Ill Communication

The band recorded it while running Grand Royal and its magazine, and it drew on Miles Davis's On the Corner and Agharta. The cover photograph was taken in 1964 by Bruce Davidson at the Tiny Naylor's drive-in, for an Esquire assignment that was never published. Guests include Q-Tip on Get It Together and Biz Markie on Do It, and Eugene Gore plays violin. MCA takes two solo turns, The Update and Bodhisattva Vow, and the band donated royalties from Shambala and Bodhisattva Vow to the Milarepa Fund, which campaigns on Tibetan human rights.

Chart and reception

It went to number one on the Billboard 200 and spent 63 weeks on the chart, reached number 10 in Britain, and went 3x Platinum in the United States and Canada. Christgau gave it an A-, calling it short on dynamite but noting that it at least starts with a bang. AllMusic and Rolling Stone each gave four stars, NME 8 out of 10, and Nate Patrin gave the 2009 reissue an 8.6 at Pitchfork, calling it the underrated follow-up to Check Your Head and noting it was assembled in a comparatively brief six months. NME ranked it third among 1994 albums and the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll placed it fifteenth.