Madvillain is: MF Doom (emcee) and Madlib (producer/emcee)

Zev Love X. King Geedorah. Viktor Vaughn. MF Doom. If you know anything about underground hip-hop, you'll recognize these as the numerous monikers of Daniel Dumile, one of the most exciting enigmas in the hip-hop today. Otis Jackson Jr. is known to most rap purists as producer Madlib, but you may also be familiar with his rapper alter-ego Quasimoto, or his "group" Yesterdays New Quintet, where Madlib plays the parts of all the members.

Last year, Doom's Vaudeville Villain and Take Me To Your Leader were two of the year's most memorable records, and included some of the freshest music to be put on wax in ages. Madlib also kept himself busy, he put out Champion Sound with Jay Dee which was one of the year's best produced albums, and released Shades of Blue which was a jazz record that reinvented and remixed a bunch of old Blue Note music.

Work on this collaboration between in late 2002, and after a bunch of delays Madvillainy will finally be released on March 23rd. Perhaps its more accurate to put it this way; MF Doom and Madlib are ready to unleash this album onto the public. And they aren't ready for it.

For fans of the underground hip-hop scene, this is a dream collaboration. It may be a bold statement, but no one has been putting out consistently good music for as long as Doom has. He's been around since 1991, and the only artist that's been around that long and is still churning out quality music is Nasir Jones (I can already envision the ensuing arguments). And as evident on the album's opener, Accordion, Doom's lyrical skills have never been as sharp.

If Kool Keith and Ghostface Killah had a love child, it would be Doom, as his emceeing style is a unique blend of the best from both rappers; Doom's voice is distinct, his sometimes mumbly flow is very versatile, and his wordplay and oddball pop culture references are ahead of their time. Doom ventures into slightly new territory on Madvillainy, while older records of his nicely balanced battle and brag rhymes with more narrative-styled lyricism, the supervillain sticks mainly to battle rhymes on this album.

And it certainly fits the agenda. Doom and Madlib are bent on world domination, and they'll stop at nothing until they've converted every hip-hop fan out there. Meat Grinder is full of absurdly ridiculous wordplay, and as nonsensical as Doom's rhymes appear to be, they are in fact technically effective and most importantly just sound incredibly cool. When he professes he's "the hopeless romancer with the dopest flow stanzas," it's hard to argue otherwise.

Production wise, Madlib provides some of his best work yet for Madvillainy. You'll find nothing extremely out of the ordinary from 'Lib, but he does push the envelope on several occasions. Take for example, the hilariously groovy ode to marijuana entitled America's Must Blunted. Doom and Quasimoto trade verses praising their favorite plant over sparse electric guitar strings that fit the track's atmosphere perfectly, and the obligatory Redman sample and warped record scratching will have you questioning your own sobriety. And then there's the album's second single, All Caps, where the chemistry between the two is so exceptional that I'm sure fans wouldn't mind if Doom and Madlib worked exclusively with each other from now on.

The production consists of rolling piano keys, audacious flutes, and stormy horns which all come together to create one hell of an instrumental, and truth be told I doubt anyone would be able to flow over it as well as Doom does. Whether's its the original chop job of a jazzy piano loop on Raid, or the melodic, mellow chords of Operation Lifesaver, Madlib always brings something fresh musically to the album. And just to make sure you remember this is a collaboration, the maestro's solo track Shadows of Tomorrow reminds us that the musician also known as Quasimoto can be just as nice on the mic as he is behind the boards.

There are 22 tracks on Madvillainy, but most don't reach the 3 minute mark. In fact, the average track length is probably 2½ minutes, which is very short by today's standards, but it works to the album's advantage — since none of the tracks are incredibly long, you'll never grow bored of them. And the music itself, being of such high quality, also prevents things from becoming monotonous. Viktor Vaughn shows up on Fancy Clown, a heartfelt tale about teenage heartbreak with a villainy twist, and he delivers a very Ghostface Killah-like performance on Rainbows. Only two guest emcees join in on the adventure, most notably Wildchild who sounds eerily like a young GZA. And that's a very good thing.

Simply put; buy this album.

No amount of literary praise will do this album justice, so just go out and purchase yourself a copy. Madvillainy is easily and without a doubt the best hip-hop release of 2004 so far. This year has the potential to be a truly excellent year for hip-hop, and if most of the albums are this good, I will be one very happy listener. MF Doom and Madlib's invasion of hip-hop will be very, very hard to stop unless someone comes along and does something even more bold and daring than Madvillainy, and that just might be an understatement.

5 Stars

Track Listing

1. The Illest Villains
2. Accordion
3. Meat Grinder
4. Bistro
5. Raid feat. Medaphoar
6. America's Most Blunted feat. Quasimoto
7. Sickfit
8. Rainbows
9. Curls
10. Do Not Fire!
11. Money Folder
12. Shadows of Tomorrow feat. Quasimoto
13. Operation Lifesaver aka Mint Test
14. Figaro
15. Hardcore Hustle feat. Wildchild
16. Strange Ways
17. Fancy Clown feat. Viktor Vaughn
18. Eye feat. Stacy Epps
19. Supervillain Theme #4
20. All Caps
21. Great Day
22. Rhinestone Cowboy

Other reviews of MF Doom albums:

Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain

King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader

MF Doom - Operation: Doomsday

K.M.D. - Black Bastards

Recommended: Yes