In the 10 years following the release of Madvillain the legend of the album grows and grows introducing a younger generation of Rap fans to independent Hip Hop, Madlib, DOOM and Stones Throws back catalog. Not only has this project resonated with music critics, casual music fans, those that weren’t even that familiar with Rap initially and young people but it’s become one of the gold standards to aspire to amongst musicians, producers and MC’s alike. Artists from various genres of music cite Madvillainy and regard it as a classic album. Sonically, Madlib was able to show his versatility and bring out different flows, patterns and sides of DOOM. DOOM went from doing what sounded like spoken word (“Bistro”) to what could almost be categorized as jazz singing (“Rainbows”) this album’s randomness, variety and will to do something different sparked the imaginations of people from all walks of life lending to it’s seemingly universal appeal.
When you set out to create art, you do so in the hopes that it touches people, inspires them and resonates with audiences. You make music and pray that people enjoy the fruits of your labor and the end result of numerous man-hours of writing, recording, arranging, editing, sequencing and mixing. What we were ultimately blessed with was a sonic masterpiece crafted by two Hip Hop legends both at the top of their respective games who found common ground and were in perfect synch musically.
Regardless of if you’re not an underground Rap fan it’s hard to hear Madvillainy and front on what DOOM and Madlib created. Numerous reputable music magazines and music sites such as Spin, Mass Appeal, Ego Trip(land), Hip Hop DX, Metacritic, Rhapsody & Pitchfork all regard this album as one of the best of the past decade. Getting all of those outlets to agree on something is harder than convincing Justin Beiber or Chris Brown to stay indoors.
Madvillainy‘s influence can be heard in everything from Rock to Electronic albums spanning the past decade. Even Neneh Cherry did a vocal cover of “Accordion” in 2012. A testament to the influence & popularity of this album is that young people have posted instrumental covers of different Madvillainy songs since YouTube first launched back in 2005. Here we are a full decade later and Madvillainy still has the same replay factor today as it did the day it dropped back in March 2004. Written in cold blood with a toothpick.
One.
