The chemistry between Madlib and Gibbs is perfect and there’s a timelessness to these songs that will make you think of raw black cinematic worlds such as Super Fly or Truck Turner.
The rapper-producer duo follow up Piñata with another cinematic series of street stories delivered with lyrical majesty.
As the culture is currently enamored with more rhythmic patterns than the meat on the bone, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib have undoubtedly proved they can compete without compromising their composition standards.
Bandana concentrates the grimy energy of Piñata into an even more potent punch, and the result is a knockout.
For all the giddy, unruly energy, each song on Bandana flows together to make a poetic, poignant body of work.
It is an exceptional modern hip-hop album unafraid of exploring the darker sides of the modern rap persona, all whilst creating a rich, textured sonic environment within which it can be best ingested.
Fans of this dynamic duo's fantastic prior collaborative album will surely be thrilled by this sequel, which exceeds expectations as an inarguable masterpiece.
Equal parts gritty and flamboyant, with Gibbs both reveling in the fruits of his labor and watching them rot his teeth, Bandana stands toe-to-toe with the likes of Hell Hath No Fury, Reasonable Doubt or any other gold standard of the format you could name.
An LP more rounded and more stirring than the excellent first one.
The first record was a grower, gradually establishing itself as one of the great producer-emcee efforts of the young millennium, but Bandana seems designed to dazzle, to assert a joint legacy.
Bandana may deal with some weighty topics throughout its 46-minute run time, but its impressive flow—both in Gibbs’ rapping and their well-thought-out tracklisting—leads to a compelling but relaxed listen.
I can't conceive of a rapper-producer duo who could curb each other's most extravagant impulses more than this one; accordingly, Bandana is not a second too long, not a sample too nostalgic and not a bar too rap-heavy.
Two things that are never in doubt throughout the record are Madlib’s absurd skill for combining amorphous instrumental textures with hard snapping drums and Gibbs’ ability to lord over any beat put before him.
Freddie and Madlib continue to bring out the best in each other on Bandana.
In an era of hazy, spineless mumble rap, it’s so refreshing to hear two insanely talented, forward-thinking hip-hop artists back in the saddle for another Schedule-I romp in the game. Dig it.
Bandana is exactly what you would expect out of these two master-craftsmen in the best way possible.
These are two men whose different styles, lives, and paths through the music industry are so divergent that when they come together, they create something completely unlike what they could do on their own. What results is one of the best and most interesting rap albums of the year.
Bandana, like Piñata before it, strikes me as deliberate and calculated, a realization of style that makes use of both artists’ backgrounds and techniques.
Listeners are given consistency and quality throughout.
At 16 tracks, it occasionally feels a touch too indulgent, but that’s easily forgiven when you wonder how many more records of this quality we might get if more of hip-hop’s key figures were as open-minded as these two.
While Piñata felt like a “Freddie Gibbs & Madlib album,” Bandana is far more driven by the MC. Madlib’s beats contain his hallmarks of soul samples and general haziness, but he mostly acts as a conduit for Gibbs’ emotions.
The ever creative Madlib chucks in everything he can find to dazzle the listener. When this coheres ... it’s sensational. Often his work sounds too dense to compete with mass-market trap, and struggles to support Gibbs’s gruff rhymes.
#2 | / | Complex |
#2 | / | Okayplayer |
#4 | / | The A.V. Club |
#5 | / | Passion of the Weiss |
#6 | / | SPIN |
#6 | / | Vulture |
#10 | / | Obscure Sound |
#11 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
#11 | / | Northern Transmissions |
#12 | / | Consequence of Sound |