While Doom's entire career has been shadowed by consistently strong production efforts, never has such chemistry developed between him and another beatmaker. The axis of Madvillainy is Otis Jackson Jr.'s production. There wasn't a lot of talking," Madlib and Doom, proponents of two distinctive hip-hop styles, are of one unusually strong mind. For a collaboration which the duo has described as something "like a telepathy thing.
Madvillainy album full#
"Your first and last step to playing yourself like accordion."ĭoom's acknowledgement of Madlib's accordion sample (the same one Daedelus used on 2002's Invention) is the most obvious instance of Madvillainy's lyrics/production integrity, but the album is chock full of them. Some people take the new chilled delivery as somehow inferior to the old incarnation, but taken in context, the album benefits from the re-recording, particularly in cases were Doom re-arranges couplets to optimize his punchlines ("Meat Grinder") or adds new lines altogether ("Figaro"). One of the noticeable differences between the unauthorized promo and the final burn of the album is a change in vocal tone from Doom, which has shifting from an excited, measured performance to a slower, scratchier and ultimately better-suited delivery, considering Madlib's low-key, bass-oriented production. "Wild guess, you can say he stay sedated."
Madvillainy is anything but: The samples are smart and never played-out, and the production and rhymes reveal a determined sense of cooperation, as Doom spouts off his most brilliant lyrical change-ups and production-conscious playoffs. The leak seemed to be a huge kick in the ass, especially for Madlib, who in the past few years has been garnering the reputation of being brilliant and prolific, but distracted: His Blunted in the Bomb Shelter mix (rumored to have been concocted in less than a day), Blue Note-sampling Shades of Blue, and even the Jaylib collaboration are fresh, but sloppy and often unfocused. Undoubtedly, Madlib and Doom felt the pressure. If "Peeyano Keys" and "Powerball #5" were just rough drafts, what could be expected of the completed project? As a true testament to both fidelity's fragility and the power of file-sharing, both discs leaked a few months later, giving birth to a logical buzz, but more importantly, heightening expectations to impossible heights these demos were pretty fucking tight. For the trip, he compiled two mix CDs of beats and unfinished tracks: one stored his collaborations with Detroit's Jay Dee the second held work with Brooklyn's Daniel Dumile (aka MF Doom). (aka Madlib) went south to Brazil on business.