Stereogum: Bring That Beat Back
Madlib had a problem: He didn’t like the sound of his own voice. This was more a personal idiosyncracy than the kind of weakness that stood out to others, and even during his early Lootpack years he sounded perfectly at home over his beats. His MCing was personable and heavy on simple but evocative imagery — conscious without preachiness, funny without buffoonery, and frequently quotable. (A highlight from Lootpack’s “Hityawitdat”: “I drop a pound of discussion and drop a rhyme to leave you with a concussion/ And have your whole crew commence to hushin’.”) There was something in his flow, in his voice, that didn’t overexert itself too much: If anything, he sounded positively conversational, hitting vocal emphases in ways that shifted from line to meter-altering line as a counter-effect to his own beats’ steadiness.