Customer Reviews

Champion Sound

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is the kind of collaboration that is more of a competition, featuring both producers trying to outdo each other with loud, bass heavy, head bobbing, all-out dope beats. Jay Dilla is known for his soulful Detroit bounce, and Madlib (here, at least) employs a kind of wobbly, throbbing, jazz sound. They are both going for similar things in production, sometimes going the far east route, sometimes taking jazz loops or mangled soul loops, but usually relying on the thumping drum tracks instead of rich musical loops. If you like these guys' work, you will enjoy the beats.

The rhymes are okay. Neither one of these guys try to push boundaries as far as subject matter. They talk about how good the music is, how dangerous Detroit and LA are, and complain about how women want things in return for sex. The guests are a little better than Jay Dilla and Madlib (Quasimoto makes a couple visits too), but even the incredibly skilled Talib Kweli doesn't deliver any lyrical depth.

But even though the rhymes were thrown together, the album is bangin, and that is what it was supposed to be. Not a classic, and maybe not something that will stay in rotation for several years. But the beats are how.

The concept is deceptively simple: one great hip-hop producer raps over the beats of the another great hip-hop producer, and they inverse the method and split the record pretty much down the middle. If this were a couple of round-the-way producers that blow up on MTV every other day, this would raise about as much sand as the stale Jay-Z/R. Kelly "Best of Both Worlds" flop. Fortunately, we're offered an exciting match-up between one of hip-hop's most unsung beat-heros (Jay Dee - Slum Village, Tribe Called Quest, etc.) and one of hip-hop's freshest musical voice in years (Madlib - the Blue Note "Shades of Blue" re-imagining, as well as rapping alter ego Quasimoto). Putting these two crate diggers in a studio together for the length of a record is akin to putting Pharoah Snders and Lonnie Liston Smith in a studio for a month and saying, "Have at". Their styles are that distinct.

Neither of these guys gets the props they deserve in the overall hip-hop community (Jay Dee should be living in Puffy's house if success came down to sheer button-pushing, beat-drawing talent and Madlib should be driving off with no less than five of Jermaine Dupri's Bentleys), and it is this underground freedom that opens the door for all of the potential in the world. Yet, it is this same freedom that hamstrings the album in spots. Make no mistake: Madlib brings the more diverse, ludicrously original music to this project, while much of Jay Dee's beat offerings are re-visited territory. Still good stuff, but not as mind-blowingly refreshing as his partner's action.

Lyrically, the album is fun when it isn't taking barely satricial swipes at club gangsterism (the key word being "barely", meaning I'm not sure if they're satirizing it or if they actually intend to sell these stories in the same vein and path as the stories they're similar to). They've kept the guest appearances to a minimum, which pushes both of the artists to the limits of their expression. Madlib is forced to take a decidedly less jazz-oriented approach to the music for the record to be cohesive, while Jay Dee has to take on a lot of lyrical weight here he isn't exactly touted for any other time.

All in all, we are left with a pretty darn good hip-hop record.
fans of Madlib who come to this will miss some of the fuzzy lo-fi jazz that is his stock in trade, but will find enough here to keep them playing it. Fans of Jay Dee's work can't lose; they will have hit the motherlode here in the accumulation of even more of Jay Dee's trademark-funky beats, but also in having uncovered another incredibly original cat in Madlib.

I'm gonna get right to the point, This CD is amazing. It is a CD put together by two producers, so everyone saying how bad the lyrics are, its not really about the lyrics. The Beats are sick, nuff said. This CD, production wise, blows anything away. No matter what kind of Rap/Hiphop fan you are, I'm sure you will like this CD. But I do have to say this CD has grown on me, if you are a first time listener, be aware. It could give you a weird vibe at first. Check it out.

Hey, Red Ant-I dont know what hood UR from but you better check your ears for excess wax-kid. I agree this album aint that great and I agree on your selections but YO! how did you not like "Nasty Mcfilth"? Ya'll betta do your homework and dig deep cause that shhhh right there is fire. The beat is sick and J.Ds flow is crazy on this joint. My opion, "Nasty Mcfilth" is the illest track on the album. You betta listen again. R.I.P J-Dilla, your a god with the beats, definitely up there with Primo,Pete Rock and the rest. OUT!

First off iv'e been seeing lots of negative vibes twords this album.Real "reconize" real. And Dilla and Lib Are definatly real. These beats are so good you can really hear Lib hittin those drums hard. This is true hip hop not that lolipop garbage that you hear on Hot97. I usually pick out the best tracks but for "Champion Sound" you really don't need to. The whole album is dope!

First of all I dont really do the review thing but maybe it need to start. Im so late on this because i was just surfin around and saw people, who seem to be down with the BBE/ST movement, dissin this album. WTF!!! Are u that ignorant that u cant see that these are two of the best producers in the " real Game " havin some fun. These cats got together and was like yo, u hot, im hot, lets make it hot. Mcnasty filth was one of the hottest songs performed live at the shows ive been to. And the official is beyond hot. Yall who dissin this album need to stop tryin to get a job with the SOURCE and come back to the real hip hop. its LOVE. and my man who said to pick up that j-88. "U know what love is" so start spreadin some.

dilla's my favorite producer. madlib's work is on point (shades of blue). therefore, an album with two of the best producers in the game should be top rate, right? the first time i played the album thru, it was nice, but the more i listen to it, the less i like it. i don't really have a problem with what many people say is the lyrics, because we all know lyrics aren't what makes these two, it's their beats, which certain ones could have been better. favorite tracks include "heavy", "no games", and the one with guilty simpson.

No doubt, Dilla and Madlib are two of the dopest producers around so when I heard this was comin out I was all amped up.
Both producers have different styles and a blend of these two would make for excellent beats. Madlib has a dirty style, which in my opinion is sometimes too dirty and Dilla is the other way round. But a bit later I found out that it would have each rappin over each others beats, I felt a bit dissapointed. It took away a bit of the huge potential the project had.

A few weeks later I picked it up blindly (like you can do with most stonesthrow releases). I played it and wanted my money back. Don't get me wrong I produce myself and am a huge fan of both producers, but it was just dissapointed. We already knew the two aren't the greatest emcee's and madlib is the better of the two. But Dilla's flow is so weak, it sounds like nursery rhymes and have absolutely no content. He flows over madlib's beats that sound like rejects and it's just not banging. Madlib seems to get 'more expirimental' with everything progressive release, but has already said that he rarely puts a lot of time in his beats (that's cool and worked on some of his releases to make a nice chaotic sound) but this is taking that concept too far.
Then there are the other tracks with madlib flowin over dilla's beats. The beats are simplistic bouncers, and that works better, but it can't be called "good beats". It's stuff that any cat with fruityloops can put together in 20 minutes. But the combination with madlib on the mic is quite fun, but wears old soon. If you've heard 'the red', it's all like that. Catchy at first, annoying later.
Okay, I'm very negative about this, and a lot of people will enjoy this record (i do too, to some extent, the basses are really phat) but it's simple not what it could've been if madlib and dilla would have made the beats together (in one studio, or remixing each other) and have some of the true mc's that surround them on this. It could've been an excellent platform for cats Oh No (madlib's younger brother), Kazi, Medaphoar and many others to present themselves to a larger audience (all the pc-heads that dig madlib these days). Overall, skip the mediocre madlib productions with the whack dilla rhymes and download the dilla productions. You will be better off with mf doom's new joint (viktor vaughn - vaudeville villain) that presents a whole lot of new and super ill producers with the undisputed skills of MF to top it off.

The hype behind this album was too much, and by the time it came out I imagine people were foaming at the mouth to criticize it. Truth is, you can't. This album is almost flawless, save for maybe a couple of issues with Madlib's rhymes. If I had it my way I would put Jay Dilla spitting on all the tracks, even the ones he produced. He is a living oxymoron - an underground mc/producer spitting pure bling bling about money, hoes, cash and guns - all the elements of mainstream rap. And he can flow for days. It's amazing!

In Lib's defence I feel he's got a Special Ed aura to his rhymes, which isn't bad at all when you put it in that light. But all rhymes aside, the production is headbanging from start to finish. My beef with hip hop these days is the lackluster production on albums that leads to filler beats or samples taken from songs two minutes ago. Fair enough, this album boasts two of the greatest beatmakers in the game, which automatically gives them homecourt advantage. But no matter how you look at it, the beats are bananas and nobody's taking that away from them.

This is my favorite hip hop effort of 2003. Standout tracks - it's honestly hard to choose, so I'll tell you my favorite jam produced by Quasi is The Official, and my fave track by JDeezey is React. If you're jonesing for some headbobbing, pick this up now.

I don't know how many of you saw this caption on the insert of the cd spine, but that one sentence embodies the whole experience of this collection of sound. I'm pretty sure you know how cats just like to get out here and just experiment and throw caution to the wind-Outkast seems to do it every single rip-Common did it with "Electric Circus". Sometimes it can backfire, but I feel that "Champion Sound" pulled it off wonderfully. There are some nice joints like-"The Red"-"Starz"-"Strip Club-and my personal favorite "The Official". I think the problem with this album is that it is hard for some cats to put it into a specific box and label it. It's new, and different, brave, and ambituous all at the same time. This cd is not for those in search of "lyrics 2 go", Jay-Dee and Madlib want you to put on your headphones turn up the volume and tune out the rest of the world and tune into theirs. The featured item here are the beats, period.