Madvillian- Madvilliany
This album is forty six minutes long. I had always assumed it was in the thirty minute range. That says something about the energy in this album. If songs are punches, this album is Tommy Hearns: little flicker jabs that add up to a knockout over the course of a forty six minute fight. They come so quick you find yourself stunned and not sure what just happened. So you listen again.
If I could only say one thing about this album it would be this: it holds up to relistens better than any rap album I’ve heard. More than that, it entices the listener to become the relistener. And yet, I would never call this album “accessible” by any means, rather you have to develop a relationship with it. You have to dance with it a bit and learn its rhythm.
The best example of what I’m talking about would be the style of MF DOOM, the main rapper on the album. His style is one of the most, if not the most intricate styles I’ve ever heard, just in terms of rhyme schemes. One of the ways that a rapper can play with his lyrics is to put rhymes on different beats in a measure, putting two words that rhyme on the second and fourth beat of the measure (I GO with the FLOW). can make the verse sound shorter and more pointed just as one possible example.
DOOM plays with packing rhymes like he works at amazon (So nasTY that its probabLY somewhat of a travesTY having ME / DaiLY told the people “You can call ME your MajesTY). Its not unusual for him to include multiple rhyme schemes in just a few lines. Not to mention he seems to show no regard for line breaks, putting the word that rhymes on the first beat of the next measure, making the whole thing sound as if there was one line of five beats and one of three as opposed to two of four. The overall effect is disorienting, as if the whole verse is out of balance. An english major could spend a good afternoon just going through and looking at how DOOM raps on this album.
That’s all well and good, but that english major might realize at around three o’clock that he has no idea what DOOM is saying. The lyrics themselves are often oblique in meaning. In trying to appreciate the man’s style the substance is lost, and it is a juggling act, one that I haven’t mastered, to try and appreciate both at the same time. It is also why I keep returning to the album.
And the instrumentals! If you don’t have an admiration for people that can take a few disparate fragments of albums and turn them into a cohesive whole, I won’t try to explain my own here and now. Just know that what Madlib does here is harder than the result would suggest. The sheer variety in mood and texture he is able to get just with a sampler is awe inspiring.
5/5 If you know of this album already chances are you’ve listened to it. Treat yourself and listen to it again. If you’ve never heard of this album, I encourage you to listen to a few songs (“Curls,” “Figaro,” and “All Caps” are my favorite) and a copy of the lyrics and really look at what DOOM is doing in terms of rhyme. Try and see where he puts words on the beat for extra points. It would only take a couple of minutes, and it would show you some of the best that hip hop has to offer.