year. It’s a bit jarring to hear those
beats in this new context after having over three years to get used to them
with other rappers, but it’s a testament to MED’s post-Push Comes to Shove improvement that I didn’t immediately want to
ditch these outtakes and listen to SAS and Guilty instead. “Same Shit,” which
has the same beat as Strong Arm Steady’s amazing Phonte-featuring “Best of
Times,” has the biggest battle in terms of overcoming existing expectations,
but it’s the best song of the bunch, with MED riding the beat like a pro and
allowing his voice to become just one of many appealing sounds in the mix. It’s
a damn shame that there was some kind of error with the uploading and “Same
Shit” cuts out halfway through.
Elsewhere, we hear MED and Oh No spitting together over the “Cali
Hills” beat from O.J. Simpson (“Sleeper”),
rapping acapella with Pok at the end of “Mirror Talk” much as he did on Classic closer and best song on the
album “Mystical Magical,” and ripping the beat to SAS’s “Get Started” with Aloe
Blacc. “Open Your Eyes” and “Thee Amazing” are probably the best and funkiest
beats here, but MED just uses them to talk shit, shout out his collaborators,
and intro some of the outtakes.
And then there’s “Privacy.” Most dedicated Stones Throw
heads heard this song when the label put it up for free download a few years
ago, and hearing it again brings up the same question that it did back then:
why the hell was this left off Classic?
Sample clearance issues are the most likely culprit, which is a true shame as
it is even better than most of the songs that made the album. Steve Arrington,
the legendary frontman of Slave and recent collaborator with modern funk
maestro Dam-Funk (on the excellent Higher,
from earlier this year), handles the hook, and it’s pure butter soul from the
most underrated singer from his era. I would support some kind of grassroots
campaign to get Steve Arrington to put out a full album with Madlib beats as
soon as possible. And MED sounds great as well, of course. Now that he’s got more
EPs planned with Blu and has formed the group Axel F with J. Rocc it looks as
if the drought of MED material between his first two albums won’t be repeated
between now and album #3. Hopefully we won’t have to wait six years for his
next classic.
Just because, here are some other dope MED songs from Classic to the present.
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