Only a handful of albums in music history earn the pretentious acclaim that they garner, and who would’ve thought America’s two most blunted supervillains would be hip-hop’s best examples of this? Moreover, MF DOOM and Madlib’s legendary collaborative album Madvillainy turns 20 years old today (March 23). To this day, people still champion its lyrical density, its now-iconic and unique sampling, the seamless inclusion of featured guests, and the overall wealth of appeal within its 22 tracks and 46 minutes. In other words, it’s one of the most fun rap projects to listen to thanks to its sharp, witty bars and engaging production while also being fit for scholarly analysis. There are so many samples to unearth and discover, such rich wordplay laden with hip-hop history and double entendre references, and more soul than a sock with a hole.
Furthermore, we decided to take a look at 20 of the many obscure, surprising, under-discussed, or overlooked references on this album (one song at a time) from MF DOOM’s pen and mic, and from Madlib’s Boss SP-303 sampler, his turntable, and his tape deck. Of course, Madvillainy‘s 20-year history and universally celebrated acclaim means that you’ve probably already heard of these. But we found that these inclusions don’t come up as often as others. Some of these are samples you wouldn’t have expected to be samples, others are clever lyrical nods, a few are old entertainment callbacks, and all of them add to this LP’s mystique, character, and timelessness. Sounds dense, doesn’t it? Yet this complexity doesn’t dilute Madvillain’s creativity, fun-loving nature, immediacy, or frankly, their coolness. Such has been the case for the metal fellow and his maniacal liaison ever since New York plates was ghetto yellow.
Read More: Will Madvillainy 2 Ever Come Out?
“The Illest Villains”
Starting off with Madvillainy‘s opener, the musical backdrop is Morton Stevens’ “Beach Trip” off of the original TV soundtrack for Hawaii Five-O from 1968. What makes it ironic is that most of the other sampled clips in this song are from movie trailers but don’t highlight their music, and the music itself on this track comes from a TV show soundtrack rather than a film. This also marks Madlib’s first use of spoken word from James Gordon’s 1989 documentary, The Documented History Of The Fabulous Villains. He also uses clips from this movie in the songs “Rainbows,” “Money Folder,” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” later in the tracklist.
“Accordion”
One of the most iconic songs on this album once made a girl cry, and it was never the same since. MF DOOM’s last line on here is “Won’t take the one with no skinny legs like Joe Tex,” and there are a few reasons for its cleverness. Firstly is Joe Tex himself, a 1960s and 70s singer and songwriter who spoke over much of his material in a faster and less melodic way as a precursor to what rapping would become. He has a song called “Skinny Legs And All” in which he agrees with Metal Fingers’ sentiment -– or rather, the other way around.
However, the other notable background detail about this lyric is that MF DOOM originally had another version of this line: “Wolf likes the girls with the skinny legs.” This was in reference to Peanut Butter Wolf, the founder of Stones Throw Records, whose connection to DOOM and Madlib is well-documented at this point. But when Wolf’s thin girlfriend at the time heard the lyric before the album’s official release, it made her cry. Then, he told his masked friend about it, and without warning, the official version of the album released with the ending line we know today. “I guess he felt bad,” Wolf said of Dumile’s decision.
“Meat Grinder”
“Still back in the game like Jack LaLanne, think you know the name? Don’t rack your brain,” MF DOOM spits on another one of the most iconic moments on Madvillainy. Jack LaLanne was a fitness expert and bodybuilder who continued to sell fitness products, perform feats of strength, and advocate for proper nutrition until his death at age 96. Thus, he was still in the game for a while, but it’s been so long that DOOM doesn’t want you to “rack your brain” trying to remember his name or identify why it might sound familiar to you. To “rack” also means to put a set of weights back on the rack after weight-lifting, or bodybuilding. Not even the illest villain believes in having to know every reference in every bar… but he’ll be cheeky about teasing you to do so, and the temptation is hard to resist.
“Bistro”
While this track is mostly just MF DOOM talking casually over a funky flip, Madlib chose to include some lines of dialogue right beneath his partner’s voice that, although barely audible, add some nice texture and context. The clips come from the show McMillan & Wife, specifically the third episode of its fifth season in 1975, “Very Private And Very Difficult Matter To Discuss.” Furthermore, in the dialogue, a character invites another to go get a drink, and the track’s title already points to the perfect destination to do so.
Also, MF DOOM’s final line on here is a very deep reference to the Stones Throw Records crew. “I’d like to dedicate this next joint to my mans, you know, Big Hookie and Baba from the laundromat.” DOOM refers to Hookie & Baba, a comic series created by the label’s art director Jeff Jank. He told Undercover Magazine during an interview that it was a “lewd” project “sold exclusively in [the] San Francisco Bay Area laundromats to local winos.” Given that “Bistro” is a celebration of Madvillain’s entourage, this nod to their partners is quite colorful and, dare we say, wholesome… even if it sounds like a troublesome team.
“Raid” ft. MED
For the “chorus” portion of this vibrant and fun head-bobber, Madlib seems to manipulate an existing sound and repeat it to make it sound like “Day, day-day-day”… or maybe that’s just how we’re hearing it. Either way, it’s surprisingly not a manipulation at all, but rather a direct pull from George Clinton’s title track off his 1982 album Computer Games. As for MF DOOM, this contains one of his most multi-layered sets of references on the album. “The doctor told a patient ‘It’s all in your imagination, n***o’ / Ahh, what do he know? / About the buttery flow, he need to cut the ego / Trippin’, to date the metal fellow / Been ripping flows since New York plates was ghetto yellow.” The first part of the line is a reference to the 1949 film Home of the Brave.
In it, a Black soldier is ironically convinced that racism in the military is in his imagination after a doctor calls him a racial slur. But MF DOOM rejects the doctor’s words and thinks he needs to focus on his flow, a metaphor for other rappers needing to cut their bragging and hone their skill. Then, by stretching out the space between “ego” and how the doctor is “trippin’” in the next line, he references the concept of an ego trip, or thinking too highly of yourself. “Tripping” on psychedelics can also provoke “ego death,” an out-of-body experience that can provide another realm of self-consciousness and awareness, thus “cutting” the human ego of an MC. Finally, this references Ultramagnetic MCs’ and De La Soul’s tracks titled “Ego Trippin’” (De La’s version being a “sequel” to Ultramagnetic MCs’ rendition), and DOOM mentions his “flows” again.
“America’s Most Blunted” ft. Quasimoto
With a whopping 19 samples, it was impossible not to include “America’s Most Blunted” on this list. We could’ve picked any of these references and samples, especially the pro-marijuana comedy album A Child’s Garden Of Grass, released in 1971 by writer Jack Margolis, Jere Alan Brian, and producer Ron Jacobs. Fun fact: that also appears on the track “Rhinestone Cowboy” later on Madvillainy. Nevertheless, Madlib’s most curious inclusion here is from Disneyland Records and Walt Disney Records Studio Group’s “Acting Out The ABC’s” from 1962. The song is exactly what it sounds like: a children’s song to get kids to learn the alphabet and dance, act, or move along to it depending on the letter. “If you all gather around the phonograph” (as the sample says), you’ll understand why the dope-smoking anthem has such a bizarrely and contrastingly whimsical or wondrous feel.
“Do Not Fire!”
“Do Not Fire!” is another sample-heavy joint, with nine of them to look at which range from Street Fighter II sound effects and clips to 1970s Indian music and the laughing evil voice from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Regardless, Madlib’s most ingenious and underground inclusion on this Madvillainy cut is a cheering crowd featured in “Back Door Daddy,” a song from a raunchy 1972 comedy album of the same name from Skillet, Leroy & LaWanda. LaWanda Page was a comedian and entertainer dubbed “The Black Queen Of Comedy” who collaborated on this album with Skillet, Leroy & Co., the duo comprised of Sanford and Son co-stars Leroy Daniels and Ernest “Skillet” Mayhand.
“Money Folder”
MF DOOM albums obviously come with many comic book references and media samples, plus a particular love for Dr. Victor Von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom. On “Money Folder,” the song’s ending samples the aforementioned Fabulous Villains documentary, which is suddenly interrupted by a clip of the word “DOOM.” This comes from the Spider-Man TV show, specifically its first season’s second episode “Dr. Doom, Master Of The World” from 1981. This is just one of the many instances of “DOOM” clips that Madlib and the London-born lyricist himself use to interconnect with other spoken word samples, and it comes across quite seamlessly. Now for bars: “Egads, he got enough styles to start three fads / True that, she bad, I wonder do she come with kneepads,” MF DOOM raps on the song.
“What a call, what a real butterball / Either I get a strike or strike out, gutterball,” he continues, mixing animal references, food companies, bowling, and baseball. Butterball is a brand specializing in turkey products, and a “turkey” is three strikes (knocking down all ten pins with one move) in a row in bowling, hence “three fads.” “What a call” is a term for successfully calling or predicting a strike (swinging and missing the ball) in baseball. Baseball players also wear knee pads to slide on the field and DOOM wants them for this lady, presumably so she can kneel down and perform oral sex on him. He’ll either enamor her and get a strike in bowling terms, or fail and strike out (three straight strikes) in baseball terms. “Gutterball” is when your bowling ball goes in the gutters on the side of the lane, resulting in no points.
“Operation Lifesaver AKA Mint Test”
“Operation Lifesaver” has a couple of samples, but it’s one of the Madvillainy cuts that gets the most mileage out of a single source. For example, Madlib uses many different clips of dialogue and sounds effects from the story album Songs And Stories About The Justice League Of America from 1966 by Tifton Records, namely from the tracks “The Theme Of The Justice League Of America,” “Aquaman – Defeat Of The Dehydrator,” and “Metamorpho: Fumo The Fire Giant.” In addition, he also takes from a similar story album: The Official Adventures Of Flash Gordon (1966) by Jackson Beck. Specifically, it’s from the track “The Decoys Of Ming The Merciless.”
Speaking of story, the narrative behind this song is that MF DOOM is on a date with a woman with bad breath. “Wow, it caught me off guard / I went to breathe out but then she made me cough hard / Contact the God and let him know to slip two in,” he spits over the beat. “Contact the God” is apparently supposed to be a reference to the Nation of Islam, and the number two means wisdom in their numerology. As such, DOOM suggests that he thought about telling her directly that her breath stinks, but opts for more underhanded and less confrontational ways to potentially improve his night out as the song goes on.
“Figaro”
This is a pretty simple one all things considered, but just one of many examples of MF DOOM paying homage to the rappers and microphone fiends before him on Madvillainy. Also, “Figaro” is laden with some of the most discussed, cryptic, clever, and relentless lyrical onslaughts on the whole album, so we had to give it a shoutout and look for less traveled paths down its runtime. “O’s beats and my rhymes attack,” he raps at one point, which might be a direct reference to Marley Marl and MC Shan’s “Scratch.” “All these beats with my rhymes attached,” Shan rapped over Marl’s beat, a rapper/DJ duo akin to Madvillain. The lines rhyme, and “O” is Otis Jackson Jr., better known as The Loop Digga, DJ Rels, Beat Konducta, Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet, or simply Madlib.
“Strange Ways”
The ending of “Strange Ways” narrates a downtrodden man after his former partner starts seeing another, more rich suitor. The clip itself uses phrases such as “feeling blue,” “an old flame,” “raining cats and dogs,” etc. Madlib took this audio clip from a 1951 cartoon short film titled Symphony In Slang directed by Tex Avery and written by Rich Hogan. In it, God is trying to understand a man telling his life story in heaven, but interprets his slang sayings literally, as depicted by the animation. Narratively, it also perfectly ties into the story of the very next song on Madvillainy‘s tracklist, “Fancy Clown,” which is about two of Daniel Dumile’s alter egos, MF DOOM and Viktor Vaughn, and how the latter’s girl cheated on him with the former. It’s a seamless inclusion that also points to DOOM’s obsession with language.
Speaking of the late legend’s obsession with language, there’s a line on here that isn’t solely included just to set up a rhyme scheme. “They pray four times a day, they pray five / Who ways is strange when it’s time to survive,” MF DOOM raps on “Strange Ways.” “Five” seems to just set up the “survive” rhyme, but the record’s message centers around authorities taking advantage of their subjects for personal gain, whether it’s police abusing their power or religions and governments waging war on their colleagues. Jewish people pray four times a day on the Sabbath or Shabbat, whereas Muslims pray five times daily. DOOM points out that each religion has its own customs and culture that others will wrongfully try to eliminate or oppress. We shouldn’t be focusing on what makes us different, but rather the common struggles we can help each other with.
“Fancy Clown” ft. Viktor Vaughn
One of the more unnoticeable and obfuscated samples on Madvillainy appears in the first few seconds of the aforementioned “Fancy Clown.” While the actual beat and melody samples something else entirely, Madlib chose to include a song on here that sounds soulful enough to warrant a track of its own, but opted to only use a small part of it. It’s the 1972 song “Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love” by Love Unlimited. The part that the West Coast producer uses is buried beneath the already sampled vocals, melodic elements, and drums; it’s of a group of folks scattering as rain falls. You can hear one voice yell out, “See you tomorrow!” and there’s a pretty good chance that many of Madvillain’s most ardent fans never noticed it in the mix. Or at least, enough to identify it as a wholly different sample.
As for MF DOOM, he gives out a pretty simple reference here, but one that each new year, generation, and fashion trend cycle threatens to bury deeper in the ground. “Matter fact, gimme back my bracelet and my Shearling,” Viktor Vaughn demands of his girlfriend. A Shearling is a wool coat that really took hold of b-boy and b-girl fashion in the 1980s, but nowadays it just sounds like some nondescript clothing item or brand. The idea certainly gets across, but it’s one of the moments on this album that is the most at risk of losing its cultural specificity over time. Clearly, DOOM meant it under a different context than the people who wear Shearlings today.
“Rhinestone Cowboy”
Finally, Madvillainy‘s closing track “Rhinestone Cowboy” provides a discographic history for a Brazilian singer-songwriter and comically self-aware admissions of MF DOOM’s unabashed passion for references, wordplay, language, and humor. Starting with the sample, Madlib actually uses the same artist for the track’s musical sample (beat and melody) and the applause throughout: Santo Amaro’s own Maria Bethânia. The actual beat elements are from 1971’s “Mariana Mariana” off of the album A Tua Presença, whereas the applause is from her song “Molambo” off her record Recital Na Boite Barroco from three years earlier. Looks like Otis was a particularly big fan of Bethânia herself or Brazilian music at large when he was cooking this one up, and that connection across her discography for entirely different elements is a creative homage to the 77-year-old’s catalog.
Then, MF DOOM delivers one of the funniest and most characteristic lines on the LP. “Goony goo-goo, loony cuckoo / Like Gary Gnu off New Zoo Revue, but who knew the mask had a loose screw?” With “loony cuckoo,” we know he’s delusional, and “goony goo-goo” is gibberish from Eddie Murphy’s 1983 stand-up special Delirious. New Zoo Revue was a 1970s kids’ TV show, but Gary Gnu is from a 1980s children’s show called The Great Space Coaster. DOOM’s mix-up proves his “loose screw”: he’s as “cuckoo” as a character being from the wrong TV show. The villains love to make fun of their own jokes, as it’s just another excuse to string more words and sounds together in masterfully creative and fun ways. This humility makes Madvillainy an infinite source of hip-hop craft, sonic wizardry, linguistic transformation, and immersive, curiosity-rewarding knowledge.
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