Madlib

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  • Madvillainy
    Madvillainy
    Madvillainy

    Great minds think alike. Before MF DOOM and fellow producer and rapper Madlib were canonised as heroes of hip-hop’s underground scene, they were two oddballs who’d amassed cult followings for the ways in which they coloured outside the lines. Both had an affinity for Melvin Van Peebles samples, and both had maintained a variety of bizarre alter egos: Madlib had done time as the high-pitched Lord Quas, among others, while DOOM’s nom de plumes included King Ghidra/Geedorah and Viktor Vaughn. Introduced by a mutual friend, the bicoastal pair became fast friends and collaborators, creating a side project, Madvillain, that led to 2004’s Madvillainy, a one-off album that was decidedly to the left of what hip-hop fans were hearing on early-2000s commercial radio, with songs that defied formulaic pop song structure. In fact, the 22 tracks collected on Madvillainy are more like sound collages with lyrics. There’s a celebration of cannabis (“America’s Most Blunted”), as well as an ode to spaced-out jazz legend Sun Ra (“Shadows of Tomorrow”). The duo could be silly, as with “Operation Lifesaver aka Mint Test”—on which DOOM ponders the paradox of an attractive woman with bad breath—or serious, as with “Strange Ways”, a meditation on settler-colonial violence and religion. And their alter egos allowed them to get meta at times: One of the album’s most clever cuts, “Fancy Clown”, finds Viktor Vaughn griping with an unfaithful girlfriend—whom he suspects of cheating with DOOM. While DOOM dazzles with wordplay, concepts and intricate rhyme schemes on Madvillainy, Madlib delivers with equally fascinating soundscapes. The duo’s unorthodox approach to creativity would inspire everyone from Yasiin Bey to Tyler, The Creator and the Odd Future crew in the years to come, making Madvillainy a watershed album for those willing to take a walk on the weird side.

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About Madlib

Madlib has amazed hip-hop fans with his seemingly infinite supply of musical influences and an even more prolific number of releases and aliases. But whether he’s diving into jazz, soul and Blaxploitation films, or digging into Brazilian, Indian and African tunes, the result is consistently imaginative and off the beaten path, challenging rappers and listeners alike to broaden their horizons. Born in Oxnard, California, to a pair of musician parents, he formed the group Lootpack in 1992 and landed a few production credits with Tha Alkaholiks before signing with Stones Throw, the indie label founded by DJ Peanut Butter Wolf. He’d release albums under various monikers afterward—the cartoonish-voiced rapper Quasimoto, the fictional jazz band Yesterdays New Quintet—but his career reached new heights in the early 2000s. In 2003, he collaborated with fellow producer-rapper J Dilla to create the album Champion Sound, and the following year he connected with MF DOOM to craft Madvillainy, an unconventional rap masterpiece. From there, Madlib showed that whatever path he’d take, listeners would follow—whether it’s through more than a dozen instrumental albums, his collaborative work with rappers like Freddie Gibbs and Guilty Simpson, or his records with drummer Karriem Riggins as the duo Jahari Massamba Unit. Getting into Madlib’s deep discography is like spinning a globe and stopping it with your finger: wherever you land, an adventure is guaranteed.

HOMETOWN
Oxnard, CA, United States
BORN
24 October 1973
GENRE
Hip-Hop/Rap

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