Sound Ancestors
by Madlib
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Madlib bestography
Sound Ancestors is ranked 3rd best out of 40 albums by Madlib on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Madlib is The Unseen which is ranked number 3247 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 468.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Sound Ancestors on YouTube
Sound Ancestors track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 73 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Sound Ancestors rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 | 93/100 | 0 |
| 2026 |  meccalecca | Top 98 Music Albums of 2021 | 55/98 | 2 |
| 2026 |  KitchenSink | Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 | 8/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 | 92/100 | 0 |
| 2026 |  ammf3 | Top 53 Music Albums of 2021 | 13/53 | 4 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Albums of the year 2021 by Piccadilly Records | 32/55 | - |
| 2026 | FelipeBoorkes | Top 61 Music Albums of the 2020s | 5/61 | 19 |
| 2026 |  Larcx13 | Top 87 Music Albums of the 2020s | 67/87 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Ranked listening log 2021 201-255 | 26/55 | - |
| 2026 |  LedZep | Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 | 73/100 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 112 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 283 | |||
Sound Ancestors collection
Showing all 13 members who have this album in their collection
Sound Ancestors ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 101 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/29/2026 17:27 | Andrash | 237 | 65/100 |
| ! | 05/25/2026 14:13 | TonySayers61 | 25,849 | 64/100 |
| ! | 05/22/2026 08:54 | Leginlists | 3,842 | 83/100 |
Rating metrics:
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 71.3/100, a mean average of 70.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 71.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.2.
Sound Ancestors favourites
Showing all 3 members who have added this album as a favourite
Sound Ancestors forum mentions
baystateoftheart 08/28/2024 01:31 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
bojolpif71 05/16/2021 07:56 in What album are you listening to right now?
Mercury 03/12/2021 03:58 in You must listen to the album below you: canon editionSound Ancestors comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
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.
Larcx13 01/30/2021 13:59 | #265319 | TOP COMMENT
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Has good moments but generally boring.
Great, eclectic record. Really interesting use of rhythms and samples. Not a bad listen
Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/12/2021 03:52 | #267263 | TOP COMMENT
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(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.
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