With his new release, Medicine Show 12+13 Filthy Ass Remixes, Madlib combines songs of Raw Medicine and beats of the yet unreleased Black Tapes, the 13th part of the series. What was planned to be sold exclusively at the rare gigs by Stones Throw’s flagship has now been released as a special edition of 1.000 copies and contains remixes of rather well-known rap-contributions. Many will be glad to hear that Madlib has remixed Talib’s Get By and Nas is Like, but they sound as little affected and classical, as most of his late productions do. The initial intention was to deal out the complete Medicine Show-series of 13 parts amongst his beat-followers in the year of 2010.But despite Madlib’s almost inhuman creative output, the mammoth task couldn’t quite be carried out logistically. Meanwhile, many fans started to complain about the output’s quality, which seemed to be decreasing noticeably. Some even tried to claim the Beat Konductor had passed his peak, eventually, and pointed out the irrelevance of his latest productions.
Underlining this dilemma is the – rather short – 37 minute collection, which has just been released, even though this is really splitting hairs. Because Otis Jackson Jr. Doesn’t lower his guard and instead samples his way through his indefinite pool of bizarre records and more well-known breaks. Toto’s Africa is just as well recycled as Between the sheets by the Isley Brothers, which had already served as a basis for Biggie’s Big Poppa. And, of course, some elements have been used in this construction, of which a whole generation of bedroom-beat-fiddlers wouldn’t even dare to dream. But since we all expect something superhuman by a Madlib, and, unfortunately, the Oxnard-Native is not willing or capable to deliver, at the moment.