The celebrated hip-hop producer Madlib has confirmed the loss of his extensive record collection and much of his recording equipment along with his home in the wildfires that have swept across California and killed at least 25 people.
The influential musician, who has worked with some of the most prominent names in rap including Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and MF DOOM, is known for his sample-heavy production style. His record collection, amassed over 30 years, acted as the backbone of that work.
The collection is understood to have comprised thousands of rare vinyls, CDs and cassettes encompassing many musical genres, and included records he collected on his global travels. As well as creating and producing hip-hop, Madlib worked on experimental music including the Sound Ancestors collaboration with the electronic musician Four Tet, and founded the Madlib Invazion label.
Some of his most frequent collaborators were creators of alternative hip-hop including Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli and J Dilla, and his work often included elements of world music and jazz. His best known collaborator is probably the late MF DOOM, with whom he used his archive and equipment to produce the critically acclaimed album Madvillainy in his LA studio.
News of the loss was met with consternation by fans online, while an online fundraiser, shared by fellow artists such as Flying Lotus and Freddie Gibbs, has been set up for Madlib – whose birth name is Otis Lee Jackson Jr – and his family.
Madlib’s home is one of the estimated more than 12,000 buildings that have been destroyed by the fires, which have caused in excess of 200,000 people to be evacuated from the Los Angeles county area and have been described as among the most destructive fires in California’s history.
Among the other as-yet-uncounted musical losses in the fire are large chunks of the archives of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg and the studio of the band Poolside.
