Madlib and Four Tet Link Up For Their Latest Track “Hopprock”

Madlib plans on releasing his new album Sound Ancestors this month.

On Monday, Madlib shared his latest single “Hopprock.” The track was edited, arranged, and mastered by Four Tet. Stream the new track below.

The new track, along with “Road of the Lonely Ones,” will appear on Madlib’s new album Sound Ancestors. “[Madlib]’s always making loads of music in all sorts of styles,” the electronic producer said of the collaboration. “I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album.”

The project is set to be released sometime in January. Four Tet describes the album’s creative process as assembling “hundreds of pieces” of music over the course of a couple of years. In his post announcing the album, he explained how Madlib sent him “tracks, loops and experiments that [he] would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine.”

“Not made into beats for vocalists to use,” he explained, “but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.”

Madlib has also reportedly been feeding material to artists like Pusha T and Black Thought. One way or another, we’ll get a full-length release from the legendary producer in 2021.

Stay tuned for further releases from Madlib.