The DELICIOUS Beat Orchestrations & Lyricism of Madvillainy

When an Oxnard based producer Madlib - famous for his idiosyncratic production style that incorporates peculiar cinematic & comedic interstitial skits into his beats - came together with MF DOOM, the New York-based diabolically clever and sharp-wittedly funny rapper - it gave birth to an undisputed Hip-Hop classic in 2004 called ‘Madvillainy’ that changed the course of the genre forever. 

Springboarding off their respective strengths & esoteric interests, Madvillainy brought new angles out of both artists, a sort of complementary effort that wound up both amplifying and expanding their respective roles.

Here we dig deep into this inexhaustibly brilliant record with villainous undertones where MF DOOM’s flow & Madlib’s crazy samples succeed in conveying a tactile quality that retains all the imperfections on the record including the cracks, stresses & flaws making it an uncanny Hip-Hop classic.

Madvillainy:

Madlib and DOOM's telepathic mind meld of an album certainly is one of the most masterfully-crafted works. At a run time of just over 46 minutes for 22 songs, the tracks seem unusually short at first, but it quickly becomes clear that this is one of the album’s greatest strengths. One can spend hours poring over the lyric sheet & attempting to figure out DOOM’s infinitely dense verbiage or one can ignore the words & just groove to the endlessly pleasing beats that bounce throughout the album like a living, breathing organism.

MF DOOM:

"The best emcee with no chain ya ever heard."

Daniel Dumile a.k.a MF DOOM utilizes several literary devices such as multi-syllable rhymes, internal rhymes, alliteration, assonance, & holorimes further elaborating his process for this particular record as “Our shit don’t be scripted like that. Whatever comes to mind, do that shit, record that shit. You know what you’re saying, you know how you feel. Rock that shit. Each song is unique, based on the fact that I choose the writing based on the instrumental. Each instrumental was different, so every song’s gonna be different.”

Madlib:

“Every sound can make a song.”

The beats on Madvillainy are almost entirely produced by Madlib using minimal amounts of equipment a Boss SP-303 sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck expertly blending samples - from obscure media as old as 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein to instrumentals from the 60s, 70s from around the world & most notably Bollywood - with contemporary beats and MF DOOM’s excellent flow.

Samples:

• Shadows of Tomorrow

This tune is perhaps the album’s strongest beat that incorporates a prominent sample off 

an RD Burman song called ‘Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon’ from a 1976 film Maha Chor.

• Accordion

This track evokes the titular instrument as a melodic device sampling off a 2002 Daedelus tune called ‘Experience.’

• Meat Grinder

This track, like any other MF DOOM track, shows off extremely heavy rhyming bars on top of Madlib’s beats that samples from two songs, first off a Frank Zappa tune - ‘Sleeping in a Jar’ & second off a song called ‘Hula Tune’ by Lew Howard and the All-Stars. 

• Do Not Fire!

This is a killer instrumental track that employs samples from two Bollywood tracks -  ‘Main Teri Dushman, Dushman Tu Mera’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar (1987) & ‘Mithi Mithi Ankhiyon Se Dil Bhar De,’ composed by RD Burman & sung by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle (19

• All Caps

“All Caps” is a reference to MF DOOM’s preference that his stage name be written in all capital letters. The track uses a sample from the opening credits of a 1968 TV show called Ironside.

• Rhinestone Cowboy

This was probably MF DOOM’s favourite tune off the album & the sample used by Madlib on this tune comes from a 1971 Brazilian song called ‘Mariana Mariana’ sung by Maria Bethânia.

Madvillain - Madvillainy Available at The Revolver Club

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Also read: The Cinematic Melancholia of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing…..’