Courtesy of Genius

Mad Lib and MF DOOM created one of the best albums of the 2000s in 2004. Madvillainy by Madvillain, the duo‰’s alias, is an album that created such a unique sound that it changed the way that mainstream America saw rap. The New Yorker, a notoriously racist magazine (remember that early Obama family as terrorists cartoon cover) even referred to the album as “pure sound‰Û.

Mad Lib‰’s beat making and producing is complimented by MC MF DOOM‰’s creative nonsensical lyrics; the beats create the story line of the album in a way that DOOM‰’s lyrics serve almost as background noise. The role reversal, specifically that the MC is not the storyteller, allows for untold lyric creativity. DOOM takes advantage of this through alliteration, imagery that is abundantly clear in the third track on twenty-two-track album; “Meat Grinder‰Û. Almost all of Mad Lib‰’s beats draw from samples that are very hard to place; many are groovy, jazzy or reversed and sped up.

The album has a tangible sound because Mad Lib literally mixes on a turntable, an art that could be lost. He embodies the concept of a disc jockey. Furthermore, I purchased this album on vinyl, which is clearly the only way to listen to it. Mad Lib views the record as so essential to the listening experience that he incorporates the record sounds on the album. The album is a double LP, and it has to be with so many short tracks. Madvillain wanted us to stand up and flip the record more than once. There are breaks within the album that are so purposeful, yet impossible to hear without the physical experience. Starting the B-side with America‰’s Most Blunted begins a darkly humorous dance to the element of the album that is critical of society. Listen to this album on a record play as our lord and savior Mad Lib wanted us to.

Courtesy of Tiny Mixtapes

Madvillainy as an album plays with words with such ease that it is almost as if DOOM and his villainous cronies are laughing at other MC‰’s lack of flow. For example, Lord Quas (Quasimodo) preforms on Shadows of Tomorrow, where he philosophically plays with the idea of time while continuously bouncing off of Mad Lib‰’s beat.

This is the album that your older brother‰’s girlfriend‰’s older brother listened to his sophomore year of college and decided (while listening to it the very first time) that he was going to switch to a literature major and art history minor because MF DOOM doesn‰’t support business majors.