Wine aside, we’re here to talk about Bandana, an album released earlier this summer by the pair occasionally known as MadGibbs. Five years in the making, it is the follow up to Piñata – a record that feels like it has deepened over time, like a good wine, and one that helped establish Gibbs in wider rap circles. Bandana finds Madlib crossing over further into Gibbs’ world, using spliced beats to devastating effect, as in tracks like Half Manne, Half Cocaine. Despite the big name guests – Black Thought, Killer Mike, Pusha T – Gibbs is the undoubted star of the show, rapping as if his life depends on it.

On the vinyl edition of the album there is a sticker stating: ‘Movie – Western/ Adventure’. While the artwork features Quasimoto (Madlib’s cartoon alias) sat upon a zebra, both smoking on a joint, peering out from behind the Hollywood sign at a city in flames. Freddie Gibbs and Madlib as frontiersmen, looking for adventure, money, drugs, power and catharsis. Is this record about the pursuit of a dystopian American Dream? Gibbs is unequivocal: “This album is a manifesto. I wrote the majority of it when I was incarcerated. I thought I was gonna go away for ten years.”

“We didn’t even think we were gonna have this album out,” Madlib adds “I wrote from memory [while in jail]. I’ve got a good memory when it comes to Madlib beats. They stick to your ears. I look at this shit like sport. He’s like a good coach, making me sharper.”