MadvillainMadVillainy

In art, sometimes things get produced that are strange and influential, considered within the scope of their origin (Van Gogh, for example), and sometimes things get created that are strange for no good reason and we can only hope aren't influential at all (e.e. cummings). There's no question that Madvillainy is not a "normal" hip hop record. The question is whether that's okay.For some people, I figure it will probably work out. For others, it won't. It's really that simple.To address the common complaints, all of which have some validity:1. The tracks tend to be short. Well, that's not quite true--the tracks, as divided by the album listing--are on the short side of average. The thing is that many of those tracks are almost divisible into sub-tracks, with the end result being that most of the vocal snippets (the actual rapping) don't last for more than about a minute at a time.2. DOOM doesn't take himself seriously. I honestly don't know what to tell you about that. I think people that are faulting him for his subject matter have a stick somewhere uncomfortable they need to remove. Popular music, like any mass artistic medium, is supposed to be entertaining. It doesn't necessarily have to make sense to be fun, though that's not really a problem that DOOM has (his stuff frequently makes sense--at least, it does to me, though the fact that my perusal of lyrics at a couple of sites suggested that a number of listeners don't know who Worf is tells me I may be coming from a little bit different area of subject expertise).2.5. Some people think there are too many skits. I classify this is a non-observation or a sub-complaint for several reasons. First off, if you think that THIS has too many "skits" (not sure what that means, at this point), you should stay far away from some of DOOM's other releases. More likely, this relates to a general feeling that the record doesn't form a cohesive artistic statement, but feels more like somebody swept up a bunch of fragments from a cutting room floor and glued them together.The fact is, those objections are correct. You can't take DOOM seriously all the time, and if you'll do him the charity, you'll find that he's got a lot more wit to him than almost any other MC I can think of off the top of my head. The album is exceedingly fragmented, mostly in response to the frankly monotonous and overwrought state of mainstream hip hop, if you are to believe the press. There's probably a better compromise between six minutes of the same beat in a loop and a blender full of strange beats, but that doesn't necessarily imply this is bad.Taken on its own, this is, at the least, an interesting record. I'd consider it one of the better hip hop recordings of the past five years (and no, I'm not concerned with being considered "down with the underground"). It's very different, has some great rhymes, and never stays in one place long enough to get boring, which is by far the greatest crime other hip hop commits these days.My only real problem with Madvillainy is the fact that it puts me to sleep. And I mean that literally. If I put it on in my car on the way home, I'm drifting off by the time I hit my freeway exit. Some of that is due to homogeneity of tempo (oddly enough, even though the beat changes a LOT, it tends to gravitate back towards a few checkpoint tempos, and the frequent transition actually emphasizes that more to me than it downplays it), and some of it is admittedly due to the fact that the constant motion in the record sort of encourages you to tune it into background noise.Ultimately, I can't recommend this album as a starting point for anybody. It's just not very accessible. We're not talking about Radiohead here (I doubt that there will be any fistfights in bars about whether or not this record is the grand statement of everything that sums up my entire life and makes me feel like some odd British git really understands what I'm going through and the utter and complete helplessness and ennui that comes from our existence in a world pervasively permeated by technology and information--and don't laugh too hard, because I'm pretty sure that at least two people have used those exact words in that same order before me, here, and, if you can't tell, I don't have much respect for that particular breed of Radiohead fan), but this isn't the sort of thing that you're going to pick up and fall directly into.If you're a serious hip hop enthusiast, you should have this record. Whether you like it or not, this is an IMPORTANT record, if only because it attempts to do something completely different from mainstream hip hop and succeeds. If you're a casual listener, it would be ideal if you could get your hands on it before you buy and listen to it a time or two to see if it grows on you. If you're a DOOM or Madlib fan, you already have the record and I'm not sure what you're reading for.

boyfriend loves it lol

reviewing the cd, you already know you like the music. great attention to detail on the box, it has a full lyric booklet and some nice graphic design.

"just remember, ALL CAPS when you spell the name. ...DOOM".

One of my favorite albums of all time, and it played super well! came well packaged! And sounds amazing. 10/10 album and a MUST have for hip hop fans.

Got this for my son for Christmas great quality shipping quality was good. He loved it

So here it is. Stone Throw's crown jewel. To be honest, on first listen, I didn't like this album. I was starting to wonder why so many fans and critics alike were singing it's praises. After some time away from that first listen, I decided to listen to it again and see if it would do anything for me the second time around. After a couple of spins, I found this album started to really grow on me. To be clear, as other's have stated, this isn't your typical hip-hop/rap album for a few reason:1)The songs have very short running times. I found myself numerous times listening to a track, then all of a sudden, the tracks over.2)Yes, there are skits on the album. Now for me, skits can either enhance the album, or it can just be to overkill. Happy to say here, it adds to the greatness of this album and really sews a lot of the album together. Madlib is a master at the skits.3)There is really no set structure to this album or to even the tracks. None of the tracks really have hooks, follow a straight 16 bar formula, and some songs will feel a tad out of place at moments. My guess is when Doom and Madlib went to make this album, they locked themselves in the studio, lit up quite a few blunts, and basically just went with whatever came to mind.I feel that this album's lack of structure and chaos gives it it's beauty and brilliance. This is a pure mind altering experience. There hasn't been anything like it before and there never will be. Doom and Madlib or two one in a generation talents and this albums shows the listen exactly why they are.

The media could not be loaded. It was pretty sad to know that this one has a crack in the corner. I don’t know if it was because it was used or it was an accident during the shipping. I asked my brother if he wanted to return it but he said no because he didn’t want to wait another month to ship it. He told me to give a great review since he likes the CD a lot so… 4/5🌟