Imagine A Tribe Called Quest with a slightly harder edge and just as much love for the boom-bip -- that's what KMD was all about. The Best of KMD contains both of the group's fabled studio albums back-to-back, which means you can finally replace that 20th-generation cassette you've carried around forever. The 1991 offering Mr. Hood is exemplified by the coming-of-age classic "Peachfuzz," yet it also contains some nifty beats (and utterly brilliant samples) that reveal the late Subroc to be a musical genius. Meanwhile, 1993's Black Bastards is just as sublime but with a much darker tone, as evidenced by the single "What a Niggy Know," which addresses racial stereotyping and cultural identity over what could be a Level 42 or Scritti Politti sample.
As for Madvillainy, the highly anticipated meeting between MF Doom and superstar producer Madlib, it has a Marvel Team-Up-worthy quality that's just what you'd expect from America's Most Blunted characters. Viktor Vaughn may be a "Fancy Clown," but he packs a still-amazing flow, while Madlib has finally found a suitable foil for his fiendish sonic experiments.. If Marvin the Martian made an album with Magneto, it would sound an awful lot like Madvillainy.
