Madvillainy

Untitled

Madvillainy is the debut album by American hip hop duo Madvillain, a group consisting of MF Doom (MC) and Madlib (producer). It was released on March 23, 2004 on Stones Throw Records to overwhelmingly positive reviews. It received universal acclaim from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 93/100 from Metacritic.

Album information

Madvillainy was praised for its unique and innovative approach to hip hop; short tracks, abstract lyrics, few choruses and a sound generally unfriendly to commercial radio. Despite this, the album achieved moderate commercial success, peaking at number 179 on the US Billboard 200, and attracted much attention from media outlets not usually covering hip hop music, including The New Yorker.

Four videos were filmed for the album: "All Caps" (directed by James Reitano), "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Accordion" (both directed by Andrew Gura), and "Shadows Of Tomorrow" (directed by System D-128). "All Caps" and "Rhinestone Cowboy" appear on the DVD Stones Throw 101 along with a hidden easter egg video for "Shadows Of Tomorrow" as a hidden feature. An impromptu video for "Accordion" was filmed in 2004 but not released until 2008's In Living the True Gods DVD.

At least two tracks on Madvillainy ("Rhinestone Cowboy", "Strange Ways") were produced using a portable turntable, a cassette deck and a Boss SP303 sampler by Madlib in Brazil. The first music to be publicly debuted from Madvillainy was the song "America's Most Blunted" which was played by Madlib at the Red Bull Music Academy in Brazil, November 2002.

An instrumental version of the album was released only in vinyl format and digitally through various online stores, with the tracks "The Illest Villains", "Bistro", "Sickfit", "Do Not Fire!", and "Supervillain Theme" being omitted. Two remix EPs of Madvillainy were released on Stones Throw. The remixes were done by Four Tet and Koushik.

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	93/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	A−
Entertainment Weekly	(B)
The New Yorker	(favorable)
Pitchfork Media	(9.4/10)
PopMatters	(favorable)
Slant Magazine
Stylus Magazine	A−
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Village Voice	(favorable)

In 2009, the album was selected in HipHopDX.com's Top 10 Albums of the '00s. Spin (p. 66) - Ranked number 17 in Spin's 40 Best Albums of the Year - "Madlib's production — thick, woozy slabs of beatnik bass — keeps things hotter than an underground volcano lair."

Rhapsody - Ranked number 13 on Rhapsody's 100 Best Albums of the Decade list and number 1 on the Hip-Hop's Best Albums of the Decade list. "The collaboration between underground hip-hop’s most adventurous producer (Madlib) and its most treasured lyricist (MF DOOM), Madvillainy is full of dark alleys and trapdoors. DOOM’s lines are extended vocabulary workouts and take repeated listens to fully unpack, yet there are times when the emcee peers through the Dada-ist carnival of words and speaks directly and honestly. Madlib’s production, meanwhile, is pure pastiche, a smorgasbord of world music, classic soul and outsider music. Snippets of childhood recordings rub against Sun Ra and Sonny Rollins. It’s a dark, funny and strange album."

Pitchfork ranked the album at number 13 in their list of the top 100 albums of 2000-04, commenting, "While Madlib's special power played tricks on your ears-- a sample you were sure was the sound of cars rolling by on the street might sound like the hiss of a record on a different day ("Rainbows")-- Doom unfurled his clever lyrics like a roll of sod on earth... and the album curved in on itself like a two-way mirror." Pitchfork more recently ranked it as the 25th best album of the 2000s.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	{{{extra_column}}}	Length
1.	"The Illest Villains"	Daniel Dumile, Otis Jackson Jr.	Madlib, MF Doom	1:55
2.	"Accordion"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:59
3.	"Meat Grinder"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	2:12
4.	"Bistro"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:08
5.	"Raid" (featuring MED aka Medaphoar)	Dumile, Jackson Jr., N. Rodriguez	Madlib	2:31
6.	"America’s Most Blunted" (with Madlib featuring Lord Quas)	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	3:54
7.	"Sickfit" (instrumental)	Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:22
8.	"Rainbows"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	2:52
9.	"Curls"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:36
10.	"Do Not Fire!" (instrumental)	Jackson Jr.	Madlib	0:53
11.	"Money Folder"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	3:03
12.	"Shadows of Tomorrow" (performed by Madlib featuring Lord Quas)	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	2:36
13.	"Operation Lifesaver aka Mint Test"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:30
14.	"Figaro"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	2:26
15.	"Hardcore Hustle" (featuring Wildchild)	Jackson Jr., Jack Brown	Madlib	1:22
16.	"Strange Ways"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:52
17.	"Fancy Clown" (featuring Viktor Vaughn)	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:56
18.	"Eye" (featuring Stacy Epps)	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	1:58
19.	"Supervillain Theme" (instrumental)	Jackson Jr.	Madlib	0:53
20.	"All Caps"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	2:10
21.	"Great Day"	Dumile, Jackson Jr., Blake Lethem	Madlib	2:17
22.	"Rhinestone Cowboy"	Dumile, Jackson Jr.	Madlib	4:02

Note

• All tracks were produced by Madlib except track #1; co-produced by MF Doom.

Sample credits

• ”The Illest Villains” contains samples from “Beach Trip”, composed by Morton Stevens; and excerpts from the films Frankenstein, The Wild One, I Was a Teenage Werewolf and The Ghost of Frankenstein.
• ”Accordion” contains samples from “Experience”, composed by Daedelus.
• ”Meat Grinder” contains samples from “Sleeping in a Jar”, written and performed by Frank Zappa; and “Hula Rock”, written by Howard Lucraft and performed by The Lew Howard All-Stars.
• ”Bistro” contains samples from “Second to None”, written by Sharon Bryant and Joseph Phillips and performed by Atlantic Starr; and an excerpt from the film Casablanca.
• ”Raid” contains samples from “Nardis”, written by Miles Davis and performed by Bill Evans Trio; “América Latina” written and performed by Oscar Milito & Quarte Forma; and “Computer Games”, written by George Clinton and Walter Morrison and performed by Clinton.
• ”America’s Most Blunted” contains samples from “Atlantis”, written and performed by Sun Ra; “Come Out”, composed by Steve Reich; “Ninety-Nine and Half (Won’t Do)”, written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett, and performed by Fever Tree; an excerpt from “Wild Pitch”, written by Ras Kass and performed by Ras Kass featuring Xzibit and Jah Skillz; portions of A Child Garden’s of Grass, written by Jack S. Margolis; a portion of “Acting Out the ABC's” by Ginny Tyler and Teri York; samples from “In the Rain”, written by Tony Hester and performed by The Dramatics; an excerpt from “Blunted” written and performed by Phil da Agony; an excerpt from “Spontaneous (13 MC’s Deep)”, written by James Jackson, Rampage, S. Scott and S. Smith and performed by Leaders of the New School; excerpts from “Sayin’ Somethin’”, written by E. Howard Anderson and Chris E. Martin and performed by Ed O.G.; and excerpts from “Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get in da Club)”, written by Reggie Noble, Dana Stinson and John Bowman and performed by Redman.
• ”Sickfit” contains samples from “Family Affair”, written by Sylvester Stewart and performed by The Generation Gap.
• ”Rainbows” contains samples from “Kelly”, composed by Igo Kantor; and “Psycho Brahim”, composed by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.
• ”Curls” contains samples from “Airport Love Theme” composed by Stanley Wilson and Ken Darby and performed by Waldir Calmon.
• ”Do Not Fire!” contains samples from the video games Street Fighter 2 and Gunstar Heroes; and samples from “Mithi Mithi Ankhiyon Se Dil Bhar De”, composed by R. D. Burman.
• ”Money Folder” contains an excerpt from the film The Raven.
• ”Shadows of Tomorrow” contains portions of the poem Shadow of Tomorrow and excerpts from the film Space Is the Place, both by Sun Ra.
• ”Operation Lifesaver aka Mint” contains samples from “Prepare Yourself” and “I Love the Blues, She Heard Me Cry”, written and performed by George Duke; samples from “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?, written and performed by Schoolly D; samples from “Double Barrel”, written by Ansell Collins and performed by Dave and Ansell Collins; and excerpts from “The Theme of the Justice League of America”.
• ”Figaro” contains samples from “Jeannine” and “In the Beginning”, written and performed by Lonnie Smith.
• ”Hardcore Hustle” contains samples from “Sing a Simple Song”, written by Sylvester Stewart and performed by The Supremes and The Temptations.
• ”Strange Ways” contains samples from “Funny Ways”, written by Kerry Minnear, Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman and Phil Shulman and performed by Gentle Giant; and excerpts from the cartoon Symphony in Slang, written by Rich Hogan.
• ”Fancy Clown” contains samples from “That Ain’t the Way You Make Love”, written by McKinley Jackson and Reginald Dozier and performed by Z.Z. Hill.
• ”Eye” contains samples from “So Good”, written by Leon Sylvers III, Pamela Phillips Oland and Rickey Smith and performed by The Whispers.
• ”Supervillain Theme” contains samples from “Adomerceu” performed by O Terço; and samples from “Cold Getting’ Dumb”, written and performed by Just-Ice.
• ”All Caps” contains samples from the Ironside score by Olivier Nelson, from the episodes “Price Tag: Death” and “Up, Down and Even”.
• ”Great Day” contains samples from “How Can You Believe”, written and performed by Stevie Wonder.
• “Rhinestone Cowboy” contains samples from “Mariana Mariana”, written by Edu Lobo, and “Molambo”, both performed by Maria Bethânia; and an excerpt from “Making Love”, written by Jack S. Margolis.

Personnel

• Peanut Butter Wolf – executive producer
• Egon – project coordinator
• Miranda Jane – project consultant
• Dave Cooley – mastering
• Dave Cooley, Madlib, MF Doom – engineering
• Dave Cooley – mixing
• Jeff Jank – design
• James Reitano – illustration

Remix

Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix was released by Stones Throw in 2008, containing a complete remix of the album by Madlib as a part of a Madvillain box set.

Notes

• "Money Folder" briefly quotes the song "South Bronx" by Boogie Down Productions.
• "All Caps" can also be found in QuickTime format when the Madvillainy disc is placed in a computer.
• On The Boondocks episode titled Let's Nab Oprah, three songs from Madvillainy are used: "Raid", "All Caps", and "Strange Ways". The episode Wingmen features "Fancy Clown".
• During its run, a snippet of "Do Not Fire!" was played prior to opening sequence of the hip-hop-influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo. The clip was played to the tune of a revolving image of the show's logo—a vinyl record—giving off the illusion of scratching.
• At the end of an MTV special for the movie "V for Vendetta", the titular character interrupts the show, ending his message with "and remember, all caps when you spell the man's name."
• Viktor Vaughn's anger in "Fancy Clown" is directed not only to his fictional girlfriend but to DOOM himself ("Don't make me have to pound his tin crown face in"), ("That's you if you want a dude who wears a mask all day"), an alter-ego of Vaughn himself (Daniel Dumile).
• "Raid" is a part of Thom Yorke's Celebrity Playlist on iTunes as well as the Quasimoto track "Closer", which featured DOOM.
• "Money Folder" was featured in the film Bomb the System.
• Beats for "Strange Ways" and "Rhinestone Cowboy" were partially produced in a hotel room in Brazil, late 2002.
• "Rainbows" was covered by rapper Mos Def and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at least once, during a concert soundcheck which can be seen on YouTube. "All Caps" was also covered by Mos Def and his Watermelon Syndicate orchestra at their July 2008 Carnegie Hall show. He also covered "Accordion" in a Chicago concert.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic and The Roots recorded an instrumental version of Accordion, released to the internet by Questlove once his Twitter account reached 1.6million followers.
• Madvillainy would later inspire the content of Danny!'s Interscope debut album Where Is Danny?.

Charts

Chart (2004)	Peak position
US Billboard 200	179
US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	80
US Billboard Top Independent Albums	10
US Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums	9

External links

• Madvillainy at Discogs