Madlib's production on Pinata is great though. most of the beats are still Madlib's signature sound - kinda dusty, yet so soulful and mellow. the "Robes" and "Lakers" beats are so beautiful, left me speechless. even the songs with the "harder" sounding beats usually end up with a little outro that sounds really chill and mellow, which is brilliant in my opinion.
Gibbs actually is the highlight, but that's simply cuz he's that great of a rapper. from his little singing on "Robes", to the storytelling and emotion on "Deeper", to the Young Jeezy diss AKA "Real", to the way he was spazzing with the flow on "Shitsville". dude is a beast.
the closing track kinda falls short due to all the weedcarrier guest features, but other than that, the album is pretty much flawless to me. i even dare to call it the best traditional rap album of the decade so far, even better than Life Is Good. i think it'll go down as a classic.
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