Tangents, The Legacy of 'Madvillainy'

Madlilb (left) and MF DOOM (right)

Madvillainy, by ‘Madvillain’, is the collaborative effort between the hip-hop duo of producer Madlib (aka Otis Jackson Jr.) and the late emcee MF DOOM (aka Daniel Dumile), originally releasing back in 2004 on the prestigious Stone’s Throw Records. Back in the early 2000s, Madvillainy was just about the most hotly-anticipated collaboration in the world of underground hip-hop (although, admittedly, I was a little too young to be around for it). Keen listeners might have already heard a leaked Madlib mixtape a couple of years earlier, which included a handful of tracks amongst which were some of the pair’s first collaborations together – the leak ultimately put a hold on the project for a good couple of years while the pair worked on their own projects, frustrated at their well-kept secret getting out.

DOOM was always a fan of superhero comics – besides taking his name he would always wear the metal mask of Fantastic Four villain Dr. Doom during live appearances – and both him and Madlib had made use of different pseudonyms when exploring other projects. Even just on Madvillainy you’ll hear the high-pitched rap verses of ‘Quasimoto’, who is in fact Madlib’s rapper alter-ego, as well as ‘King Geedorah’ and ‘Viktor Vaughan’, both producer and emcee alter-egos of DOOM respectively – sometimes it would require a comic book nerd-level of knowledge to keep up with the ‘in-universe’ lore DOOM would build around himself and his collaborators.

In the midst of Madvillainy’s production, Madlib would end up making a record on Blue Note – 2003’s Shades of Blue – which sampled selections from the label’s back catalogue, something of a tradition that’s still continued today with Makaya McCraven’s Deciphering the Message that was released last year (read more on that album here). On Madvillainy, too, you’ll hear snippets of Bill Evans, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and even the interstellar monologues of Sun Ra amongst the wide array of samples. Tracks like ‘Meat Grinder’ make pretty liberal use of Frank Zappa’s ‘Sleeping In a Jar’, while ‘Raid’ totally transforms the opening hook from Osmar Milito & Quarteto Forma’s Brazilian funk song ‘América Latina’.

At a time when critics would refer to Madlib’s production style as ‘eclectic but sloppy’, Madvillainy was easily his most focussed effort at the time, his careful choice of samples only helped further by fluid chopping and an ear for catchy melodies; it’s perhaps not so surprising then to hear that Madlib produced most of the album’s beats in a Brazilian hotel room with only a small amount of equipment. DOOM, in turn, brings some of his wittiest (and often funniest) lines to the table, with his often understated somewhat-monotone delivery meshing in nicely with Madlib’s oddball laid-back beats. His lines almost read like limericks at times, and in contrast to the time’s boisterous ‘bling era’ gangsta rap sounds, MF DOOM’s lyrics tended to focus on the comic book-style antics of the titular fictitious supervillains.

Hip-hop and jazz have developed something of a cyclical relationship – acts like Madvillainy, as well as A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers built the sound of ‘jazz rap’ from sampling recordings from the 50’s and 60’s, and even Miles Davis experimented with the style on some of his latter-day recordings. Nowadays you’ve got bands like BADBADNOTGOOD (who released a short tribute to MF DOOM a few years back) playing a style of nu-jazz heavily informed by the sounds of hip-hop. As a young rock and metal fan just getting into sample-based music (and jazz too), Madvillainy ended up being my gateway into the world of hip-hop, albeit there are less strange places to start with the genre.

If this little tangent has piqued your curiosity – or perhaps you’re a diehard MF DOOM fan who hasn’t got their hands on the record yet – you can get yourself a copy of Madvillainy at the link below, as well as finding some of our other jazz-hop crossover favourites.

Some more jazz-rap recommendations...