::Madvillain - Madvillainy::

Back when Ornette Coleman practically invented free-jazz in the late 50’s, early 60’s, it resulted in a huge shift in the world of music. In the years following his most commercially successful album, The Shape of Jazz to Come, the more musically outlandish followers of Coleman (and Thelonius Monk, among other innovators) fell further and further below the radar, while the more accessible, traditional players found continued mainstream acceptance.

Looking at the state of hip-hop, one gets the sense that the same thing seems to be happening. The underground is deservedly receiving a huge amount of critical acclaim, but still cannot find a stronghold in the mainstream.

MF Doom and Madlib, the two men comprising Madvillain, have, for years, been part of this underground. But rather than attempting to water-down their sound to increase record sales and public approval (Black Eyed Peas or Jurassic 5, anyone?), Doom and Madlib have followed in their jazz torchbearers’ steps and have made their music more exciting and experimental with each record. This is expertly proven with Madvillainy, a record of incredible depth and artistic integrity.

Madlib, as usual, handles most of the production and uses his comprehensive knowledge of jazz to his advantage, laying down unrecognizable yet great jazz and soul records to sound somewhere in between Sun Ra to Philly Soul, as strange as that may sound. As Doom says on “Money Folder”, “He flipped it like Madlib did an old jazz standard.” Tracks like “Meat Grinder” and “Sickfit” have the power to prove to any doubter that, yes, sampling can be incredibly dense and captivating stuff.

But as good as Madlib’s production is (and if we’re comparing them to their peers) Doom’s rhyming truly destroys any competition. He’s funny, surreal, aware, poetic, and any other number of praising adjectives you can think of.

More than anything, Doom is extremely entertaining to listen to. He uses words to their full effect, playing with their sound, meaning, and rhythm to make him, quite possibly, one of the most original MCs ever. Take “Rhinestone Cowboy”, for example, where Doom exclaims, “We rock the house like rock n’ roll/Got more soul/Than a sock with a hole.”

While this may not seem too impressive on paper, hearing the spoken rhythm allows Doom’s rhymes to take off over top of Lib’s production that perfectly complements Doom’s dry attack.

Although MF Doom takes the microphone for most of the record, Madlib’s split-persona does show itself as the helium-voiced Quasimoto. His appearance on “America’s Most Blunted” is amazing—schizophrenic and hilarious, even if the subject matter is dumb, making the track to be one of Madvillainy’s best.

Even though some of the tracks on Madvillainy may be better than others, you’d be really hard pressed to find a bad track. As a whole, the record is unstoppable and, quite possibly, better than any other hip-hop record released this decade.

Madvillainy has potential. It can make a commercial splash and have some of the same influence that Coleman’s Shape had. If it does, we can look forward to an incredible future of progressive underground hip-hop.