Sound Ancestors (studio album)
by Madlib

Sound Ancestors by Madlib
Year: 2021
Release date: 2021-01-29
Overall rank: 5,545th   
Average Rating: 
71/100 (from 97 votes)
     
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2021 (63rd)
Award Top albums of the 2020s (313th)
Award Best albums of all time (5,545th)

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Madlib - Sound Ancestors Cassette (Sealed)
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Madlib – Sound Ancestors, Madlib Invazion – MMS Vinyl LP Album 1st Press Sealed
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Madlib Sound Ancestors Vinyl LP Test Pressing
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Madlib bestography

Sound Ancestors is ranked 3rd best out of 39 albums by Madlib on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Madlib is The Unseen which is ranked number 2783 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 553.

Madlib album bestography « Higher ranked (4,205th)
Shades Of Blue
This album (5,545th)
Sound Ancestors
Lower ranked (10,683rd) »
Yessir Whatever

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Upcoming concerts

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20:00
ALL (H)OURS 1st FANCON "ALL the HOURS" in North America
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17
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19:00
Maddox Batson: Live Worldwide Tour
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Jan
17
Sat
14:00
The King Comes Home
Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, United States. United States
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Listen to Sound Ancestors on YouTube

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Sound Ancestors track list

   The tracks on this album have an average rating of 73 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
2.
Average Rating: 79 (21 votes)Comments: View 0
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3.
Average Rating: 74 (17 votes)Comments: View 0
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4.
Average Rating: 79 (21 votes)Comments: View 0
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5.
Average Rating: 72 (17 votes)Comments: View 0
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6.
Average Rating: 70 (20 votes)Comments: View 0
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7.
Average Rating: 75 (16 votes)Comments: View 0
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8.
Average Rating: 72 (15 votes)Comments: View 0
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9.
Average Rating: 72 (15 votes)Comments: View 0
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11.
Average Rating: 73 (15 votes)Comments: View 0
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12.
Average Rating: 74 (15 votes)Comments: View 0
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13.
Average Rating: 73 (14 votes)Comments: View 0
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14.
Average Rating: 73 (16 votes)Comments: View 0
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15.
Average Rating: 74 (15 votes)Comments: View 0
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16.
Average Rating: 71 (14 votes)Comments: View 0
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Sound Ancestors rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 5,545th | 2020s rank: 313th | 2021 rank: 63rd

Sound Ancestors collection

Sound Ancestors ratings

Average Rating: 
71/100 (from 97 votes)
   Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 97 ratings for this album.

Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !
04/05/2025 18:06 MagicSix   85260/100
 
60/100
 !
10/15/2024 05:04 bcc   1,13368/100
 
50/100
 !
01/11/2023 16:14 Davy   1,30770/100
 
70/100
 !
12/26/2022 21:05 eric_005   1,90876/100
 
75/100
 !
11/08/2022 04:31 Alansanchezt   44679/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 71.5/100, a mean average of 70.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 71.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.1.

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Sound Ancestors favourites

Showing all 3 members who have added this album as a favourite

Sound Ancestors comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  
70/100
From 03/12/2021 03:52 | #267263
(Efficient, beautiful and incredibly well produced instrumental hip hop album. Maybe it’s not generally my cuppa, but nonetheless it made me a fan for a few hours as I listened to this on repeat.)

Overall I found this to be a good, engaging and replayable instrumental hip hop album. Generally this genre is one I tend not to listen to. That might explain why this may be the highest profile release of the year so far amongst music nerds that I haven’t dived into. But based off my limited experience with the genre and the legend who is making this art, I can say that I really enjoyed the flow and artistry of this album.

The vocals and the spoken bits were all consistently well integrated into the song, the beats were never too loud or over the top but they did consistently create a nice sonic atmosphere. And the flow and length of the album was exactly what I wanted.

It also makes me wanna go back and listen to his back catalog of solo albums. I know he has some classics over the years.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
From 02/06/2021 11:13 | #265859
Maybe it's because I was too excited for this and set the bar too high, but I sadly found it a bit underwhelming, it left something more to be desired. I fail to see how this comes even close to his best work. Still, there were some great moments, like the self-titled track.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 02/02/2021 10:29 | #265573
Great, eclectic record. Really interesting use of rhythms and samples. Not a bad listen
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 01/30/2021 13:59 | #265319
Has good moments but generally boring.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (2 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
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