With Captain Murphy stealing the mantle of top-tier producer turned cartoon alter-ego, the Lord hath returned. The madman born Otis Jackson Jr. assumes his hunchbacked mushroom-mangled identity to deliver a new collection of 12 tracks recorded over roughly as many years. About 2/3 these tracks were released on random vinyl, all out of print, and the other 1/3 are previously unreleased, just mastered for the first time. As Disco Vietnam pointed out: Madlib has reached Ornette Coleman status: he’s still alive; he makes new music every day, but all we get is compilations of old unreleased shit. So be it.
This sounds like something that could have came out of the Ummah in the interim between Beats, Rhymes and Life and Love Movement. Of course, it’s possible that this was cut not long after. Between the quick cuts and the samples of Busta, “Slow Down,” and Jeru, it channels that mid-90s feel in a way that remains light years ahead of every 90s baby trying to channel the mid-90s. I am looking at you know what and you know who. If you are going to rhyme about your lyrics and your planned attack and your battle, it’s wise to deliver it in with helium larynx, soul jazz, and enough psilocybin to get higher than the top of Notre Dame.
