Madvillian - Madvilliany [2021 Reissue]

MF DOOM and Madlib's leftfield hip hop opus, featuring the singles "Money Folder", "Curls" and "All Caps" plus more out-there raps and breaks. Medaphoar, Quasimoto, Wildchild, Viktor Vaughn and Stacy Epps all come along to join Doom on the mic, as Madlib drops some of the most disturbed backing sounds of his career (he even samples Daedelus at one point!), milking his B-movie samples and impenetrable rhythms. With short hits and a quickfire tracklist, "Madvillainy" is an explosive and schizophrenic experience, the most complete Madlib hip hop production since Quasimoto's "The Unseen".

Madlib first patched these demos together for personal listening while on a trip to Brazil. While there in Sao Paulo, Madlib created more music which would eventually land on the album, using the only equipment available: a portable record player, an SP 303 and a borrowed cassette deck. It was also on this trip where the demo cut of the album leaked, an experience which soured the artistic process for both the producer and the MC to the extent that it took about a year to coax them back to finishing the record.

The album release in March 2004 was both controversial and highly acclaimed, helping expose the two artists to a large audience for the first time. Artistically, Madlib and DOOM both did was what completely natural to them – obscure lyrics, dusty beats, ignoring hooks, weaving themes that bounced unexpectedly from dark to comedy, all produced with a disregard to the big studio sound. It was the antithesis of the pop rap formula, and yet effortlessly soulful and true to it's hip-hop influences.