Madvillainy’s Secret Ingredient: INDIFFERENCE

today we're diving all the way into mad villain the collaboration between Mad Lib and MF Doom breaking down some of the samples the production the Rhymes the story behind this album and seeing how doom and mad lib's indifference toward hip-hop is actually what makes this one of the best hip-hop albums of all time let's take it from the top mad villain opens with the illst villains which is essentially an instrumental skit this feels like a continuation of MF Doom debut album operation doomsday but this track feels like it's pulling Doom out of the comic book world and into the real world I mean for one let's just compare album covers operation doomsday is a straightup comic book well mad villain is this gritty photo of Doom himself throughout this album there's voiceover from an old Fantastic Four cartoon but on Mad villain it's a more realworld sounding voice America's two most powerful villains of the next decades turned loose to strike Terror into the hearts of men this is sampled from multiple sources including a documentary history of the cult villains from 1989 but between this voice and the album cover photo it feels like MF Doom the hip-hop super villain here to destroy rap has come into our world underneath this is a mix of chops sound effects organs guitars and more it's a perfectly unsettling way to open the album setting up what we're about to hear a collaboration between MF Doom and madlib and actually while madl produced this album this opening is the only track that they both produced we have so much more to cover on the story of this album but let's keep moving to the first song on this album accordion this album is revered as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time and the sources that Mad Lib pulls samples from is as wide as you could possibly imagine for instance this album by Deus specifically the song experience because nothing says hip-hop quite like accordion right but madlip has taken this unusual sample and made it one of the most iconic opening songs [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ever madlib is an incredible producer who pulls from so many eclectic sources this accordion sample is just the beginning he's a master sampler and there are many more examples we'll look at through this album of unique samples that Mad Lib rolls into his production but suffice it to say this is one of the craziest producers in the game teaming up with one of the craziest MC's M Doom we've looked at Doom's insane rhyming style in my breakdown of operation Dooms Day but Doom continues his next level rhyming on this album so many of his lyrics take multiple listens to fully unpack the references and connections for example here's part of his verse on accordion I'm going to isolate the vocal so we can focus on what he's saying just before this he's talking about how he doesn't have a lot of time because people are after him and he and mad lib are essentially living gods they can destroy anyone swords of ly about AIDS drug fiends honestly there could be a whole video just on the lyrics of this song but anyway then Doom says that's why he bring his own needles and get more cheese than Doritos Cheetos or Fritos slip like 40 and your first and last step to playing yourself like a 40 and needles referring to drugs but also record needles for sampling got it but the next line cheese means money but the chips he lists while they rhyme Fritos doesn't have cheese in them I mean unless you're talking about Chili Cheese Fritos but that doesn't fit rhythmically But ultimately none of this matters because in the next line he tells us that he had a Freudian slip that's where you accidentally say something you were subconsciously thinking so Doom is rapping and dreaming about chips M food foreshadowing but then there's also slip like Freudian a Bluer slip Li is a type of hypodermic needle this kind of dense word play is what Doom is known for and he continues that on this album and then we have the last line your first and last step to playing yourself like an accordion are you kidding me the man found a way to rhyme his way into the word accordion which matches the sample we've been hearing this dense rhyming continues on the next track meat grinder after the intro we get the main beat the main sample is from the song hola rock by Lou Howard and the allstars 1975 so again he's turning a hoola influence 70s song into a raw sounding hip-hop beat mad lib's crazy one of his superpowers is his seemingly endless list of music that he listens to hip-hop originally came out of funk and Soul music through the '90s we got the rise of jazz samples but Mad Lib stretches this even further pulling accordion samples hoola Brazilian music Indian music and TV show scores we'll look at all of that in a moment but first let's talk about mad lib's musical history history madb grew up in a musical household his parents being musicians and his uncle being a jazz Trumpeter one of his early releases was with the group loot pack which released their debut album in 1999 on Stones Throw records in 2000 madb released a solo album under the name quasi Moto but by 2001 he had become bored with hip-hop he then started releasing music under a new project yesterday's New Quintet it's hard to call this one specific genre but the biggest influence is jazz for example check this out [Music] now the rest of this album has Soul influences and the way it's produced sounds very hip-hop but it's a unique mix of genres plus this quintet is fictional aliases it's all mad lib either chopping samples or playing live instruments and while this is great music the label Stones Throw wanted to get mad lid back into hip-hop Egon alapat the former manager of stones throat recall I was looking to do anything to Kickstart his interest in hip-hop we had the chance to do a reunion album of loot pack I got them weed booked studio time and it fizzled out madlib himself has said that he gets bored of hip-hop every few years and wants to do something different speaking of here's the next track [Music] beastro ladies and gentle now on this track Doom himself deut grand opening of introduces all the characters on the album Doom is himself a character who Daniel Dumay invented but that whole story is in another video Dumay has many characters that he Ms as including King gedra Victor vaugh he introduces all of these as well as mad lib and his alter OS Quasimoto and yesterday's New Quintet MF Doom is such an interesting person well let let me clarify Daniel Dumay MF Doom is a character that Dumay plays and Dumay has a completely different approach to hip-hop than many rappers and one that angered a lot of fans when he was Frank about it in a 2019 interview with Spin Magazine he was asked if he played any of mad villainy for his young son while they were making it and he replied nah I would go to work and do the work I don't really do music at home we listen to music but I do that just to get money I write Rhymes and to get money other than that I don't listen to hip-hop music I listen to jazz music and instrumentals and like that I only do this for the simple facts of points per rhyme the point game it seems to be a profitable thing these days and nobody else is really paying attention to it you can be about your points and if nobody else can do it you can get some change off that joint because you're the the only one doing it like that that's what I get out of the rhyming this is a loaded quote that seems to go against everything hip hop stands for he doesn't listen to hip-hop and he's only in this for the money now the argument could be made that Dumay is embodying the super villain here and saying inflammatory things to get you riled up but I'm going to take him at his word when he says that he doesn't listen to hip-hop and only does this for the money I think this can be seen throughout mad villain and is actually one of the things that makes this album so great but back to the album let's let's talk about the song raid I love this song for multiple reasons madlib has an incredible ability to make separate samples sound like they're from the same song this opening piano riff is a Bill Evans sample and this gives way to the primary beat how Doom whole heat and preach nonviolence about to talk to speech come on silence this sample is obscure it's called America Latina by osar molito from the soundtrack to a Brazilian telen NOA from the' 70s I have a deep love for Brazilian music and mad lib made this beat on a trip to Brazil one that would ultimately have dire consequences but let me show you the sample man I love this so much but this beginning it's in three four times so mad lib is chopping it up a bit playing the first part of the beat then repeating the rest of the three beats in order to fit the four beat Group by the way his gear setup it's laughably simple there's no big complicated Studio no expensive gear take a look at his setup this song was made entirely with a portable turntable a boss SP 303 and a tape deck in years since madlib has said that he makes Beats on an iPad not a rough demo but the full finished song the album bandana with Freddy Gibbs All iPad anyway mad lib's greatest skill is not his knowledge of complicated gear it's his ear his musical taste his love of all kinds of music in an LA Times article from 2002 shortly after the first yesterday's New Quintet album Mad Lib said I didn't get in this to make a lot of money I could do what the industry does it would actually be easier than what I do now but my brain and my heart won't let me interesting here's madlib saying the opposite of the Doom quote we just looked at regardless madlib wasn't interested in making hip-hop at the time anyway but for this same article the interviewer asked madlib who his dream collaborators would be he answered Jay Dilla and MFD could this be the thing to get mad Li back into hip-hop but even so how do you reconcile Doom's comments about how he doesn't listen to hip-hop and just does this for the money I mean we know the ending because they made the album but the larger question is how is it that a producer in an MC who largely felt indifferent about hip-hop they teamed up and made one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time America's most blunted is exactly what you think it's about essentially a funny tribute to cannabis what's interesting though is the structure of the song There are nearly 20 samples in here primarily chopped up during the hook it doesn't fully repeat but this is one of the few times on the album that we have anything like a typical song structure by and large the songs on this album are just a verse all the way through with no part repeating that feels like they're intentionally leaning away from the commercial approach not worried about having a singable hook and focusing on the art aspect of it instead the first verse is Doom the second is Quasimoto which is Mad Lib in two characters using two different voices but between this and at the beginning we've got the closest thing to a hook [Music] this combination of the beat all the samples forming a hook together this feels like a DJ Premiere move I love it so The Story Goes that Egon alpat took some Mad Lib beats and managed to indirectly send them to Doom hoping that working with one of his stated dream collaborators would get him interested in hip-hop again both of mad lib's dream collabs happened by the way with dill and mad lib forming jayb and releasing Champion sound in 2003 but right so an agreement is made Stones Throw is going to fly Doom out to LA to record on three mad liit beats Doom's sort of manager negotiated for plane tickets and $1,500 for three songs Stone's throat was broke at this point but managed to get the tickets peanut butter wolf picked up Doom from the airport and after getting back to the rented house that was Stones Throw headquarters doom and madlib went downstairs to the bomb shelter which sounds cool but it's also a literal bomb shelter anyway upstairs Doom's manager cornered alpad about $1,500 and demanded payment alapat took his time stretching this interaction out so that doom and madle could get acquainted and wouldn't you know it one of the first songs that came out of this project the one playing from the bomb shelter at that moment was this it would appear as though the genius producer who' lost his interest in hip-hop and the MC who didn't listen to hip-hop were forming a legendary connection this album is unconventional in many ways I mean you've got just verses on most of the songs no hooks except for like what we just looked at and then you've got instrumental interludes that are all madlib these help break up the album and showcase what madlib can do and what he can do is crazy let's listen to the beginning of figuro the first part contains a sample from Lonnie Smith from 1967 then it goes into the main beat which has a sample from a different song from the Same album [Music] the rest is empty with no brain but the clever nerd the best MC with no chain you ever heard I don't really have a way to explain how crazy that is the Jazzy opening sets up one expectation for the song and then the main beat comes in slower harder and the contrast of the two is incredible strange ways sees Doom rapping about more serious social and political issues with the first verse focused locally and the second globally he criticizes police who are interfering with a father doing what's necessary to feed his child and saying that in war all you get is lost children Dumay was a father himself in fact this is one of the main motivators for finishing the album as he stated I'm staying in LA and I'm trying to get back to my children working as fast as I can without sacrificing the quality here I think we get a peak into D's mind and motivation so when he said says things like he only raps to make money he doesn't mean that he's trying to get nice cars and jewelry he's got a family to take care of D's son Malachi was born just before doom and madb started working on this album so he's far from home with an infant to get back to by the way Dumay had a total of five children which considering how expensive kids are sure I mean I think I get it he's rapping to get money to provide for his family but at the same time Doom describes himself as a writer and he's trying to write a classic book that you'll want to recommend to someone he meticulously writes and rewrites trying to make the most interesting formation of words possible he's a master of his craft but at the same time he needs to get paid speaking of writing Fancy Clown features Victor Von another Doom character he's a younger fan of Doom his girl has cheated on him with doom so yeah this kind of gets a meta but it's fun to see Dumay rap as someone else saying he's going to beat Doom up and all of that over this incredible [Music] be around playing all innocent Foundation don't make me to pound Tim Crown facing and risk being jammed up like traffic doom and madl both recalled the recording process of this album as very unremarkable Mad Lib would be downstairs in the bomb shelter making beats Doom would be upstairs writing Rhymes and doom says they barely even spoke and communicated telepathically or through the music itself this was of course after they worked out an additional deal for the full album this album was primarily made at the Stones Throw house though Mad Lib made some beats like raid while on a trip to Brazil that photo I showed you from earlier that was mad lib's setup at his hotel in Brazil that trip would be important to this album for multiple reasons for one madlib found samples like the telen NOA song for Reed but also because a cassette tape of much of the album was stolen from his room and leaked on the internet this was the the earlier days of the internet so everyone thought that was pretty much it for this album doom and madlib took an extended break and began working on other projects Doom released albums as Victor vaugh and King gedra madlib went back to Jazz releasing shades of blue a remix of classic music from the Blue Note archives in other words Doom went and wrapped to get more money and mad lib retreated from hip-hop once again now let's talk about the most famous song from this album madlib took the song bump and bust stop by Thunder en lightning from 1974 it's the hottest thing and it's on it way to the top right there Step just those drums right there this has been sampled many other times by artists like tribe slum Village Gangstar and more but Mad Lib took this and combined it with music from two different TV shows like the Streets of San [Music] Francisco and the show ironide it's giving you a little context you'll hear it here it [Music] comes man come on he took all of that and turned it into one of the most iconic hip-hop songs of all time there's that first intro first TV show theme bump and bus stop drums there's that piano Rift from [Music] ironide man so nasty that is probably somewhat of a travesty having me then he told the people you can call me Your Majesty this is Mad Lib in top form and doom as well just listen to part of his verse here he UT the calm flow don't talk about my mom sometimes he rhy quick sometimes he rhy slow or vice versa whip up a slice of nice verse on first again this could be its own video breaking just this song down but the rhyme scheme is going butter cutter utter and then he gets interrupted responds by saying don't talk about my mom's yo and then makes that the new rhyme matching it with rhyme slow vice versa whip up a nice slice of verse pie hit it on the first Tri villain the worst Guy this is insane rhyming it's so dense Rhymes overlapping on each other all over the place again Doom is a writer and he spent time crafting this until it was perfect in fact after the initial album leak after they took a break to focus on other projects fans started telling doom and madb how much they loved the album and couldn't wait to hear the final thing that's when they picked it back up finishing the project but not before Doom re-recorded all of his verses for this album you can Google the demos if you want but the final version of this album has doomed with a much darker tone it's grittier it's more raw sounding his delivery is different but it's also recorded on a cheap mic so it matches the raw sounding production even better another iconic often quoted Doom line comes from the next song great day mad plays the Bas like the race C on the case to break shs and leave a face guard groovy dude not to prove to be rude but this stuff is like what you might put on movie food this almost feels like Doom accepted a challenge like someone said you have to rhyme the word butter with groovy dude and he went great no problem groovy dude not to be rude but this stuff is like what you might put on movie food he's saying this beat is like butter but he's taken the long way around eloquently rhyming his way through unexpected paths to get where he's trying to go so how do we reconcile this Doom said he doesn't listen to hip-hop and only raps for money and mad was bored with hip-hop and Stones Throw really had to pull some strings to get him interested in making hip-hop again how is it that these two a producer and MC completely indifferent toward hip-hop ended up making one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time I think that their indifference isn't a weakness it's actually the secret ingredient to the whole thing it's not a problem that needs solving it's the answer itself allow me to explain think about the time this album came out of it's the early 2000s hip-hop had just been through an incredible era in the 9s expanding up to many different sub genres new samples MC's competing for who has the best Rhymes there were some incredible albums during this period many of which I cover on this channel the rest of which are on my list I got you but then along with that we have the commercialization of hip-hop the kind of music that's more about having a hit and making money than it is about the craft I'm not here to speak ill of any songs or artists but there's a clear distinction between these two types of hip-hop and in the early 2000s this feels like a pinnacle moment for commercial hip-hop the combination of sampling lawsuits and the fact that music production is getting cheaper means that producers are sampling less they can make a new beat from scratch easily without worrying about sample clearance and Hip-Hop is so popular in the mainstream that MC's just need a few good Rhymes and a catchy hook and you've got a hit song on your hands Made Easy no sample clearance necessary if Doom really wanted to just make money he should not have made Mad villainy Mad Lib is using a ton of samples and doom is spending a lot of time crafting these Rhymes if they just wanted to make money they should not have used samples made catchy Hooks and called it a day so when Doom says that he doesn't listen to hip-hop I think this is what he means he's not listening to the subpar stuff that's getting churned out of the hip-hop machine just after his controversial comments in that spin article he he said this about rhyming it's something we did as a hobby like practicing thoughts brain exercises word searches and things like that studying different languages where words come from a practice to keep your mind sharp is how we used to see it but then it turned out to be something if you put it to music in a rhythmic way and you know how to bring the point across then you can turn it into something that's real profitable I'm blessed to be part of this whole thing from this hip-hop experience this is a man who loves language loves taking the long eloquent way around enjoying the way words rhyme sound and can mean multiple things and tie together in unique ways in that sense it's taking the original idea of the MC the Master of Ceremonies there to get the crowd hyped up and using Rhymes to do it and stretching it to the absolute limit musically hip hop started by taking the funkiest part of a record looping that and keeping that Vibe going this evolved into sampling but in order to sample well you have to know a lot of music and know what kinds of things you like and don't like that way you know what to grab as an ingredient to make something new what I love about the craft of sample-based production is that to do it well you have to know a lot of other non-hip hop music by having a deep love and appreciation for all music you can pull from anything and make a hip-hop beat out of it that's why a beat can be so powerful it's not just a beat it contains within it multiple other sources with their own history their own feel their own energy and it's being made into something new and that's why all the commercial non sample-based stuff from the early 2000s feels so empty it's not just about making a beat it's about having a deep love and appreciation for music in general and making a hip-hop beat out of that that's why this album feels the way it does Mad Lib loves a wide variety of music and listens with open ears he approaches his Productions with respect for the music that he's sampling I'm going to come back to this in just a moment but let's talk about about the final song on the album Ryan Stone Cowboy this was the last track recorded for this album we see both of these ideas at play on this song Doom explains what they came to do to have the game locked in a cage getting shocked with a pole the second verse talks about the album leak on the internet and then he says curses truly wor with enough spread through the B univers let the be blast told them where the last he said you bet SC ass may find chome alloy find him on the grind he's The Rhinestone Cowboy Rhinestone Cowboy is a song by Glenn Campbell he Compares his Fame to a cowboy covered in rhinestones and doom is doing the same thing he's getting paid he's got all the fame and jewels Etc but where can you find him on the grind seems like a contradiction but Doom's not retiring and taking it easy now that he has money he loves the art of rhyming and yes money and fame come with them this is all over a mad lid beat that has mult multiple Brazilian samples so how is their indifference toward hip-hop the key to this album let's separate the idea of hip-hop as an art form and Hip-Hop the genre of music the commercial radio friendly stuff that was dominating in the late '90s and early 2000s again I'm not knocking it it has its place but that's hip-hop the genre hip-hop the art form is about the love of music and the love of rhyming some of the most musically knowledgeable people in the world are great hip-hop producers DJ Premiere Q-tip Jay Dilla Pete Rock Mad Lib the music coming out of them is often hip-hop but the music going in that could be absolutely anything that's the magic of hip-hop production and that's why mad lib's indifference toward hip-hop made this album so good he was more focused on jazz or Brazilian music or Random TV show themes or anything else and by getting away from hip-hop the genre it brought him closer to hip-hop the original art form it's a celebration of music of all kinds sampling at the highest level possible and that's why Dooms indifference toward hip-hop made this album so good he was there to make money yes but he's also there to enjoy the English language enjoy figuring out how do you get from groovy dude to butter or slip like Freudian played yourself like an accordion by getting away from hip-hop the genre it brought him closer to hip-hop the art form a celebration of language rhyming at the highest level possible this album is a classic revered as one of the best of all time because mad villain isn't focused on Beats and rapping they're focused on music and Rhymes and isn't that at its core what hipop is do me a favor if you enjoyed this video hit the like button and if you haven't subscribed to the channel hit that button too then to keep going down the MF Doom Rabbit Hole check out the story of his debut album operation Doomsday the for of the Doom character and how that whole album might be one big trick you can watch that right here and don't forget spell the man [Music] name

Channel: Digging The Greats

Views: 248,373

Keywords: brandon shaw, b shaw, music history, digging the greats, mf doom, madlib, mad lib, stones throw, madvillain, mad villain, madvillainy, mad villainy, breakdown

Id: dHtuoKqSif0

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023