Madlib

Blue Note records lets the West Coast's preeminent hip-hop mind loose in their stacks and he comes back with this decidedly tight chill album. Not only is Shades of Blue a great way to discover cool jazz classics such as "Song For My Father" and "Stepping Into Tomorrow," but the disc's party vibe won't quit.

Used to be that hip-hop progressives reached out to jazz dudes to show they were boho
intellectuals. But now the tables have turned. Venerable jazz imprint Blue Note opened its
archives to Madlib, one of the hip-hop underground's most bookish and inventive
producers. What he emerged with, Shades of Blue, is part historical revisionism and part
homage. His remixes of Donald Byrd and Bobby Hutcherson tracks incorporate a... More >