Milestones: Bandana by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
On their sophomore collaboration, Madlib and Freddie Gibbs dive deeper into each other's creative approaches, blending their distinct styles more intimately than ever before.
Warm light falls through the open stained glass windows of a crack kitchen on a tropical California beach. A few soft bars of the Clipse and N.W.A. waft over from the water. The tables, scales, and weights have been cleared away, and an oriental rug has been laid out for a ‘70s soul band dressed in Gucci shirts and special edition Yeezy sneakers.
El Grande Beat Konducta Madlib climbs onto his podium, taps his baton once, twice, in a commanding manner. Freddie Gibbs leans against the bar, a pipe in one hand, a crystal glass in the other, and watches benevolently. Madlib gives the cue for the organ, then the horn section comes in.
Freddie Gibbs is calm, smokes a cigarette, finishes his drink, walks over to the mike and raps:
“I want it all, nigga, all leather
25th and Jackson
I’m back in action like Carl Weathers
Trap boy Kane, I clubber Lang Sylvester
Crack cocaine, I was my own investor”
The invited ladies and gentlemen in the audience grin dazedly under their sunglasses, put down their Uzis in unison, and snap their fingers to the beat.
This is what we’ve all been waiting for far too long: a revival of the creative alliance between Freddie Gibbs and Madlib that created the landmark Piñata in 2014. In retrospect, we now know that it took a whole year just to clear the samples for Bandana. Only Maestro Madlib himself knows how deep and how long he had to dig through record boxes and music history to find so many rare and precious gems, to cut them up and then reassemble them into beats: Listen to the Spanish guitar on “Crime Pays,” the sleazy psychedelic folk on “Fake Names,” or whatever was in the beat of “Massage Seats” before he worked his magic with it, and just keep your mouth open.
On this red carpet of sound, Freddie Gibbs shaves the milk beards off most of his current competitors in rap technique. Sometimes he strolls casually over them, as in the aforementioned “Freestyle Shit,” then he suddenly throws wild hooks, as in “Crime Pays,” strutting for a moment only to charge forward again. Other rappers don’t change their flow as often throughout an album as he does on Situations. Not only does he always sound great with rhymes, a stable flow and rhythmic virtuosity, he also comes with a wealth of references and wordplay that can only be deciphered bit by bit, like the Rocky allusion quoted at the beginning.
The furious flexing about qualities in terms of weight and guns doesn’t let you forget that the man is now 37 and sounds like it in a positive sense, Gibbs himself makes sure of that: “Po-Po pull me over with half a kilo and a ruger/I can’t move the same I gotta readjust how I maneuver”, such mature sentences can be found again and again in the lyrics and give them the crucial shot of realness. He may be a family man and a practicing Muslim now, but that doesn’t mean he’s a sad kid.
Ignorance because you can: Bandana is an album you listen to when you walk into a steakhouse in a dirty Thug Life T-shirt and ask for the catfish with caviar and a well-tempered can of Hansa Pils, but pronto. Everything is possible, and most importantly, it all fits together. This is where the old schoolers are happy, where Madlib and Gibbs serve their fillet samples and gourmet raps. Fans of the modern cuisine will be thrilled at how contemporary the tried-and-true recipe of sample beats plus rap can be served in complete sentences.
The aggressive, technical brilliance of Freddie Gibbs is contrasted by the controlled anarchy of Madlib, who changes the beat within the tracks so often that you feel almost tipsy: you rarely end up in the same musical place where you started three minutes ago. Over the course of fifteen tracks, it never feels forced or artificial, more like an equal jam between the voice and the man at the controls. Guests Killer Mike, Pusha T, Yasiin Bey, Black Thought and Anderson .Paak join in and do what they usually do in their roles, which is to be very good.
The result is a very unique atmosphere, which underlines the hard Hood with warm, constantly changing sounds, rap on a trip, but still completely at one with itself. What else could you do with this album? Sit in a bongo circle with a bunch of hippies and drum to the beat of “Shook Ones.” Get pulled over by the cops on your bike with no lights, ride away and drive faster. Explain to the fourteen-year-old in the Rin hoodie that modern flow and musicality are not mutually exclusive, and, and, and, and. But most of all, you can listen to it for yourself and just say thank you with both middle fingers outstretched: Chapeau, Madlib and Gibbs.
Standout (★★★★½)
Amazing review, Bandana is a classic to me and you clearly captured why. Loved how you set the scene with the first few paragraphs, creating an atmosphere that was gritty and elegant at the same time 👌🏾