Customer Reviews

Madvillainy [Explicit]

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In art, sometimes things get produced that are strange and influential, considered within the scope of their origin (Van Gogh, for example), and sometimes things get created that are strange for no good reason and we can only hope aren't influential at all (e.e. cummings). There's no question that Madvillainy is not a "normal" hip hop record. The question is whether that's okay.

For some people, I figure it will probably work out. For others, it won't. It's really that simple.

To address the common complaints, all of which have some validity:

1. The tracks tend to be short. Well, that's not quite true--the tracks, as divided by the album listing--are on the short side of average. The thing is that many of those tracks are almost divisible into sub-tracks, with the end result being that most of the vocal snippets (the actual rapping) don't last for more than about a minute at a time.

2. DOOM doesn't take himself seriously. I honestly don't know what to tell you about that. I think people that are faulting him for his subject matter have a stick somewhere uncomfortable they need to remove. Popular music, like any mass artistic medium, is supposed to be entertaining. It doesn't necessarily have to make sense to be fun, though that's not really a problem that DOOM has (his stuff frequently makes sense--at least, it does to me, though the fact that my perusal of lyrics at a couple of sites suggested that a number of listeners don't know who Worf is tells me I may be coming from a little bit different area of subject expertise).

2.5. Some people think there are too many skits. I classify this is a non-observation or a sub-complaint for several reasons. First off, if you think that THIS has too many "skits" (not sure what that means, at this point), you should stay far away from some of DOOM's other releases. More likely, this relates to a general feeling that the record doesn't form a cohesive artistic statement, but feels more like somebody swept up a bunch of fragments from a cutting room floor and glued them together.

The fact is, those objections are correct. You can't take DOOM seriously all the time, and if you'll do him the charity, you'll find that he's got a lot more wit to him than almost any other MC I can think of off the top of my head. The album is exceedingly fragmented, mostly in response to the frankly monotonous and overwrought state of mainstream hip hop, if you are to believe the press. There's probably a better compromise between six minutes of the same beat in a loop and a blender full of strange beats, but that doesn't necessarily imply this is bad.

Taken on its own, this is, at the least, an interesting record. I'd consider it one of the better hip hop recordings of the past five years (and no, I'm not concerned with being considered "down with the underground"). It's very different, has some great rhymes, and never stays in one place long enough to get boring, which is by far the greatest crime other hip hop commits these days.

My only real problem with Madvillainy is the fact that it puts me to sleep. And I mean that literally. If I put it on in my car on the way home, I'm drifting off by the time I hit my freeway exit. Some of that is due to homogeneity of tempo (oddly enough, even though the beat changes a LOT, it tends to gravitate back towards a few checkpoint tempos, and the frequent transition actually emphasizes that more to me than it downplays it), and some of it is admittedly due to the fact that the constant motion in the record sort of encourages you to tune it into background noise.

Ultimately, I can't recommend this album as a starting point for anybody. It's just not very accessible. We're not talking about Radiohead here (I doubt that there will be any fistfights in bars about whether or not this record is the grand statement of everything that sums up my entire life and makes me feel like some odd British git really understands what I'm going through and the utter and complete helplessness and ennui that comes from our existence in a world pervasively permeated by technology and information--and don't laugh too hard, because I'm pretty sure that at least two people have used those exact words in that same order before me, here, and, if you can't tell, I don't have much respect for that particular breed of Radiohead fan), but this isn't the sort of thing that you're going to pick up and fall directly into.

If you're a serious hip hop enthusiast, you should have this record. Whether you like it or not, this is an IMPORTANT record, if only because it attempts to do something completely different from mainstream hip hop and succeeds. If you're a casual listener, it would be ideal if you could get your hands on it before you buy and listen to it a time or two to see if it grows on you. If you're a DOOM or Madlib fan, you already have the record and I'm not sure what you're reading for.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I had to add in my two cents about this album. I have barely heard of Madlib and MF Doom before I picked up this album. It is one of the best albums I have ever heard. i have purchased around 20 or 30 hip hop albums in the last couple months to make up for a few years of laziness, as well as listening to new artists. Madvillainy gets the most rotation. The production is amazing, and Doom's voice fits like a puzzle over madlib's beats.

I must say when i first listened to this cd, i didnt give it too much thought. It wasn't until the second listen when I became amazed. My fav tracks are accordian, figaro, strange ways, fancy clow, and rhinestone cowboy. I also heard a sweet remix of figaro that I think is on the 12". Don't sleep on this album, you'll be sorry.

Alright... I'm not strictly a MF Doom (or Victor Vaughn, King Geeordah, KMD, Zeb Lova X, or whatever moniker he's using now) fan, or a Madlib (or Yesterdays New Quintet, Quasimoto, Otis Jackson Jr. or whatever moniker HE'S using now) fan, but I like good hip hop, and this is just that.

First of all... The beats... Extremely typical Madlib production, with what sounds like TONS of really short samples jumbled together to make a great beat, in a way that only Madlib does... Additionally, this is LITTERED with what sounds like old radio programs as skits and interludes. I say LITTERED, but I don't mean this negatively. Most or many of the skits/intros are HILARIOUS, and I'm under the impression that Doom must have been digging in the crates for MONTHS or YEARS trying to find all the old radio talk for the interludes (the production credits say that Doom handled all the skits... I may be wrong on this...) (America's Most Blunted has my favorite production work, but I kind of feel the song is ruined a bit by a Quasimoto/Madlib "duet" at the end... I guess this is just because I don't like the "Quasimoto" character that Madlib created and would rather he just rap normal...).

Doom comes through with the rhymes nicely. In Fact, I'm much more impressed with his work on this album than Madlib's, though I think that Madlib did a fantastic job of handling the beats. It's probably because I've just come to expect it out of Madlib, but I don't have as much of a history when it comes to Doom's work.

So far, this is one of my favorite CONCEPT hip hop albums ever, on par with Dr. Octogonecologist and Deltron 3030 (and from what I hear, lots of the MF Doom albums, or even the first Prince Paul album but I don't own any of them, and can't make that comparison...)

The other thing about this album is that it sounds the way you'd have expected Jaylib to sound if you knew anything about Madlib. The problem with Jaylib was that NEITHER MADLIB OR JAY DILLA is HALF the MC that MF Doom(aka just about every name you can think of) is, and it made the album into a well produced record by a crappy rapper tandem. THIS ALBUM is anything but that... It's well produced, well rapped on, and... just a great album... If you know anything about Madlib or Doom, you'll like this album... if you Don't, you still should like it, as it's the way Hip hop was intended... raw, gritty, intelligent, and here to stay.

At a time when hip-hop in many ways has made a mockery of itself, and when its premier acts are neither creative nor conscious, MF Doom and Madlib have delivered an undisputed classic. Madvillainy is a rare hip-hop "concept" album filled with frenetic beats and rhymes that are both avant garde and street-level at the same time.

It is amazing to hear their reinvention of the beat and rhyme on tracks like "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Figaro," "Accordion," and the instant classic "All Caps." Many of the tracks are short, and the interludes sometimes make little sense.

It is telling that many of the artists leading a revolution within hip-hop are its elders, like De La Soul, Common, and (hopefully) Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest. Madvillain sports 2 prolific veterans of the rap game who have managed to make hip-hop challenging and relevant again. In my humble opinion, Madvillainy is the most important hip-hop album of the last decade and one of the best albums of the last few years, period. Pick it up.

Forget the gun talk, put away your gang signs and for crying out loud tear that price tag off your baseball cap before I rip it off myself and stuff it down your throat. Put on your metal Dr. Doom mask and prepare yourself for the evil genius that is Madvillain.

All that gangster rap you're listening to is nowhere near as dark and intimidating as Madvillain's "Madvillainy", an album so pure in beats and rhymes that it almost makes me angry that this isn't getting more exposure. Similar to the Jaylib album "Champion Sound", comprising of super-producers J Dilla and Madlib, this is another underground collab featuring Madlib and excentric MC extraordinaire MF Doom. Also similar to "Champion Sound", this album is bananas. Madlib dishes out what I believe to be his most consistent lineup of beats to date, and MF Doom's dark slurring flow is both on point and pure genius.

The beauty of this album is that you can't categorize it. While yes, it is an uber-underground hit, it is nonetheless an album that most people can appreciate because it's impossible not to feel Madlib's production and despite the fact that MF comes off as a pretty crazy cat nobody can deny that he spits fire on the mic. Madlib's beats are unbelievable: it wouldn't surprise me if his beats and MF's flow were separated at birth because they literally go hand-in-hand. Lib's funk-heavy classic sound remains intact on tracks like "Eye" and "Meat Grinder", yet he also opts for a more gothic sound, ultimately complimenting MF's dark personna beautifully, on tracks like "Accordion", where the beats centralizes on the slow droning sound of an accordion.

I have a theory that when Rob Base dissapeared from the scene in like, 1990 or whatever, he actually went underground and became MF Doom. MF's got a crazy deep voice that pours onto the mic like mollases. His lyrics are original and never redundant, which is refreshing because redundance is a recurring problem in today's rap game. He shines on the opening track "The Illest Villains" and is never afraid to adapt to unfamiliar environments, like on the romance-flavored "Eye", featuring Stacy Epps singing the hook.

I've never been a huge fan of dark music but this just changed the whole game for me. I've always turned to music as a source of uplifting energy, yet with this album I can't turn away from it. Despite the fact that "Madvillain" is not what I would normally pick up for my CD collection, I am so intrigued and impressed by this album that its dark quality is just as if not more uplifting than most so-called "positive" albums that I've picked up recently. In an industry that is becoming more and more candy-assed with each day that passes, this darkest-of-dark albums has actually become the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now this is pure bedroom closet studio type underground. From the second you insert Madvillainy, you feel like you're listening to the narration of a marvel comic book with Doom's taste; definately creative. Its Def, matter fact, why dont we say 'def' anymore, well I'ma use it in this case to tell yall that this CD is DEF. Madlib supposedly did all the beats on the album, but it doesn't stray to far from Doom's natural sound. If you've never heard MF DOOM, the best way I can sum up his music is, ill poetic Mark Twain style rhyming over vintage sampled beats, very abstract compared to the current mainstream, but nonetheless will still keep you entertained. Doom show's his own level of creativity, and to me that's what raw hip hop really is. Buy ya'self a copy bro, you be the judge.

I didn't know what to expect when the album finally dropped. Many of the diehard Madlib fans had probably found some of these recordings on the internet many months ago. To my delight, many of the beats have undergone changes while being mastered. From the ill accordian samples placed in the first song to the crazy tight loop of the last song, Madvillain is a wild and crazy trip. Auditory conservatives need not apply, for the majority of the songs here don't even contain choruses. The songs don't even convey much in the way of song placement, and listening through the entire disk reminds one of someone flipping through an old radio. The beautiful thing about Madlib is that he seems to disregard the complexity of a given beat in exchange for what sounds good to him. He doesn't seem to be affected by the tons of critical praise he has received in the last 5 years. For the many haters of the Quasimoto project out there: this album is much easier on the ears and brain. For the lyric heads out there, MF DOOM does not disappoint with the rhymes.

The CD booklet even contains all of the MF DOOM lyrics! MF DOOM's career has somewhat mirrored that of Madlib. MF DOOM has released a constant supply of projects (and sideprojects of sideprojects) and appears under alias like beatsmith Madlib. Lyrics are delivered in a signature monotone laid-back style and the guest appearances help break up the assault on the brain. DOOM comes with clever, witty, tongue twisting, syllable scheme shifting rhymes that sometimes boggle the mind. "Hey Bro, day glo, set the bet, pay dough, before the chedda gedda away besta get maaco" is spit on "Meat Grinder," and DOOM doesn't let up until the relatively brief (for containing 22 tracks) album starts over in your CD Player (on repeat).

This album contains something for everyone and even treats a listening by having the video for ALL CAPS on the CD. For the beatheads, Madlib serves plenty of quality blunted beats. Lyric critics will be pleased with the mouthful of ill rhymes provided by MF DOOM. Indie fans can finally put a new quality hip hop record in the rotation. There's even added bonus for those who are in their "experimental" stage of their lives. Here's to college!

I bought this album over a year ago, and it still earns repeated listens to this day. Why? Thanks to the intricate subtleties of Madlib's beats and MF Doom's wildy metaphoric lyrics, it successfully bears up under repeated listens, just getting better and better.

MF Doom is a husky-voiced MC who's been around for some time - as a member of the group K.M.D. with his brother Subroc, who was tragically killed in a car crash in 1993 after the group's 1991 album debut. K.M.D. went on to release the angry, political album "Bl_ck B_st_rds", which led to problems with their label Elektra which kept the group in limbo for the next 5 years.

MF Doom, who up until this point had been known as "Zev Love X", resurfaced with his new alter-ego and name in 1999, releasing the album "Operation Doomsday", heavily centered around Doom being a villain out to cause trouble, complete with mask convering his face so his true identity would never be known. He's subsequently gone on to release several albums, many based on his own production work.

Madlib is a Oxnard, California producer who first came on to the scene in 1999 as the producer and part-time MC of Lootpack, a group whose album "Soundpieces: Da Antidote" was critically acclaimed. Madlib has since released two more albums under his helium-voiced alter-ego Quasimoto, and has also several other album productions to his name.

Together, the group are known as Madvillain, with MF Doom on the microphone and Madlib behind the production. And both of them show off their outstanding talents on this excellent album.

MF Doom's lazy, semi-deep husky voice starts dropping excellent lyrics from the very first line - "Living off borrowed time, the clock tick faster" he proclaims on the opening track "Accordian", with a minimalist Madlib beat powered by a simple slow Accordian riff. On "Great Day Today", he says "Last wish? I wish I had two more wishes", and continues with the metaphors with lines like "Got more soul than a sock with a hole."

On "Operation Lifesaver", Doom has to deal with chatting up a girl at a bar only to be confronted by her appalling bad breath, whilst on "Fancy Clown", Doom's alter-ego Viktor Vaughn phones up a cheating girlfriend to condemn her wandaring ways, only to then tell her that's been with her friend, mother and the maid, amongst others. The stories are bizarre, ultimately, but with lines referencing terrorismm and its effect on people ("Ever since 10/11 glade she made a bretheren"), war ("it costs billions
to blast humans in half, into captured arms / Only one side is allowed to have bombs") or drugs ("recent research show it's not so darn harmful") the album touches on a surprising amount of topics, all of them delivered in a twisted, poetic style.

The music bolsters the Doom's voice with an excellent, varied style that chops and changes all over the place ; "Fancy Clown" chops up an old 70's soul sample and rearranges it into a wicked riff, "Great Day Today" rides laid-back jazz drums and a shimmering Rhodes keyboard, and "America's Most Blunted" rides a rolling guitar beat. Whilst varying in style, the tracks all blend together perfectly over the album, interspersed with strange samples from old cartoons, sound effects and the kitchen sink.

Thanks to the fantastic music and MF Doom's complex wordplay, this album still commands my attention over a year later - the sheer fact that I can even be bothered to write this review should give you a fairly good idea of much I would recommend this album. If you're even slightly interested in hip-hop, then you should certainly give this album a listen for an excellent showcase of real hip-hop.

Yes, most of the tracks are less than 2 minutes. But even the super hero skits layered throughout the album are not filler because they fit together perfectly into MF Doom's style. Madlib flawlessly matches Doom's style throughout the album which overall makes the album just crazy as hell to listen to....seriously with rhymes like
"Givin' y'all nothing but the lick like two broads
Got more lyrics than the church got 'Ooh Lords'
And he hold the mic and your attention like two swords
Or even one with two blades on it
Hey you, don't touch the mic like theres AIDS on it,"
I don't see how you cannot cop this album.

Don't sleep on a superhero concept rap album like this...

This album is basically 46 minutes of teasing. It starts off with a nice super hero style intro to get us all in the mood. Then we have 2 songs ("Accordion" and "Meat Grinder") with just ridiculous Madlib creations and MF Doom spitting with a sick flow. The problem: the songs are both under 3 minutes!! Then we get some alright tracks, until Madlib gives us another treat with "Curls", which is again under 3 minutes. This is how the entire album is. None of the songs are wack, but there are several songs that just blow you away (other ones are "Figaro", "All Caps", "Fancy Clown"). Too bad none of them actually last very long. It's like Madlib just wants us to be fiending for more.

Out of the 46 minutes, about 20 minutes is alright, 10 minutes is throwaway filler, and 16 minutes is off the hook. It doesn't really sound like a good ratio, but I can't really complain since I CAN'T STOP PLAYING THIS CD. The good parts are just enough to keep you listening, and when the album finishes you just want to push play again. Peep it if you're a big Madlib fan or if you're willing to spend the cash on such a short album.