Madvillainy

''Madvillainy'' is the only studio album by American hip hop duo Madvillain, consisting of rapper MF Doom and producer Madlib. It was released on March 23, 2004, on Stones Throw Records.

The album was recorded between 2002 and 2004. Madlib created most of the instrumentals during a trip to Brazil in his hotel room using minimal amounts of equipment: a Boss SP-303 sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck. Fourteen months before the album was released, an unfinished demo version was stolen and leaked onto the internet. Frustrated, the duo stopped working on the album and returned to it only after they had released other solo projects.

While ''Madvillainy'' achieved only moderate commercial success, it became one of the best-selling Stones Throw albums. It peaked at number 179 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, and attracted attention from media outlets not usually covering hip hop music, including ''The New Yorker''. ''Madvillainy'' received widespread critical acclaim for Madlib's production and MF Doom's lyricism, and is regarded as Doom's ''magnum opus''. It has ranked in various publications' lists of all-time greatest albums, including at 411 on ''NME'''s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at 365 on ''Rolling Stone's'' 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and at 18 on ''Rolling Stone's'' 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time.

Background

In 1997, after the death of his brother DJ Subroc and the rejection of KMD's album ''Black Bastards'' by Elektra Records four years previously, rapper Daniel Dumile (formerly known as Zev Love X) returned to music as the masked rapper MF Doom. In 1999, Doom released his debut solo album '' Operation: Doomsday'' on Fondle 'Em Records. According to Nathan Rabin of ''The A.V. Club'', the album "has attained mythic status; its legend has grown in proportion to its relative unavailability". Soon after release of the album, in an interview with the ''Los Angeles Times'', Madlib stated that he wanted to collaborate with two artists: J Dilla and Doom.

In 2001, after Fondle 'Em closed, Doom disappeared. During that time, he lived between Long Island, New York, and Kennesaw, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Coincidentally, Eothen "Egon" Alapatt, who was the manager of Madlib's label Stones Throw Records, had a friend in Kennesaw. He asked the friend to give Doom (who did not know about Madlib and Stones Throw at the time) some instrumentals from Madlib. Three weeks later, the friend called back, telling him that Doom loved the instrumentals and wanted to work with Madlib. Soon, one of Doom's "quasi-managers" made an offer, asking for plane tickets to Los Angeles and $1,500. Despite the fact that the label didn't have enough money after buying the tickets, they immediately agreed. According to Egon, soon after arrival, the manager went to him demanding money, while Doom visited Madlib:

Egon's plan was successful, and Doom and Madlib began working together. Soon after, Stones Throw Records managed to collect the money necessary to pay Doom and a contract to the label was signed, which was written on a paper plate.

Recording

Doom and Madlib started working on ''Madvillainy'' in 2002. Madlib created one hundred beats in a matter of weeks, some of which were used on ''Madvillainy'', some were used on his collaboration album with J Dilla ''Champion Sound'', while others were used for M.E.D.'s and Dudley Perkins' albums. Even though Stones Throw booked Doom a hotel room, he spent most of the time in Madlib's studio, based in an old bomb shelter in Mount Washington, Los Angeles. When the duo wasn't working on the album, they were spending free time together, drinking beer, eating Thai food, smoking marijuana, and taking psychedelic mushrooms. "Figaro" and "Meat Grinder" were among the songs recorded during this time.

In November 2002, Madlib went to Brazil to participate in a Red Bull Music Academy lecture, where he debuted the first music from the album by playing an unfinished version of "America's Most Blunted". Madlib also went crate digging during his time in Brazil, searching for obscure vinyl records he could sample later, with fellow producers Cut Chemist, DJ Babu, and J.Rocc. According to Madlib himself, he bought multiple crates full of vinyl records, two of which he later lost. He used some of these records to produce beats for ''Madvillainy''. Most of the album, including beats for "Strange Ways", "Raid", and "Rhinestone Cowboy", was produced in his hotel room in São Paulo, using a portable turntable, a cassette deck, and a Boss SP-303 sampler. While Madlib was working on the album in Brazil, the unfinished demo was stolen and leaked on the internet, 14 months before its official release. Jeff Jank, Stones Throw's art director, remembers the leak in the interview with ''Pitchfork'':

Doom and Madlib decided to work on different projects. Madlib released ''Champion Sound'' with J Dilla, while Doom released two solo albums: '' Take Me to Your Leader'', as King Geedorah, and ''Vaudeville Villain'', as Viktor Vaughn. Nevertheless, after the release of these albums, they decided to return to ''Madvillainy''. For the final version of the album, Doom altered his voice, described by Peanut Butter Wolf as going from "really hyper, more enthusiastic" to "a more mellow, relaxed, confident, less abrasive", and changed some lyrics to coincide with this change. Madlib was also asked by the label to change some instrumentals, but told them that he forgot the samples he used, in order to allow for them to remain on the album. Additionally, the label also requested the duo make a proper ending for the album, forcing them to rent a studio for the recording of "Rhinestone Cowboy". The beat used, however, was produced in Brazil.

Production

''Madvillainy'' was produced almost entirely by Madlib, except the first track, which he produced in collaboration with Doom. On the album, Madlib incorporates his distinctive production style, based on using samples, mostly obscure, from albums recorded in different countries. Aside from sampling records by American artists, namely from jazz and soul, Madlib also used Indian (for example, "Shadows of Tomorrow" samples "Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon" by R. D. Burman) and Brazilian records ("Curls" samples "Airport Love Theme" by Waldir Calmon) for ''Madvillainy''. In regards to Madlib's production on the album, he stated in an interview:

"I did most of the Madvillain album in Brazil. Cuts like "Raid" I did in my hotel room in Brazil on a portable turntable, my 303, and a little tape deck. I recorded it on tape, came back here, put it on CD, and Doom made a song out of it."

The album consists of 22 songs, most of which are under 3 minutes and contain no hooks or choruses. Sam Samuelson of AllMusic compared the album to a comic book, "sometimes segued with vignettes sampled from 1940s movies and broadcasts or left-field arijuanatoting skits". He also noted that some instrumentals on the album "eemto be so out of time or step with a traditional hip-hop direction". ''The A.V. Club'' compared the album to a buffet, where "Madlib and Doom are interested in throwing out ideas as fast as they have them, giving them as much attention as they need, and moving on to the next thing". Tim O'Neil of ''PopMatters'' praised Madlib's instrumentals and said that they "make the album a sonic feast".

Lyrics

Doom's lyrics on ''Madvillainy'' are free-associative. According to Stereogum, the album "is about using sound to craft semi-indecipherable vignettes that are situated somewhere between the real and the mythical". Despite originally featuring a more enthusiastic, excited delivery, the leak prompted Doom to go with a slower and more relaxed flow on the final version of the album. This move has been praised by various publications, including ''Pitchfork'', which said that it was "ultimately better-suited" than the original.

Throughout the album, Doom uses a number of literary devices, including multi-syllable rhymes, internal rhymes, alliteration, assonance, and holorimes. Music critics also noted extensive use of wordplay and double entendres. ''PopMatters'' wrote, "You can spend hours poring over the lyric sheet and attempting to grok Doom’s infinitely dense verbiage. If language is arbitrary, then many of Doom’s verses exploit the essence of words stripped of meaning, random conglomerations of syllables assembled in an order that only makes sense from a rhythmical standpoint", the critic added. ''The Observer'' stated that "the densely telegraphic lyrics almost always reward closer inspection" and that Doom's "rhymes miss beats, drop into the middle of the next line, work their way through whole verses" allows for a smooth listen.

Artwork

The album cover art was created by Stones Throw's art director Jeff Jank, based on a grayscale photo of Doom in his metal mask. In an interview with '' Ego Trip'', Jank said:

The photo was created by photographer Eric Coleman at Stones Throw's house in Los Angeles, and edited by Jank. While working on the ''Madvillainy'' album cover, Jank drew inspiration from King Crimson's ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' artwork, however, following its completion, he noticed the artwork eerily resembled Madonna's ''Madonna'' artwork. Despite this, Jank stuck with the original artwork, labeling it as the "rap version of ''Beauty and the Beast''". A small orange square was added to the final version of ''Madvillainy'', due to Jank's thinking that the artwork "needed something distinctive", comparing it to the orange "O" on the ''Madonna'' cover.

Release and promotion

Two singles from ''Madvillainy'' were released before the album release: "Money Folder" bundled with "America's Most Blunted", and "All Caps" bundled with "Curls". The first single peaked at number 66 on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. ''Madvillainy'' was released on March 23, 2004. Despite Stones Throw Records being a relatively small label, the album achieved moderate commercial success, which was big for the label. According to ''Pitchfork'', "after two years of hectoring Stones Throw for making unsalable records, distributor EMI couldn't keep ''Madvillainy'' in stock." The album peaked at number 179 on ''Billboard'' 200 and sold approximately 150,000 copies, making it one of the label's best-selling albums. Its success allowed Stones Throw to open an office in Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Four official videos were created for the album upon its initial release : "All Caps" (directed by James Reitano), "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Accordion" (both directed by Andrew Gura), and "Shadows of Tomorrow" (directed by System D-128). "All Caps" and "Rhinestone Cowboy" appear on the DVD ''Stones Throw 101'' along with a hidden easter egg video for "Shadows Of Tomorrow" as a special bonus feature. An impromptu video for "Accordion" was filmed in 2004 but was not released until 2008's ''In Living the True Gods'' DVD.

An instrumental version of the album was released in 2004 only in vinyl format and digitally through various online stores, with the tracks "The Illest Villains", "Bistro", "Sickfit", "Do Not Fire!", and "Supervillain Theme" being omitted. It was re-released in 2012 on vinyl with picture sleeve.

In 2014, in honor of the 10th anniversary of ''Madvillainy'', Stones Throw released a special edition of the album on vinyl. The album re-entered ''Billboard'' 200 chart, peaking at number 117, higher than it did originally. The same year ''Madvillainy'' was also released on Compact Cassettes, as part of the Cassette Store Day.

Remixes

Several remixes of the album were released. Two remix EPs of ''Madvillainy'' were released on Stones Throw in 2005. The remixes were done by Four Tet and Koushik. '' Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix'' was released on Stones Throw in 2008, containing a complete remix of the album by Madlib as a part of a Madvillain box set. According to ''Stereogum'', it was Madlib's "attempt to get Doom excited enough to work on a true follow-up", recorded after he got tired of waiting for Doom to record the official sequel.

Critical reception

''Madvillainy'' was met with widespread critical acclaim from music critics and became one of the most critically acclaimed projects of both artists. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 93, based on 20 reviews; it was the year's best-reviewed rap album and third highest reviewed album overall, according to the website. It also was the second most acclaimed rap album at the time of its release, behind Outkast's ''Stankonia''. Sam Samuelson of AllMusic wrote that album's strength "lies in its mix between seemingly obtuse beats, samples, MCing, and some straight-up hip-hop bumping" and that "MF Doom's unpredictable lyrical style fits quite nicely within Madlib's unconventional beat orchestrations". Will Hermes of ''Entertainment Weekly'' called it "indie rap blowing session by two guys near the top of their game". ''Alternative Press'' praised ''Madvillainy'' as "all invention and no indulgence", while ''HipHopDX'' dubbed it an "experimental, eclectic, raw, spontaneous" classic. ''Mojo'' praised the album, calling it "a symphony of such densely constructed chaos" and noting that "''Madvillainys very opacity is part of its brilliance".

''Pitchfork'' called ''Madvillainy'' "inexhaustibly brilliant, with layer-upon-layer of carefully considered yet immediate hip-hop, forward-thinking but always close to its roots", noting that "the samples are smart and never played-out, and the production and rhymes reveal a determined sense of cooperation, as MF Doom spouts off his most brilliant lyrical change-ups and production-conscious playoffs". '' Q'' called Madlib "the most innovative beatsman since Prince Paul", who created "an oddball, cartoon-heavy backdrop for MF Doom's mellifluous wordplay". ''Rolling Stone'' described Madlib's tracks as, "fuzzy and crackling with dust", and praised MF Doom, whose flow was commended as "a particularly elegant slur, with syllables spreading over a beat, not crisply adhering to it". Eric Henderson of ''Slant Magazine'' called it "a chameleonic masterpiece that alone validates the artistry of sampler culture". Robert Christgau, writing for ''The Village Voice'', praised the album as "a glorious phantasmagoria of flow". ''Blender''s Jody Rosen called it a "torrid album that marries old-school rap aesthetics to punk-rock concision."

''Madvillainy'' also attracted positive reviews from several publications with infrequent coverage of hip hop music. David Segal of ''The Washington Post'' called the album "hysterical, ..perplexing, arresting, thought-provoking or just plain silly". Kelefa Sanneh of ''The New York Times'' called it "a delirious collaboration" and hailed MF Doom as a rapper who "understands the deformative power of rhyme" and "delivers long, free-associative verses full of sideways leaps and unexpected twists". Sasha Frere-Jones of ''The New Yorker'' praised the album, noting that "the point of ''Madvillainy'' is largely poetic—celebrating the language of music and the music of language" and that while the album's beats are based on samples of records, it's "hard to say which ones, even in a general way".

Accolades

Several publications included ''Madvillainy'' in their lists of the best albums of the year. ''Pitchfork'' ranked it number six on their list of the 50 best albums of 2004, stating that "the collaboration brings out the best in both men, without copying anything in their catalogs". ''Prefix'' ranked the album first on its list of the 60 best albums of 2004, stating that "when Doom and Madlib combine, they form like Voltron". ''PopMatters'' positioned it at number nine on their list of the 100 best albums of 2004, commending MF Doom's "royal, pop culture-laden flow" and Madlib's "beat-mining expertise". ''Spin'' ranked it number 17 on their list of the 40 best albums of 2004, praising Madlib's production, "thick, woozy slabs of beatnik bass", that "keeps things hotter than an underground volcano lair". Washington City Paper ranked Madvillainy number one on their list of the top 20 albums of 2004. ''Stylus Magazine'' named it the second best album of 2004. In ''The Village Voice'' annual poll Pazz & Jop, which combined votes from 793 critics, ''Madvillainy'' was ranked number 11 on the list of the best albums of 2004. ''The Wire'' and AllMusic also included the album in their unordered lists of the best albums of the year.

Numerous publications included ''Madvillainy'' in various lists of the best albums. '' Clash'' positioned it at number 47 in their list of top 100 albums of ''Clash'' lifetime, calling it "slapdash and dilapidated, wholly unconcerned with making sense", "defined by its flippancy and attitude to professionalism". The magazine also listed it on their list of ten best hip hop albums ever, calling it "one of this decade’s finest hip-hop albums" that "elevated the profile of both rtiststo whole new levels". ''Complex'' placed the album in their list of 100 best albums available on Spotify, calling it "dusty, weeded up, 22-song masterpiece that stood alone and brought us all into its own little world" and stating that "Madlib and MF Doom's classic wasn't meant for the radio, but it was too good to be kept to the underground". The magazine also listed it among 25 albums of the decade that deserve classic status, describing it as "a classic record that had a goofy cartoony unpredictability, balanced with moments of oddball sincerity" and 71st on the list "The 100 Best Albums of the Complex Decade". ''HipHopGoldenAge'' ranked it first in their list of the Top 150 Hip Hop Albums of the Decade, calling it "a perfect example of what can happen if two left-field geniuses combine powers."''The A.V. Club'' featured the album on the list "The Best Music of the Decade", referring to the album as "an instant masterpiece". ''Fact'' ranked it number 14 at their list of 100 best albums of the 2000s and praised it as "a perfect synergy between raw beats and incredible rhymes". The magazine also named it the second best album on their list of 100 best indie hip hop records ever made, stating that it was "arguably the signature moment from the signature rapper and signature producer of the entire movement". Heavy.com ranked the album number 9 on their list "The Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of the Decade", stating that "MF Doom has never sounded better than he did when he teamed up with Madlib for this little ditty of WTF hip hop". ''Slant Magazine'' placed the album at number 39 on the list "The 100 Best Albums of the Aughts", calling it the "undisputed pinnacle of aughts underground rap". ''Stylus Magazine'' ranked the album number 13 on its list "The Top 50 Albums: 2000-2004". ''Fact'' ranked the album 14th on its "The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s" list, praising it as "a perfect synergy between raw beats and incredible rhymes that in the minds and hearts of many, neither party has yet to surpass". ''The Guardian'' included the album in their list of 1000 albums to hear before you die, describing it as "a colourful window into Dumile's world", while praising its "busy unpredictability and stoned comic-book mythos". ''HipHopDX'' included the album in two lists: top 10 albums of 2000s and the 30 best underground hip hop albums since 2000, describing it as "the super rap album, reaching unforeseen creative heights" that "elevated oom and Madlibinto Gods for many core Hip Hop heads". ''Rolling Stone'' featured it on their list of 40 one album wonders, and in 2020, ranked the album at number 365 in their revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

''NME'' ranked the album number 411 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, describing it as "stoner humour and mind-bending beats from a hip-hop dream team" and stating that "MF Doom and Madlib might not have invented underground rap, but they damn well perfected it". ''Pitchfork'' ranked the album at number 13 in their list of the top 100 albums of 2000–2004, commenting, "While Madlib's special power played tricks on your ears – a sample you were sure was the sound of cars rolling by on the street might sound like the hiss of a record on a different day ("Rainbows") – MF Doom unfurled his clever lyrics like a roll of sod on earth... and the album curved in on itself like a two-way mirror."''Pitchfork'' also ranked ''Madvillainy'' as the 25th best album of the 2000s, describing it as "a preternaturally perfect pairing of like-minded talents" who "have each been responsible for tons of great, grimy underground hip-hop". ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' considered the album the fourth best of the 2000s. Rhapsody ranked the album 1st on its "Hip-Hop's Best Albums of the Decade" list. ''PopMatters'' positioned it at number 49 on their list of the 100 best albums of the 2000s and praised MF Doom, who "free-associates culture high and low, from Hemingway to Robh Ruppel, across tongue-tied internal rhymes", and Madlib's "fusion breaks, psych soul, and Steve Reich", and called the album "the best chemistry of either’s career, and one of the best of hip-hop, period". In 2016 '' Q'' listed ''Madvillainy'' among the albums that didn't appear in their list of the best albums of last 30 years, stating that "underground hip-hop's cracked geniuses, Madlib and MF Doom, unite on a labyrinth of weed-stained vignettes that combine invention and accessibility". ''Spin'' ranked it number 123 on their list of the 300 best albums of the past 30 years (1985–2014), calling it "a genius cross-pollination of seemingly divergent styles". The magazine also positioned the album at number eight on the list of the 50 best hip hop debut albums since ''Reasonable Doubt''. ''Stylus Magazine'' ranked the album number 13 on their list of the top 50 albums of 2000–2005, praising Madlib's production, based on "an endless supply of funk, soul, and jazz samples", and stating that the album was "displaying the future of hip-hop".

Legacy and influence

''Madvillainy'' influenced a generation of artists. Among some of them are rappers Joey Badass, the late Capital STEEZ, Bishop Nehru, Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown, Kirk Knight, producer and rapper Flying Lotus, producer and DJ Cashmere Cat, neo soul collective Jungle, indie rock band Cults, and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums. According to Earl Sweatshirt, ''Madvillainy'' influenced his generation the same way Wu-Tang Clan influenced the rappers of the 1990s with their album ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)''. In 2009 a video of Mos Def working on his album ''The Ecstatic'' in a studio was released. In the video he praised DOOM, saying that "he rhymes as weird as I feel", and recited some of Doom's lines, including the ones from ''Madvillainy''. He added:

In 2015, in honor of the release of All-New, All-Different Marvel comics line and to pay homage to classic and contemporary hip hop albums, Marvel released variant covers inspired by these albums. One of them was variant cover of The Mighty Thor comics, based on ''Madvillainy'' cover. It used grayscale image of Jane Foster's face behind the metal mask, with a picture of Mjolnir in a small orange square on top right corner and "THE MIGHTY THOR" text in pixelated font on top left.

Track listing

All tracks written by Daniel Dumile and Otis Jackson Jr., except where noted; all tracks produced by Madlib, except "The Illest Villains", produced by Madlib and Doom, and voice skits produced by Doom.

Sample credits
* "Accordion" contains a sample of "Experience" performed by Daedelus, and a sample of " Sleeping in a Jar", performed by The Mothers of Invention.
* "Meat Grinder" contains a sample of "Sleeping in a Jar", performed by The Mothers of Invention, and a sample of "Hula Rock", performed by Lew Howard & the All-Stars
* "Bistro" contains a sample of "Second to None", performed by Atlantic Starr
* "Raid" contains a sample of " Nardis (Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival), performed by Bill Evans, a sample of "América Latina", performed by Osmar Milito e Quarteto Forma, and a sample of "Computer Games", performed by George Clinton
* "America's Most Blunted" contains a sample of " Ninety-Nine and a Half", performed by Fever Tree, and a snippet of "Creativity", performed by Jack Margolis
* "Sickfit" contains a sample of "Family Affair", performed by The Generation Gap
* "Rainbows" contains a sample of " Blues & Pants", performed by James Brown, and a sample of "Kelly", performed by William Loose, Stu Phillips, and Marvin Elling
* "Curls" contains a sample of "Airport Love Theme", performed by Waldir Calmon
* "Do Not Fire!" contains a sample of "Mithi Mithi Ankhiyon Se Dil Bhar De", performed by Kishore Kumar, and voice-over snippets of Dhalsim from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, composed by Yoko Shimomura
* "Money Folder" contains a sample of " Soul Turn Around", performed by Freddie Hubbard, and a voice clip from ''The Raven'', spoken by Vincent Price
* "Shadows of Tomorrow" contains a sample of "Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon", performed by R.D. Burman, and voice-over snippets from ''Space Is The Place
* "Operation Lifesaver AKA Mint Test" contains a sample of " Prepare Yourself" performed by George Duke, a sample of Double Barrel by Dave and Ansell Collins, and a sample of the theme to the Justice League of America.
* "Figaro" contains samples of "In The Beginning" and "Jeannine", both performed by Dr. Lonnie Smith
* "Hardcore Hustle" contains a sample of " Sing A Simple Song", performed by Diana Ross, The Temptations, and The Supremes
* "Strange Ways" contains a sample of " Funny Ways", performed by Gentle Giant, and a snippet of ''Symphony in Slang'', directed by Tex Avery
* "Fancy Clown" contains a sample of "That Ain't The Way You Make Love", performed by Z.Z. Hill
* "Eye" contains a sample of " So Good", performed by The Whispers
* "Supervillain Theme" contains a sample of "Adormeceu", performed by O Terço
* "All Caps", contains a sample of the opening credits of '' Ironside'', composed by Quincy Jones, and an interpolation of "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow", performed by Nice and Smooth
* "Great Day", contains a sample of " How Can You Believe", performed by Stevie Wonder
* "Rhinestone Cowboy" contains samples of "Mariana Mariana" and "Molambo", both performed by Maria Bethânia

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

Madvillain
* DOOM – MC, production , recording
* Madlib – beats, production, recording

Additional personnel
* Peanut Butter Wolf – executive producer
* Allah's Reflection – additional vocals
* Dave Cooley – mixing, mastering, recording
* James Reitano – illustration
* Egon – project coordination
* Miranda Jane – project consultant
* Eric Coleman – photography
* Jeff Jank – design

''Madvillainy Demo Tape''

On July 23, 2008 Stones Throw announced the release of '' Madvillainy 2: The Box'', a box set containing, among other things, a cassette of the leaked ''Madvillainy'' demo tape. The box was later released on September 15 of that year, marking the first official release of the ''Madvillainy'' demo. The demo was re-released by itself on September 7, 2013, in celebration of the first annual Cassette Store Day.

Charts

Album

Original release

2014 re-release

Later entries

Singles

Certifications

References

External links

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{{Authority control

2004 albums
Madlib albums
MF Doom albums
Stones Throw Records albums
Albums produced by Madlib