JAYLIB

Do these guys take a break? Super-producers Jay Dee (Common, The Pharcyde, Slum Village) and Madlib (Dudley Perkins, Yesterday's New Quintet, Madvillan) merge on this album under the Jaylib moniker to continue their respective flooding of 2003's hip-hop market. Champion Sound arrives fresh on the heels of Madlib's instant classic Shades of Blue, which reworked the Blue Note catalog, and Jaylib's summer single "The Red." Following an intro produced by both artists, the album features Jay Dee producing eight of the 17 tracks while Madlib spits over his beats, and vice versa for the remaining tracks. With two lab masters at the gears, smart beats are guaranteed. "Nowadayz" spills handclaps over a funeral organ and bass. "React" laces a trunk bump with a winding Middle Eastern pipe hook. "The Red," included here, pounded its way up to commercial radio with a contagious loop sent for the adrenaline gland. However, lyricism isn't either artist's forte, and Champion Sound too often hosts simplistic A-B rhymes. Unlike the Jay Dee-produced discs Like Water for Chocolate or Beats, Rhymes, & Life, Champion Sound lacks any driving agenda that could guide it out of the dub haze. Jaylib's toe-tapping vibes and nonchalant utterances construct the aural equivalent of a lazy Sunday; appropriate, as you might only spin this once this week.