Madlib has been a part of several projects as both a rapper and producer that Hip-Hop aficionados praise heavily but few have reached the critical heights of Madvillainy. On the 20th anniversary of the collaborative project featuring Madlib and the late MF DOOM, the Beat Konducta gave a strong salute to the masked supervillain.
Taking to Instagram, Madlib shared a clip of a video for Madvillainy standout cut “All Caps” and captioned the post with, “20 years. RIP to the Villain.”
It was remarkable considering the Oxnard, Calif. native isn’t on social media much at all. As it stands, Madvillainy is considered a modern-era classic and influenced several rappers such as many members of the Pro Era collective (Joey BadA$$, Chuck Strangers, Kirk Knight, etc.) and Yasiin Bey among others.
Peanut Butter Wolf, the founder of Stones Throw Records which put out the album, also chimed in on Complex Music’s post about Madvillainy and shared that it is the only album on the label to achieve gold status.
From IG:
Here’s some more facts. This was an album where Madlib chose to record the beats in my basement that we called The Bomb Shelter (it was a literally a concrete bomb shelter). DOOM recorded his vocals in my bedroom down the hall where we also had @ecoleye do a photo shoot that became the album cover. The LA release party was at The Fonda (a modest sized venue) and we stacked the bill w/ me, J Rocc, Madlib, Dilla, and Common, besides (the headliner) DOOM because we were afraid it wouldn’t sell out. We did a few more shows that month with the same lineup in a few major markets to small but very excited crowds. That was it in terms of promotion, besides doing 3 LOW BUDGET music videos (2 in the same day) that I convinced DOOM into reluctantly doing. It’s the first (and only) album on my 28 year old label to go gold.
The dense poetics of Madvillainy have never been replicated as MF DOOM had a style so unique to his vocal tone that it wouldn’t sound right coming from another artist. Adding to the lore, the production from The Bad Kid was performed on what some might consider simple equipment.
The bulk of the beats were made on a Boss Dr. Sample Sp-303 sampler, a tape deck, and a portable turntable with records discovered in Brazil and other travels. The mixing and mastering were overseen by Dave Cooley, who previously worked on records with J Dilla, Adrian Younge, and remastering projects from the late Isaac Hayes and more.
Check out Madvillainy below along with Madlib’s tribute to DOOM.
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Photo: Getty