Madvillain: Madvillainy (2LP) [STONES THROW]

Why you'll love it

Madvillainy sits on Rolling Stone's and NME's 500 greatest albums lists and is widely called Doom's magnum opus. Madlib built most of the beats in a Brazilian hotel room with a Boss SP-303, a turntable and a tape deck, and it's still one of the best-selling records Stones Throw has ever put out.

This edition

• 2LP set, 22 tracks over four sides
• Stones Throw pressing (cat# STH2065)

About the album

Masked rapper MF Doom had vanished somewhere between Long Island and Atlanta after a rough patch in both his personal and professional life when ace hip-hop producer Madlib and the folks at Stones Throw Records lured him out of self-imposed exile with a plane ticket to Los Angeles in 2001 in hopes of sparking a dream collaboration.

Their cunning plan worked: Doom and Madlib bonded in the studio over healthy amounts of beer, weed and mushrooms, and an iconoclastic lo-fi hip-hop classic was born, albeit at a bit of a snail's pace. An early version of the record leaked online back when that was supposed to spell (ahem) doom, and the pair walked away from it for a while, eventually regrouping to redo some of Doom's vocals and bring some closure to the project. The rest, as they say, is history. Madvillainy didn't exactly light up the charts on arrival, but a cult following developed around its lunatic mix of stream-of-consciousness jibber-jabber and cheap, globally sourced beats, most of which Madlib recorded in a hotel room in Brazil. These days, it's acknowledged as one of the greatest hip-hop records of all time and, arguably, the best thing the late, great MF Doom ever did. Doom and Madlib were just ahead of their time, that's all.

Also at Kops: more Madvillain on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Stones Throw (cat# STH2065), a reissue of the 2004 album.