Stones Throw Records, the greatest label of them all, put out a compilation last month called Chrome Children. It was only okay, but it had moments. Perhaps the most impressive part of the release was the trio of videos for songs on the album, all of them directed by Daniel Garcia.

Let’s start with the best song (and best video): “Monkey Suite” by Madvillain. Madlib’s layered a rambling electro keyboard loop over a laid-back hard-bop bass line, and the genius MF Doom is his usual genius self. “Won’t be in the club in a muscle tank shirt / You could find ‘em in the pub with the grub stain / Chuggin’ on a small tub of pain to his bugged brain.” And the video’s gorgeous, with a great post-Orwellian feel — as if Brazil had been about hip-hop.

I, along with the rest of western civilization, anxiously await Madvillain’s second album, due sometime in 2007.

Next is Madlib on his own, “Take It Back.” Not his best work, but Madlib’s mediocrities beat out a lot of people’s masterpieces.

Finally, “Nothing Like This” by J Dilla. J Dilla died earlier this year (of lupus and a rare blood disease), and he’s proving to be a much bigger star in death than he ever was in life; it seems like there have been about a dozen posthumous releases already, with more to come. (For what it’s worth, one of those, The Shining, is really good.) This isn’t Dilla’s best beat or anything, but it’s solid and the underwater-themed video is great.

Bonus footage: a good seven-minute TV news piece on Madlib and Stones Throw from the Netherlands, featuring a look inside Madlib’s studio and an interview with Peanut Butter Wolf.

Double bonus footage: Here’s a fan remix of the Madvillain video, by this guy (who I apparently went to college with):

17 November 2006

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