Madvillainy

Before I kick start this entry, I have found a way to hear most if not all of the albums remaining that I need to listen to for this blog.  I’m excited to have found a valuable resource to do this.  Anyway, some people may have heard of Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, and his Magic Band.  They were a bit out there; you could characterize them as avant garde rock outfit combined with psychedelic rock sensibilities (that’s when they got their start, at the height of the psychedelic rock movement).  Having heard a couple of their records, they were a very odd band—odd lyrics, odd time signatures, odd keys.  They were just out and out odd, but that was the beauty of their music.  Their influence is far reaching across music.

Madvillain is a unique hip hop group.  The group is comprised of MC/producer MF DOOM and MC/producer Madlib.  When I first heard Madvillainy, I was struck by how bizarre they were, and Captain Beefheart was the first artist I thought of when I heard this.  Like Captain Beefheart, Madvillain utilizes unusual lyrics and music in their songs and took hip hop to a far off region.  Madvillainy received universal critical acclaim upon its release and is the next entry in this blog.

#6 – Madvillain, Madvillainy (Metascore = 93)

Prior to this listen I have only heard it one other time, and I was floored by its sound.  This record surprised me quite a bit.  Unlike Stankonia by Outkast (which I haven’t yet reviewed but will soon), which has standard beats with smart lyrics, Madvillainy is bizarre musically and lyrically (I realize I have said this before).  I was struck by how strange yet powerful this record is.  This has probably been the first rap album I have heard in a while where I felt the artist has taken the sound in a new, fresh direction.

The beats in “Accordion” are unlike anything I have heard before, and that is just a sampling of what goes on through the record.  MF DOOM’s vocal style reminds me of Erick Sermon in his EPMD days.  There are more references to people, places and things on the record than there are messages.  Typically when I have heard albums on this list, the songwriter has some theme or meaning or both that I believe influences the critics reviewing.  With this record, MF DOOM and Madlib take on different personas when they rap, and they pattern their lyrics to work with the beats, so while there doesn’t seem to be a clear message, there are some very interesting rhymes.  As I read on Dusted Reviews, MF DOOM is here to battle.  The beats Madlib created in Brazil and back in the USA are insane, so to write around these is a major testament to the abilities of the two.

This is my third time hearing the record in the last few days, and each time there is something different about this record that I like.  According to what I have read, songs from this record leaked early in 2002, so Madlib and MF DOOM decided to lay low, continue working on the record, but not releasing anything for a while save for some personal projects they were working on.  The postponement seemed to delay the inevitable: a record that was and continues to be difficult to top in terms of style.  I definitely would recommend this record (just note that the lyrics can be explicit if you are sensitive to them).