103: Madvillain - Madvillainy (2004)

September 27, 2022 / Amanda Rodgers

“We hardly spoke. It was more through telepathy. We spoke through the music.”

—MF DOOM

As luck would have it, two of Discord & Rhyme’s most powerful villains have been turned loose for an episode that will strike terror into the hearts of men! This week, Rich and Mike take on the 2004 hip-hop classic Madvillainy, a team-up between MF DOOM, a rapper with a metal mask and a tragic, comic-book backstory, and Madlib, a DJ with eclectic taste and an unpredictable, artfully imprecise style. The album’s 22 tracks unfold like a fever dream over just 46 minutes, with samples drawn from Bollywood, Brazilian music, Zappa, and Sun Ra crashing headfirst into snippets from old cartoons. And this is all presided over by DOOM, who packs almost unfair amounts of wordplay and meaning into every line. It may seem like chaos at first, but there’s a method to Madvillainy, and it shows how hip-hop can contain the world.

Miscellany

A quick correction: Throughout the episode, we refer to the various clips and snippets from old movies and comic book records as if they were entirely Madlib’s doing, but a lot of those bits were produced by DOOM, which makes sense, because that was basically his stock in trade.
While we’re at it, a special shoutout to mastering engineer Dave Cooley, who did a lot of work to make the album’s samples sound natural together despite coming from a broad range of sources and media. Remix Mag conducted a 2005 interview with him that Stones Throw has archived.
Another fun DOOM collaboration is the 2005 album The Mouse and the Mask by Danger Doom, a team-up with DJ Danger Mouse. It’s a rare opportunity to hear DOOM do something really slick and poppy, though you do need to have a high tolerance for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Madlib actually teamed up with J Dilla several times, most notably on the 2003 album Champion Sound, where the two of them trade off on DJ and MC duty for half of the album apiece.
Those with keen ears for samples may have noticed that DOOM was using the same source material, Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love,” on both “Red and Gold” and “Hoe Cakes.” As a producer, DOOM has a few favorite samples that he likes to adapt to different needs.
Special thanks to David Boyk of Northwestern University for help with pronunciation and context on the Bollywood clips. In the mid-2000s, David curated a great Bollywood music primer called Bollywood for the Skeptical that pairs well with the compilations Mike recommended.
If you want to know more about Stones Throw Records, a documentary from 2013 called Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records is available on YouTube.

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

Rich Bunnell (host)
Mike DeFabio (moderator)

Madvillainy tracklist

The Illest Villains
Accordion
Meat Grinder
Bistro
Raid (feat. M.E.D.)
America’s Most Blunted (feat. Quasimoto)
Sickfit
Rainbows
Curls
Do Not Fire!
Money Folder
Shadows of Tomorrow (feat. Lord Quas)
Operation Lifesaver AKA Mint Test
Figaro
Hardcore Hustle (feat. Wildchild)
Strange Ways
Fancy Clown (feat. Viktor Vaughn)
Eye (feat. Stacy Epps)
Supervillain Theme
ALL CAPS
Great Day
Rhinestone Cowboy

Other clips used

Doom/Madlib:

Viktor Vaughn - Overture
Viktor Vaughn - Saliva
Yesterday’s New Quintet - Keeper of My Soul
MF DOOM - Red and Gold
Madlib - Stepping into Tomorrow
KMD - Who Me? (With an Answer from Dr. Bert)
MF DOOM - Hey!
MF DOOM - One Beer
King Geedorah - Next Levels
Madlib - Heat Niner
Czarface and MF DOOM - Meddle with Metal
Viktor Vaughn - The Drop
MF DOOM - Hoe Cakes
Quasimoto - Come On Feet
Madlib - Stormy

Others:

Ugly Duckling - Meatshake
Burbank Video - A Documentary History of the Cult Villains
Sun Ra - Contrast
Morton Stevens - Beach Trip (from Hawaii Five-O)
Daedalus - Experience
Enrico e Angela Reitano - Delice/Dogme
“Weird Al” Yankovic - Let Me Be Your Hog
The Mothers of Invention - Sleeping in a Jar
Lew Howard & the All-Stars - Hula Rock
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Atlantic Starr - Second to None
A Tribe Called Quest - Verses from the Abstract
Bill Evans - Nardis (at the Montreaux Jazz Festival)
Osmar Milito & Quarteto Forma - América Latina
Phil Da Agony - Blunted
George Clinton - Computer Games
Steve Reich - Come Out
Jack Margolis - Selections from A Child’s Garden of Grass
Fever Tree - Ninety-Nine and One Half
Sleep - Dopespoker
The Generation Gap - Family Affair
William Loose, Stu Phillips and Marvin Elling - Kelly (from Finders Keepers Lovers Weepers)
Waldir Calmon - Airport Love Theme
Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle - Mithi Mithi Ankhiyon Se Dil Bhar De (from Maha Chor; music dir., R.D. Burman)
Lata Mangeshkar - Poorab Disa Se Pardesi Aya (from Suraj Aur Chanda; music dir., Laxmikant-Pyarelal)
Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle - Koi Mane Ya Na Mane (from Adhikar; music dir., R.D. Burman)
Freddie Hubbard - Soul Turn Around
Genius/GZA - Living in the World Today
Boogie Down Productions - South Bronx
3 Minute Children's Story - Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree?
Kishore Kumar - Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon (from Maha Chor; music dir, R.D. Burman)
J Dilla - Workinonit
George Duke - Prepare Yourself
Tifton Records - The Theme of the Justice League of America
George Duke - I Love You More
Lonnie Smith - Jeannine
The Moody Blues - In the Beginning
Lonnie Smith - In the Beginning
Diana Ross, the Supremes, and the Temptations - Sing a Simple Song
Sly and the Family Stone - Sing a Simple Song
Gentle Giant - Funny Ways
Z.Z. Hill - That Ain’t the Way You Male Love
Jay-Z - Girls, Girls, Girls
The Whispers - So Good
Just-Ice - Cold Gettin' Dumb
O Terço - Adormeceu
Ironside OST - The Macabre Mr. Micawber (score)
Quincy Jones - Ironside theme
The Streets of San Francisco OST - River of Fear (score)
Stevie Wonder - How Can You Believe
Maria Bethânia - Molambo
Maria Bethânia - Mariana Mariana
Ghostface Killah - 9 Milli Bros.
FFS - Collaborations Don’t Work

Band/album personnel

DOOM – MC, production (track 1, voice skits), recording
Madlib – beats, production, recording
Peanut Butter Wolf – executive producer
Allah's Reflection – additional vocals (track 17)
Dave Cooley – mixing, mastering, recording
Egon – project coordination
Miranda Jane – project consultant

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Madvillain - ALL CAPS (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Madvillainy and other albums by DOOM and Madlib at stonesthrow.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing and production is by Rich Bunnell, with the exception of the introduction and theme song, which were produced by Mike DeFabio. See you next album, keep as cool as you can, and remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name.

2 Likes

tags / Rich Bunnell