After the release of the original Madvillain album in 2004, its long-awaited sequel has remained one of the most elusive and anticipated projects in the hip-hop sphere. However, after a long period of silence on the matter, Madlib confirmed in an interview with HOT 97 last week that he is finishing the album, as well as other projects with the likes of Erykah Badu and the late Mac Miller.
Madvillainy is considered one of the most influential albums of all time, with Madlib’s hazy, weed-tinged instrumentals and DOOM’s surrealist, multisyllabic verses laying the path for a generation of artists inspired by the creativity of hip-hop’s greatest eccentrics.
Madlib told Peter Rosenberg that work on the album began immediately after the original was released, but since then only a remix album, a demo tape and a single have been released under the Madvillain name. “We have like ten joints,” the producer told Rosenberg, “it’s more like a demo to me because we didn’t piece it together or anything.” With both Madlib and DOOM continuing to work on various other projects, it was uncertain if we would ever get the sequel album, however, in the wake of DOOM passing in October 2020 his estate has green-lighted the release of posthumous music.
There have been several difficulties stemming from DOOM’s estate that have arisen since the rapper’s death. Egon Alapatt, the founder of Now-Again Records, has been accused by the late rapper’s wife Jasmin Dumile of illegally being in possession of DOOM’s rhyme books. Dumile claimed that there had been several attempts to gain back possession of the books, however as of March 2023 when his estate last requested Alapatt return the books, the situation still remains the same.
Talib Kweli, a longtime collaborator with Madlib who was also at the Hot 97 interview, took to Instagram to call out Egon, listing several accusations about him exploiting artists and describing him as a “lying, stealing, conniving culture vulture”. Madlib and Egon also worked very closely together for several years, but an article by Okayplayer has suggested that the two may have parted ways, possibly due to the accusations made by Dumile and Kweli.