Madvillainy (9.1)

Madvillainy - Madvillain (2004, Stones Throw Records)
Average Score: 9.1 / 10

Schantz_
9.7 / 10

Madvillainy is the brainchild of MF DOOM and Madlib, two of today's hip-hop's finest. Madlib makes the beats, blending eerie samples of accordions, old superhero cartoons, fuzzy slow drums, and god knows what to make a captivating smoky den of sounds. This smoky sound perfectly complements MF DOOM's smoky voice. The rhymes are bizarre but flow with the same strange magic that Madlib's beats do.

It would be one thing if the rhymes and rhythms were just great, but on top of that the duo never falls into the trap of convention. There is never a predictable chorus/verse/chorus, or predictable moment at all. The end of songs will often flow into clips of old television programs, giving the album a thematic flow, but this technique is never overused. In one case Sun Ra is even sampled. The album could easily take itself too seriously, but they run the entire gamut from the serious, Curls, to the bizarre, Shadows of Tomorrow, to pure sound collage, The Illiest Villains, to flat-out novelty, America's Most Blunted. This is one of the few albums where each track seems to have something new to discover on each repeated listening. With tracks averaging only 2 minuets and there being 21, the album never has a stale moment. Many of the lyrics are playful, my favorite being: "Last wish, I wish I had two more wishes/ I wish they fixed the matrix's mad fridges/ spit so many rhymes sometimes my jaw twitches, one thing this party could use is more.../ booze"

All in all Madvillainy creates a damp basement of sounds, a slow moving flow that never gets old, an incredibly successful collaboration of two of today's finest.


KJ_
9.2 / 10

gave the album a couple of legit listens. after having been blown out the past few weeks from the intensity of P.O.S., i felt underwhelmed by this album in particular upon first exposure

however

upon melting myself into the choppy, never overplayed samples on Madvillainy i said to myself this is sick as SHIT. the collaboration of MF Doom and Madlib doesn't mean much to me at face value, but i can appreciate and respect this for what it is. the clash and their mixture works unbelievably well, especially on "raid" and "america's most blunted" - the antithesis of N.W.A.'s "express yourself".

it's got kind of a robert pollard feel to it given that for hip hop tracks, most of these end off in about 2 minutes tops. i also think it just adds to the power of the hooks within the 21 tracks on the record. most hiphop milks a sample/hook for all its worth, and on top of that it gets overplayed like SHIT on the radio (see "yeah" by Usher). Madvillainy is humble as shit with it's assets, and is compounded upon constantly - these tracks never see the light of radio am/fm.

except for "america's most blunted". its just too fucking clever.


H_
8.6 / 10

Madvillainy opens in what has come to be known as classic MF DOOM style: nostalgic commentary given over a smooth beat mixed in with distorted sound clips of movies, tasteful screaming, and light disc-jockeying. As always, DOOM’s lyrics are heavily influenced by the comic book universe, at least at first. The spoken introductory track provides a general foundation of evil characters and super (mad) villains in comic books. It’s all irrelevant, really, pertaining only to the name of the combination of MF DOOM and Madlib: Madvillain.

This 2004 release marked the true mainstream emergence of both DOOM and Madlib’s careers. Not to be caught up in the passé patented and formulaic structure of hip-hop that emerged as a result of the trend-heavy 1990’s and first decade of the new millennium, Madvillainy’s songs are mostly short, rambling compositions featuring DOOM’s quirky rhymes over beats that seem to be more background music than anything trying to steal the listener’s attention. The result is an utterly spiritual experience.

To you fans of the standardized rap form (see Jay-Z, Jedi Mind Tricks, etc) Madvillainy is not for you. You won’t hear DOOM spit pure fire or get down and dirty with Vinnie Paz, but you will get to hear something new. DOOM’s style isn’t hard hitting at all; in fact, it seems almost overwhelmingly evident after a few runs of the album that he and Madlib, in all likeliness, met stoned one day and decided, “Hey, lets record an album.” Scene: Madlib plays around with some beats, MF DOOM freestyles about nothing in particular for two minutes. Next track. Rinse and repeat. Add some random sound clips as an afterthought and mix in the unused beats as instrumentals, and boom: album.

Fortunately for far-reaching fans of music, the duo is remarkably good at what they do. DOOM’s rhymes seem frighteningly simple at first (and really, they are) but listening again only increases the meaning and connection of each track exponentially. DOOM connects with your soul, but you can’t explain why. Madlib’s beats aren’t extraordinarily special, at first; they won’t grab your attention. But as you’re listening, they don’t stand out as bad either. Each beat fits the mood and atmosphere of the overlaying vocals perfectly, and while listening to the album in its entirety may result in a feeling of bland and blasé, one can’t deny its minimally undulating and incapacitating flow. Halfway through the album, right about when “Operation Lifesaver” hits, one is decidedly compelled to inaction.

Maybe Madvillainy is what politicians are talking about when they say music is destroying America’s youth. Maybe that’s just Slipknot. Who knows? What I know Madvillainy to be is an album for the free-spirited. If you can get by DOOM’s downright plebeian singing ability on tracks like “Rainbows,” and just relax into the music, you will be overwhelmed by its ensnaring lull. But don’t expect any wicked guitar solos.

Tony_
9.0 / 10

Madvillain is a mind-fuck of an album. Try following Dooms lyrics while Madlib's blunted production drags you into the lower depths of insanity. Meat Grinder for example, does just what it promises, it grinds your brain into meat with some of the funkiest procussion to ever appear on a hip hop record, the song sports shakers, musical triangle? and congos and it doesn't even sound like an african tribal love song, it just bangs. On Meat Grinder Doom spits about China, and Midgets, and this one chick who is insane but still fine, then he talks about Alligators and then goes on to detail some sort of criminal exchange (in all quad flavors?). Anyway, the lyrics are almost impossible to understand-but thats the point. To judge the lyrics on their ability to make sense isn't an option with this album, becuae that would assume that Madlib and Doom even want to make sense, and they obviously dont. They just want to grind your brain into meat, and they do with a certain charm and soul that is pretty much unseen in the undie hip hop world. This album recieved countless nods for best indie rap, fuck it, indie anything record in 2004.
Doom is amazing, not just becuase of his actual rapping, which is a combination of obscure urban references about the color of NY license plates, to comic book characters, to weed, and pretty much everything and anything else. If you want to write about an MC, you need to give a good portrait of their persona, becuase that is such a huge part of being a rapper, you have to give the listener a clear understanding of who you are. Most rap records contain multiple little facts about the MC, for example, in a DMX or Jay-Z record it wouldn't be suprising to have like 4-5 songs that are strictly about specefic events that happened in either of their lives. Doom is the complete opposite, and the record fares much better for it. Doom comes across as a...well...Masked Villain, he is completely impossible to understand and speaks in some sort of code. Another way you could describe his persona is some sort of homeless wizard that takes you on a journey through the streets showing you all the little ins and outs of being completly insane and on drugs, and still ill as fuck on the mic.
'Lib's production is fantastic as always, but he really comes into his own on this album. He drops some straight up indie classics such as the heartbreaking/surreal as fuck Accordion. Strange Ways sounds like a hip hop banger filtered through about 40 feet of weed smoke. How do i even describe the genius of Curls? Figaro is one of the more menacing beats i've heard, along with Rainbows which sports some awesome singing from Doom warning one of his homeless mafia pals to watch his back in the streets, and then switches over to talking about why he drinks Drain-O. WTF! The little break down at 55 seconds is just sweet, Madlib sampled some crazy stuff for this record and every beat sounds nothing else.
The album ends on its jazziest note, with Doom talking about...fuck it, and Madlib laying down the illness as always and each beat sounds unlike anything else ever produced by lesser beat conductors. These Villains fucked shit up on this one.