Champion Sound

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

The first pressings of the album in the USA contained two bonus tracks: "Raw Addict," and "Ice" (which otherwise are only on a white label 12" issued by Stones Throw); the first pressing of the CD in Europe included those two and a third track, "Pillz," which was later featured as the b-side to the single for "McNasty Filth".

In 2005 Madlib's compilation of unreleased Jaylib tracks got leaked as an early version of Madvillain's Madvillainy did before. These two CDs were compiled by Madlib in late 2002 to listen to on a trip to Brazil.^[1] The Jaylib compilation is called The Rough Drafts and the Madvillain compilation is called Madvillainy Preview.

The 2007 re-issue of Champion Sound was abruptly delayed when Stones Throw was issued a cease-and-desist from the camp of artist Cris Williamson. "The Red", one of the more popular songs from the LP, contained an unauthorized sample of her song "Shine On, Straight Arrow". According to J-Rocc of the Beat Junkies, the sample clearance issue came down to Williamson's gripe about a Madlib lyric: "There's a Jaylib track called ‘The Red’ they got sued for. Cris Williamson is the artist and she’s a total feminist, a real woman-power type. In that song Madlib says "mostly shitty women". She said, 'I’m not having that, take it off the album.' But she’s still letting them use the instrumental for licensing and so on. So even there they’ve worked something out".^[2] "The Red" appears on the reissue with an alternate beat, though one still arranged by Jay Dee. An alternate beat was also used for the song "No Games" on the re-issue.

In 2010, Champion Sound was listed by Black Milk as one of the "Top Ten Albums of the Last Decade".^[10] In 2015, it ranked at number 41 on Fact's "100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records of All Time" list.^[11] In that year, it was also listed by HipHopDX as one of the "30 Best Underground Hip Hop Albums Since 2000".^[12]