Madlib - Shades of Blue (2003) {2023 VMP Reissue Vinyl}

The sound of Blue Note Records has been embedded in hip-hop since the music’s early days with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, J Dilla, Beastie Boys, and more mining Blue Note’s rich catalog for inspiration and sampling from tracks by Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Lonnie Smith, and others. In the early 1990s, Blue Note invited Us3 into the vaults for a jazz/hip-hop remix album that produced the smash single “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” and in 1996 went even further with The New Groove: The Blue Note Remix Project featuring remixes by Guru, The Ummah, The Roots, and more. It was Madlib who raised the bar next when the acclaimed DJ, producer, rapper, and multi-instrumentalist invaded the Blue Note vaults to create his 2003 masterpiece Shades of Blue. Madlib’s deep love of jazz (his uncle is trumpeter Jon Faddis) is apparent throughout this visionary album which features remixes, reimaginations, and reinterpretations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, The Three Sounds, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter, and more.