Piñata

As Gangster Rap, Piñata is free of conceptual pretense; it’s a slice more than a thesis. It’s also a new benchmark for Gibbs and may end up as a career calling card. If nothing else, it quickly sounds like one of the year’s best.

Madlib produced albums tend to only get better with age, and I don't expect Pinata to be an exception.

Piñata may not be Madlib’s best personal handiwork, but it’s well tailored to suit his partner’s impressive rhyming abilities.

Piñata comes with just enough to reduce the daunting 17-track length to a non-factor, although it drags a bit with overt nostalgia toward the fourth quarter.

The finished product is brilliantly, beautifully schizophrenic.

Madlib and Freddie Gibbs are both total pros who knew exactly what they wanted out of Piñata, went out, and did it.

[Gibbs] expertly negotiates Madlib’s minefield, forcefully popping words off the producer’s gorgeously mined snares and snatched vocal loops.

Gibbs’ coarsely inventive flow works perfectly with Madlib’s imperfectly human beats.

Startling numbers like the block-rockin' then dissolving "Real" crop up throughout the album and make this project even more than a sum of its parts, and with the track list flowing smoothly as attractive guests (Danny Brown, Raekwon, Scarface, Mac Miller, and the list goes diversely and gloriously on) come and go, Piñata winds up excellent overall.

Thanks to the talents of the artists involved, the album is more than a fun glimpse at the past. These beats and rhymes stick to your ribs.

It doesn't matter if Gibbs and Madlib were once considered artists playing to different audiences--united in their uncompromising, independent-as-fuck visions, they put together something hardcore hip-hop heads on both sides should feel.

There's no doubt that the reality rapper with "an ice maker for a heart" is steady "Thuggin'," but Gangsta Gibbs can also ride any track the Beat Konducta throws at him.

When Piñata's 61 minutes is up it instantly feels like you've heard it 61 times. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's more of a realisation that you knew what was coming and you enjoyed it

Piñata might be long, but it moves fast.

Gibbs' genuine reflections on being broke, losing the girl or simply growing up help to break things up a bit and add a welcomed bit of realness where both humour and originality are somewhat absent.

From the lyrics to the beats, the pleasure of Piñata is in the details.

The MC and the producer click in surprisingly satisfying ways on their first full-length album together.