eMusic INdorsement Villainy
by Jarret Green ~ June 19th, 2009. Filed under: Music.
In 2004, hip-hop gave birth to a two-headed hydra to make even Cerberus’s blood run cold: the dastardly duo of Madlib and (MF) DOOM christened Madvillain. DOOM has made a habit of participating in some monumental team-ups in his day, including the low-art genius of The Mouse & The Mask, his collaboration with Danger Mouse, and the yet-to-see-light-of-day-if-it-exists album with Ghostface Killah. Madvillainy is the most left field and trippy of DOOM’s work, thanks to the old-school psychedelia of Madlib’s backing tracks.
The essential track is “Meat Grinder,” one of Thom Yorke’s favorite rap tracks, if that tells you anything. The song intros with a great jazzy drum loop and then fades into one of the simplest bits of the album: basically, a bass line and some Hawaiian guitar hold up DOOM’s dense rhymes.
Also, make sure not to miss “Strange Ways,” which perfectly illustrates DOOM’ s chewy, barely-there flow and Madlib’s expert use of samples. Unlike most hip-hop hacks, DOOM sounds so at home among Madlib’s vintage R&B loops that you almost forget he is a product of the 21st century, not another resurrected soul from the vinyl graveyard.
“All Caps” is an unexpected catchy pop gem towards the end of the record. Throughout Madvillainy, Madlib is all over the place but maintains cohesion, while DOOM proves time and time again that he can rip up anything thrown at him and even throw in references to Pinky and the Brain.
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