First, Madlib teamed up with J. Dilla to make Jaylib. Then, Madlib teamed up with the super-villain MF Doom to create Madvillian. Next, Doom took it even a step further with Danger Mouse to form Danger Doom – and now, Madib teams up with Talib to form….uh….Lib-Lib? Nah? Thankfully they abandoned the mash-up names for this project and just stuck with LIBeration.  

    Originally given away for free download at the start of this year, the point of Liberation was to give the Talib Kweli fans a raw, underground hip-hop album, as that’s simply not an option for him these days with his major label status. Liberation – or freedom – was the central theme of the project; the freedom to create music how they wanted to, and of course the freedom of the project itself, released into the wild to be downloaded for free. Produced entirely by Madlib, the EP is unapologetically raw, allowing Talib to flex his lyrical muscles, without having to worry about it has crossover appeal. 

     While solid throughout, things get off to a bumpy start with “The Show”; a sort of loose-knit warm-up that finds Talib aimlessly freestyle rhyming for two minutes. While loaded with clever lines, the EP doesn’t really grab your attention until the next track, “Funny Money”, which brings out the best in the two artists, as Madlib’s hypnotic production eggs Kweli on, as he laments about show promoters, record labels, and other people that front on that dough. “Time Is Right” is another freestyle verse – this one coming off better than “The Show” – as Talib flexes walkie-talkied vocals over Madlib’s almost RZA-patterned production. “Engine Running” is another gem, which is a dark duet with Consequence, finding the Brooklyn-Queens connection penning bullet-ridden narratives from third person perspectives.  Perhaps the most interesting song on the EP is “Happy Home” – a thoughtful and beautifully descriptive telling of Talib’s family tree, which traces things all the way back to his grandparents. 

     More or less solid – there’s only a few duds on the record. The busy “Over The Counter” sounds like what would happen if Madlib attempted to do a bounce track – but Kweli still does his thing lyrically here. The Strong Arm Steady featured “The Function” also suffers from having too many cooks in the kitchen, as well as a forced sung hook that attempts to match the tone of the track. (But for the record, Chace Infinite killed it).  

     Liberation doesn’t give the classic feeling that Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek’s Reflection Eternal LP did, simply because it ends too prematurely. Instead, this seems more like a series of a few thrown together recordings, rather than an actual album. Regardless, given the proven track records of both artists involved here, the penchant for churning out quality music is proven here, as the duo almost makes it look too easy.