Madlib Salutes African Grooves with New Project (Album Stream)

The Beat Konducta is back with another installment of his signature Mind Fusion mixtape series, this one penetrating deeply into the sounds of African beats and rhythms. African Earwax showcases the vast and seemingly endless lode of innovative music coming from all corners of the Great Continent, and at over one-hour long, the mix is a funk-heavy, boogie-inducing antidote to Monday morning blues.

This mix begins with a nearly two-minute phone call in which an African employee of the Social Security Administration and an American woman trade barbs after she learns her check will be getting cut, the former proclaiming that he’s a “trained Mbuti warrior from the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.” The woman responds with “I don’t care if you from the Hoochie Coochie tribe.” The conversation adds a comical touch to common misunderstandings between African and American cultures, but mixes like this serve to remind us of our commonalities….who doesn’t like to boogie?

In what is an unmistakably Madlib-directed aesthetic component, 30 copies of the mix were pressed, each of which was adorned with one-of-a-kind artwork by Jason Jagel, an American artist whose work has hung in the prestigious New York City Museum of Modern Art. To Heads, he’s best known for his extensive work with Stones Throw; his album artwork can be seen on projects by MF DOOM (including the iconic Operation Doomsday) and Dudley Perkins.

While physical copies of Madlib’s new mixtape sold like Hoe Cakes, the producer has gloriously uploaded the project onto his Mixcloud. Check it out here.

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Related: Rediscover Madlib’s Yesterdays New Quintet Thanks To Stones Throw (Audio)