While the Madlib agenda during the late ’00s and early ’10s was heavy on beat-tape projects like the Beat Konducta and Medicine Show series, his gigs doing production for straight-up rap albums is worth highlighting as an underrated stretch of his post-Madvillain / pre-Gibbs period. With Strong Arm Steady, there’s a clear tendency to lean more towards the lyrical style of a post-Freestyle Fellowship weeded-out mic-skills-centric West Coast underground, and guests like Guilty Simpson, Phonte, and Talib Kweli exemplify that vibe from the Midwest, South, and East. But the grimy strangeness and deliberately weathered timbre of Madlib’s soul samples make it a bridge to the faded-yet-focused vibe that would dominate 2010s indie rap.