Reviews

Madvillainy

Madvillainy

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Review Date: 2005-05-10

When people ask me if i'm into rap music it is always a tough question to answer. The majority of the time the people asking the question are asking me if I am into 50 Cent, The Game, or whomever else is the new gangsta rap artist du jour.

I understand the question. People who've known me a while realize I used to be hard into that scene, but I am not now. In fact I have abandoned it more or less entirely. That said I haven't abandoned hip-hop. A few choice albums per year come out that will still impress the shit out of me.

Inevitably something hip-hop related will make my top 10 every year and I don't anticipate this year being any different. It just so happens to be that the hip-hop i'm listening to now you have to dig for. Just as you have to dip below the mainstream to find many of my current favourites Andrew Bird, Architecture in Helsinki, Antony & The Johnsons I now have to do the same with hip-hop.

"Madvillainy" is a powerful example of this. The hybrid project of Madlib and MF Doom came out in 2004 and received almost universal acclaim from those who had the chance to hear it. This is cutting edge hip-hop, the stuff that in a perfect world would be at the forefront of the genre. Shaping and influencing the new music being released. But it isn't a perfect world, and so I write this realizing odds are you haven't heard this record and that is a travesty. If you feel hip-hop is stale and you haven't heard this I urge you to download it and see if it revitalizes your interest in the genre. It certainly did that for me. The album when you listen to very much has the feel of a verbal comic book. This is intentional. The rapper hybrid created by merging Madlib and MF Doom is your superhero. The album runs for a bit over 40 minutes but squishes in over 20 songs. I told a few people it is like rap/punk in that the songs are so concise that you never find yourself wondering when the track will end, and with a lot of hip-hop that is a serious problem. Snoop Dogg in recent years i'm looking in your general direction.

The album flawlessly moves from song to song, with the skits worked in all seemingly a natural fit. This is a very big factor in why this album is so well received. The idea of making 12-15 songs that may or may not have any connection all with wildly different styles, and beats doesn't make a strong album. Yet the majority of hip-hop does this and always have. I'm not sure why that has been the case, but it shouldn't be. Oh yeah, and the beats (mostly due to MF DOOM) are fucking ridiculous.

"The Illest Villains" is one of the best hip-hop intros/skits i have ever heard. It has the feeling of like an old black and white commercial designed to frighten the viewer from smoking marijouna. The story tells the history of the illest villain of them all, the Madvillain and all of his horrible hijinx. Mixed in are great frightening, or disturbing sound bites, and miscellanious sounds effects. It kinda reminds me of Batman the old tv show on acid. To me it is a hilarious way to begin the album and completely sets the tone for what is to come. I don't put this album on without listening to the intro.

Keeping it going "Accordion" is a tight little 2 minute rap song featuring a heavy bass grinding slow jam beat, and an accordion! That is right, not just a clever name. The slow methodical flow of MF Doom here over the out of tune falsetto of the accordion is something you will only have the chance to experience on this song. An accordion in hip-hop, this is the type of thinking that needs to be considered more often. Why can't it happen?

Madvillain is at it again with "Rainbows". This song is another slow jam except with more of a groove to it. Hearing MF Doom attempting to croon with his awful singing voice with lyrics about drinking drano has a certain cheesified charm to it. The backdrop is again very much the Batman type sound effects. You know the loud pitched noises they would play when the fights were going down, that is the shit they play at times during this song. Otherwise though it is a pimpin' type sound. Madvillain succeeds by thinking backward a lot of the time, for instance on this track everything is so slow and unenergized which is the opposite of most hip-hop and yet again it is a stand out track.

Lord Quas shows up for a funkified Outkastesque guest spot on Madvillainy. The computerized voice as a character in a song has been done in hip-hop before and an alarming amount of the time it is successful. This song has a kinda Timbaland hop to it crossed with an Outkast funkiness. But when you combine those two styles with the darker comic book feel of Madvillain the result is a haunting funkiness. Lord Quas was a great choice to show up on this song. If it sounds trippy it is because it is. You have heard all of what is going on here before but you have never heard it together like you do here.

In almost every review I have read for this album "Figaro" gets praise and it is obvious why. The rhymes on this song are awesome, and the only reason I haven't quoted them is because in order to get the feel for the rhymes you needa see all the lyrics. If your interested google it. But the highlight of this song are the vocals. MF Doom raps hard, and his lyrics are hard but he doesn't spit these lyrics. He delivers them with a kinda calm but very obvious confidence. HIs pace stays constant the whole way, and he hardly takes a breath. The beat is more rhytmic and repetitive than some of the other songs, again intentional and well placed as the combination of the vocals constant pace and the beat gets your head banging.

My comp is crashing hard and I fear not getting this review up at all so I won't mention any more tracks. "Madvillainy" is without a doubt the best hip-hop album of 2004. Might be the best of 2005 as well, I wouldn't be surprised. What happened here is two hip-hop geniuses working together, experimenting and concocting a style and then nailing it. They feed off each other, and take it to the next level and when they think that it has gone as far as it can go they push it even further. And yet nobody would ever argue this isn't hip-hop. They do all of this, without leaving the genre at all. They do not sacrifice lyrics, flow, and they certainly don't forget the bass and the beats. I didn't hear this in 2004 if I did i'd likely have to rate it over Kanye West's "College Dropout". I'll end it off with my favourite and a hilarious lyric "Hey you; don't touch the mic like it's AIDS on it".

Songs you should download: "illest Villains", "Accordion", "Raid", "Rainbows", "Shadows of Tomorrow", "Money Folder", "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Figaro" and much much more.

Score: 9.15

This kinda excellence needs to be rewarded, and this also needs to be heard. An album this good needs to get to more ears than this album likely has. "Madvillainy" would certainly be in my top 10 hip-hop albums, maybe top 5.

- Dan