The Great Debate | Beat Konducta 5-6 is better than Champion Sound

In this debate, Todd posits that the album Beat Konducta, vol. 5-6 by Madlib is better than Champion Sound by Jaylib.

*THE CASE*

Freely, I will admit, I am a pasty white fellow who grew up next to a lot of corn fields. Clearly, I am not an expert on rap. Most of it does nothing for me. Sure, I enjoy a good beat, and it does make me feel a bit cooler, but that doesn't really take a whole lot. But I can say, with utmost certainty, that Madlib is an artist whom I truly feel. A man who seemingly has no interest in fame or fortune, but only in releasing great music. His style has proven itself to me so thoroughly that I can now purchase any album of his without first listening to it.

So Warren and I both have the albums Champion Sound, a collaboration that Madlib did with Jay Dilla, and Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6, a 42 track set of instrumental beats and film audio that Madlib did in tribute to Jay Dilla, who passed away from lupus some years ago. Because apparently people still die of lupus.

I would not shortchange Champion Sound. It has great lyrics and beats, and none of this should be a surprise, coming from arguably the two best little known producers out there. Note I said producers. Neither one of them would claim rapping as their strong suit, and yet this album is filled with them rapping over each others beats. Adequate rapping and clever wordplay even. But, put simply, there is no Superfudging way that this is better than Vol. 5-6.

It comes down to a matter of tastes, I suppose. Champion Sound, for all of its high points, does tend to lean a bit more towards the "club bangers and bitches" style of lyricism, which is not my favorite aspect about the genre. Beat Konducta, however, uses vocals sparingly, and lets the music tell the story. All of this makes me sound like an asshole, but it's not any less true because of it. Beat Konducta is also a more melancholy affair, but this album manages more emotion and complexity than any two Champion Sound might. I love good lyrics, but I can't get over a good instrumental for weeks. His name is Madlib, and though I might not be the first to mention this, the Beat Konducta series is like the Madlib books. It provides you the background, the structure, and it is up to you to fill in the blanks. Champion Sound created a picture of a place I like to look at. Beat Konducta took me to a place that sounded familiar, and showed me new areas and corners I had never thought to look at before. Warren could not possibly have a defense.

*THE DEFENSE*

You must be high, Todd. Beat Konducta 5-6 better than Champion Sound? You're a good friend, but let the public undressing begin. In the sparse words of your precious BK volume, "Take it in the brain, motherfucker."

First of all, I totally agree with you. CS has great beats and lyrics. And you know what? BK has great beats and... well, great beats. Therein lies the problem with any contemporary instrumental album like BK. For as great as any non-lyrical album may be, it will always have a handicap when compared to an album with beats and lyrics. Its potential has a low ceiling, just like the female workforce. This isn't to say BK isn't better than any lyrical album. In fact, it's quite better than the majority. Unfortunately for you, CS isn't one of them.

You may now be thinking: WHAT ABOUT MOZART, WARREN? YOU THINK MOZART SUCKS! No, Mozart doesn't suck. Did you know Mozart was the first rapper? Just kidding, the first rapper was Tone Loc. Look, we can all agree that many classical masters like Mozart made truly beautiful and moving music, but comparing music like theirs to a contemporary instrumental album is unfair. Apples and oranges. Further, most instrumental efforts from Madlib are meant for, or end up with, lyrics.

You claim that BK's "emotion and complexity" trump CS's "club bangers and bitches." Really, the comparison is insubstantial to an album being better than another, but since you went there, I'll grant that there are moments in BK where the emotion is palpable, but it's hardly consistent throughout. In fact, I'd argue there's a good amount of that "bangers and bitches" attitude as well, but I'd hardly call either album "club bangers and bitches" fare. Sure, there's a track called "Strip Club" on CS, but this isn't Curtis Jackson pouring malt liquor down some nubile rumpshaker's torso. There's pathos in Champion Sound. It's a Dionysian pathos that you must dig for, but it's there.

*TODD'S REBUTTAL*

Ok, first things first. Dionysian? Fuck you.

Secondly, as he released the album as is, I would say what he or someone else may do with them or has done with them is quite inconsequential. To look at and listen to this album, you notice the way that it flows. There is a cohesive sound. It could be viewed as being one large seventy five minute song. Champion Sound has none of that. Madlib and Jay Dilla may have been friends, but the styles are clearly different, and the disjointed nature of skipping from one producer to the next as each track goes by is detrimental.

And ok, Beat Konducta 5-6 is an instrumental album. That's a strike against it as far as most are concerned. And yet, it manages to rise above the level of mediocrity that most of those similar albums produce. Because it has to work harder to earn the respect, it makes it that much more rewarding. Who else is out there putting out instrumentals of this quality? No one. That's who. Or, more appropriately, that's not who.

Any album which is of a high enough quality to make one forget or at least not notice the lack of rapping/singing is classic. And from the number of times I have listened to Champion Sound, I don't hear classic. I hear solid. I do not hear classic. Go ahead now, Warren. Tell me that I'm wrong. Try to change my mind.

I get Loc'd after dark.

*WARREN'S REBUTTAL*

It seems we have a case of one man's trash being another man's 75 minute song. I kid, of course. Beat Konducta is hardly trash. Though it does appear my opinion of it pales in comparison to yours, an opinion which may even speak to BK's ability to mend bones and cure cancer.

Where you enjoy the flow of BK's 75 minute song, I sometimes get lost in its seamless monotony. I was surprised to find that BK is only about ten minutes longer than Champion Sound because it feels like BK plays much longer. Certain sections seem redundant, and it takes a good five minutes for the album to take off. I don't need fireworks and explosions out the gate, but I also hate a dick tease.

Further, I think what you call CS's "disjointedness" is its greatest virtue. Variety is the spice of life, Young Todd, and here we have two of the greatest in their field playing off each other to create beautiful and unique musical juxtapositions that helped usher in the era of collaborations like Madvillainy and The Mouse and the Mask. This was the first Madlib/Jay Dilla collab, and the excitement and possibility of a new, musically potent friendship blasts from the speakers.

CS may not be a classic album, but then I don't consider BK one, either. They're both solid efforts, but if forced to chose one, I'm picking Champion Sound, which contains more memorable moments, sick beats and head-nodding turns of phrase. I'll leave Beat Konducta for those times I'm looking for a subtle soundtrack on a quiet evening or a long drive.

*TODD'S CLOSING*

Warren, you stupid piece of shit. At no point in your inane ramblings have you come even close to getting me to change my opinion. All of your arguments came from the same guy who also said that the Holocaust never happened and that we should all consider ourselves very very lucky if then President George Bush put up a wall between the USA and Mexico borders because, and I quote exactly here, "The smell of this country would greatly improve. Put plainly, you are a racist sir, and a man of loose morals at best. You are worse than lupus.Clearly, these are just two differing opinions, and we have been clear, I think, in establishing that neither one of us dislikes the other's chosen fave. But in regards to which album moves me, both emotionally and groove wise, hands down Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6. Note that I did not abbreviate Champion Sound like a douche. I did not narrow it down to syllables that resemble a burger joint. You're a terrible person, and I have it on good authority that you were the man who made an attempt on Bob Marley's life.

*WARREN'S CLOSING*

You know how some families have that one stained-shirt dullard everybody patronizes? Usually in shifts because one person can't take it for very long? Well, that's you, Todd. Especially when you keep going on about Burger King's -- I'm sorry, Beat Konducta's -- ability to master cold fusion.

Surely, if we were to ask Madlib himself which album he preferred, he would chose Champion Sound. After all, it's the album he made with Jay Dilla, not just about him. But beyond that, it's plainly superior. In fact, while preparing for this debate, I listened to both in their entirety -- Champion Sound first, of course -- and had to stop halfway through BK 5-6 to listen to Champion Sound, again. It's that much better!

I'm beginning to think you simply like the idea of Dilla being dead, which is sick, just sick, Todd. Is that why you never bothered to wear 2-Pac shoes while the man was still alive? Is it mere coincidence that you bought your pair after he'd been slain? I'll stop there, for I fear if I dig any deeper, I'll uncover some disturbing truths connecting you to the deaths of ever major hip-hop or rap artist from the last 20 years.