The main thing to keep in mind about Champion Sound is that the two main artists involved adapted to each other's production styles just as much as they contrasted. More than a few underground rap albums these days have shot for Champion Sound's stoned-in-the-club vibe and fallen short, while Stones Throw has become indie rap's "it" label in recent years with albums much like this: collaborative efforts infused with Madlib's unpretentiously avant-garde spirit, weird enough to stay on the margins of current pop culture but accessible enough to stick on Cartoon Network's (where it seems a bit less bizarre next to willfully batshit stuff like "Saul of the Mole Men"). Unlike Ruff Draft, Champion Sound was a widely-released, full-fledged album- more slept-on than scarce- and it's aged a bit better than early reviews might've anticipated. Stones Throw's reissue of Champion Sound, then, seems to work largely as a "hey, remember this?" nudge, coming off the heels of the recent deluxe edition of Dilla's Ruff Draft EP in a similar bid to reestablish the value of an underheard record.
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