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Madlib Speaks On Madvillain, Albums w/ Freddie Gibbs & Mos Def

blame it on Shake June 18, 2013

One of the more overlooked albums that dropped today was from Madlib’s blunted alter-ego Quasimoto (Yessir, Whatever). And on the day of his album release, Madlib speaks with Rolling Stone about a few hot topics. Including the ever illusive follow-up to his and DOOM’s Madvillain album, the possibility of a new Quas album with new material, the MadGibbs project with Freddie Gibbs and not one but two projects he has in the can with Yasiin Bey Mos Def. Take a look at a few choice quotes below and check the full interview here.

Are you still planning to release another Quasimoto album of all new material?
Yes, but I still haven’t finished. It takes time. It has to be on a different level. The shrooms were the stuff that made me do Quasimoto in the first place. Hopefully, I get back on that level where I can finish it.

Will the Madvillain sequel ever see the light of day?
I handed all the beats to Doom years ago, but ever since he’s been in Europe, he’s been hard to get a hold of. I feel it probably won’t happen, but you never know. I can’t sit and wait on that. I did my part.

How is MadGibbs coming?
It’s done. It sounds good. Gibbs killed his parts. So did Earl Sweatshirt and Danny Brown on the guest verses.

What was it about Freddie Gibbs that made you want to work with him?
It’s hard to really explain in words. I look at him as a new version of 2Pac. He does musically a lot of the stuff that I try to do as a producer. He’s capable of doing everything, but he’s interested in being original and not sounding like all the other stuff on the radio.

You’re making an album with Mos Def that’s inspired by Zambian rock from the 1970s. How did that come about?
We’ve been working on it for a long time. I’ve got a lot of unreleased tracks with him, and when he comes to L.A., we link up. I showed him all the Zambian stuff from the group Witch that [Now-Again Records’ Eothen “Egon” Alapatt] released on Now-Again. Mos loved it. I have another album, too, full of all Indian Bollywood sampling stuff that I did with Mos. We’ll hopefully put out an album of that later.