1/28/2004 09:05:00 AM|W|P|Danny Eagle|W|P| I've been procrastinating about buying this album since its release in June. Why? I have no fucking idea, I could've used this a long time ago. Madlib, of many musical personalities including Lootpack, Quasimoto, and Yesterday's New Quintet, has approached the daunting task of reforming, remixing, and reinterpreting the classics of Blue Note Records. I wouldn't want any other man for the job; having worked with everyone from Jay Dee and hip hop super villian MF Doom to futurists Zero 7 and Radiohead, Madlib has proven his musical depth and innovation a hundred times over. Jazz in hip hop is nothing new, and for a few years in the early 90's, it was almost standard. Some did it right like Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, and Digable Planets, adding new dimension and sound to jazz classics, building on instead of paving over the very sound that gave it life. Others missed the mark completely�the first in my mind is Us3, now a regular interlude between sleepy banter and news on National Public Radio. Hearing that a hot shit producer like Madlib was going to take yet another stab at remixing jazz made me happy and nervous. Was it a rehash of a hip hop era gone by? Was it a bastardization of songs already great, propping up the producer on the dusty accomplishments of other musicians, repeating hip hop's darkest continual failure? No. When you have this in your hot little hands, you will have hip hop's greatest homage to Jazz music to date. I listened to the album all the way through without skipping a track. Sometimes smooth, sometimes beat heavy, it's just plain nice. I mean that in the Greg Nice sense of the word (Usage: "Shit is niiiiiiice"). Madlib wasn't afraid to lodge a complaint against hip hop fans for not recognizing the greats of jazz on his alter-ego album The Unseen. Shades of Blue is the rebuttal to his own argument, showing the world the proper way to respect, meld, and develop hip hop and jazz music. Own this. Out on Blue Note Records.|W|P|107530968344498293|W|P|Madlib | Shades of Blue|W|P|scottlmoe@gmail.com1/25/2004 07:39:00 PM|W|P|Danny Eagle|W|P| I can't tell you how much I love NyQuil. Two weeks ago, I pulled off a major coup and literally drank my cold into submission. It was less than three days old and I beat it down with a big fat Jameson stick. It never showed its face again. Cold numero two showed up and my efforts to drink it back into its dark germy cave completely backfired. Work, socializing with my derelict friends, and late night antics kept my cold alive and well. I've waged a new battle against it, this time with NyQuil. I had had it. I was sick, coughing, sneezing, tired, and angry. I suited up in my sub-zero astronaut suit and walked in the arctic wind to the store where I picked up some 'Quil and took swigs off it on the way home; no need for a bag. Almost instantly a warm fog wrapped around my brain and I melted into cherry medicated nirvana. It doesn't cure your cold. It can make you groggy for a whole day after taking it. But...it will be fun, and God willing, you'll sleep for days after which your cold will have moved onto one of your roommates. I think it should be served at bars and that people should have NyQuil parties. Maybe they do, in crack houses. But, those guys are onto something I tell ya. Wait, didn't they make a song about it? "Sip sip sippin' on some sizzerp!" Oh yeah, people used to mix it with a 40 and drink it from a baby bottle right? Sorry, I'm just figuring this out as I go. If you're suffering from a cold, perhaps your third of the season, get on the 'Quil, stay on the 'Quil, until Spring comes and you can switch to an allergy medication that will give you incessant diarrhea, abdominal bleeding, and certain sexual side effects. It's Winter, be brave.|W|P|107508866393365716|W|P|Vicks | NyQuil|W|P|scottlmoe@gmail.com