The Wax Conspiracy

Madvillain - Madvillainy

we're not here to get bored
we are here to disrupt
to disrupt, to disrupt, to disrupt, to disrupt
to have the time of our lives

mc - doom
beats - madlib

You're in pretty safe hands when you're listening to Doom spit fire over Madlib beats.

Doom's MC credentials have already been well established – (LINKY LINKY).

I said it in that review and I'll say it again: MF Doom is one of the most exciting MCs going around; his flow is good, and the things he rhymes about are so ridiculous, are so out there, that there's just no one else doing what he's doing.

Doom even tries his hand at a little singing on "Rainbows." His isn't exactly the best singing in the world, but given that the song includes the verse, "He drinks draino/rat but/she winks rainbows..." it probably doesn't matter.
In fact, I rather suspect that he sang a song simply because he knew he probably shouldn't have.

Madlib, no slouch himself, samples weird jazz, weird TV shows, weird everything, to put together some pretty weird goddamn songs.
The beats are very solid and interesting – so much so that Madvillainy would have made a pretty entertaining, albeit somewhat forgettable instrumental CD.

Musically, Madlib mines his usual stomping ground – jazz – to provide a background for the beats. "Great Day" is a great example of this.

What really impresses is that the songs are all pretty short and rarely feature a chorus, making for a very schizophrenic and scattershot album.
Working like this, of course, can be tricky, and the songs sometimes do come across as semi-complete ideas that were abandoned halfway through their genesis.

There are several instrumentals scattered throughout the album, including "Do Not Fire!" an odd little sound collage that has the presence of mind to sample what sounds like Street Fighter. (I can hear a "Yoga Flame! Yoga Flame!" and Chun Li giggling in there.)
"Sickfit" comes correct with some cavernous sounding beats; and the "Supervillain Theme" is easily the coolest supervillain theme ever.

Guests include Lord Quasimoto – and just to make things more confusing Quas is Madlib & Madlib is Quas – who trades a verse with Doom on "America's Most Blunted."
"Shadows of Tomorrow" has Lord Quas – all by himself this time – spitting some weird, new age hippy type shit over a one-note baseline and a staggered beat.
Medaphoar and Wildchild also drop by to drop some well-dropped verses; & Stacy Epps sings a pretty song, and does so more convincingly than Doom.

There's also a guest appearance from none other than V. Vaughn, the travellin' Vaudeville Villain.
He drops an uncharacteristically emotional verse about his girl who cheated on him.
Well, it starts off uncharacteristic; however, when Viktor claims to have slept with his girl's friend, you're left wondering just how aware he is of the double standard and whether this is just more of the same old ambiguity that Viktor is renowned for.

Unfortunately, like most good things, Madvillainy still has a downside – namely, skits. I will never, ever – for as long as I live! – understand why hip hoppers insist on jeopardising the good flow of an album by including skits.
Sure, the skits on Madvillainy are better than most mainstream hip hop songs, but, seriously, the first song is an introduction, the fourth song is an introduction, and in between all the other songs are introductions.
We know who you fucking are! We bought your fucking CD specifically because we know who you are!

Also, yes! We get it! You like to smoke marijuana! LET IT GO!

Madvillainy looks like this:
slip like Freudian/your first and last step to playin' yourself like accordion
I suggest you buy it.

Actually, buy this first:
bring in the drums
Bigg Jus' Black Mamba Serums V2.0 is the classic that Madvillainy should have been.

faites les quatre cents coups

Belvedere Jehosophat

Reviewed on Tuesday, 15 February 2005

The Wax Conspiracy

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