Madvillainy - Madvillain

Madvillain are a very eccentric pair and this album is pretty much what you'd expect from Madlib and MF Doom. They compliment each other almost perfectly - the producer who poses as a mad man and the MC who actually is a mad man (schizophrenic after too much marijuana)! Madlib's beats are typically experimental and ambitious, 'Accordion' for example sees Doom rap braggadocio-style over the instrument of the same name. An odd combination but this ...
...over the course of the album. As you'd expect from a Doom album, the actual raps are frequently punctuated by instrumentals, and although Doom is a talented producer in his own right, Madlib brings something entirely new to the table. As one of the most respected producers of the 21st century, and a protegee of the late J Dilla, Madlib carries a certain weight with him in the world of underground rap and he does not disappoint here. The tracks are ... more

Madvillain are a very eccentric pair and this album is pretty much what you'd expect from Madlib and MF Doom. They compliment each other almost perfectly - the producer who poses as a mad man and the MC who actually is a mad man (schizophrenic after too much marijuana)! Madlib's beats are typically experimental and ambitious, 'Accordion' for example sees Doom rap braggadocio-style over the instrument of the same name. An odd combination but this is the kind of thing that you get used to over the course of the album. As you'd expect from a Doom album, the actual raps are frequently punctuated by instrumentals, and although Doom is a talented producer in his own right, Madlib brings something entirely new to the table. As one of the most respected producers of the 21st century, and a protegee of the late J Dilla, Madlib carries a certain weight with him in the world of underground rap and he does not disappoint here. The tracks are short and there's a good 17 of them so Madlib had his work cut out; he still, however, manages to maintain a very high standard from track to track. Incorporating a wide-range of samples, everything from hard rock to tango music, Madlib stays loyal to his jazz roots. But jazz samples are pretty much where all comparisons to traditional rap end, Madlib and Doom smash the normal boundaries while still remaining cool. Doom is at his eccentric but ingenious best, for example, "Tripping off the beat kinda, dripping off the meat grinder/Heat niner, pimping, stripping, soft street minor/China was a neat signer, trouble with the script digits
/Double dip bubble lips, sorrow less midget" is the opening to 'Meat Grinder'; what it all means is anyones guess but it certainly works. This typifies Doom and typifies the album itself. You don't always understand it and sometimes you might feel slightly uncomfortable with it - "Borderline schizo, sort of fine tits tho" - but there is no denying that it is consistently brilliant.

...less