Madvillain – Madvillainy Demos LP

Stones Throw (2024)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Many people have told the story of the Madvillainy demos over the years, they leaked, folks got mad, folks got excited, the album was changed before being released, people loved the new version too.  I don't have anything to add as I wasn't paying any attention to that when it was happening and final released version Madvillainy is not a record that clicked with me as much as others.  

You could say that about MF Doom in general for me.  Though I have come around on him in recent years and have added most of his records to my collection, at the end of the day, I'm still more of a Zev Love X fan.  But again, I've come around and have started to enjoy several of his records.  With that newfound respect in mind, I decided to check out the Madvillainy demos to see if I liked them more than the other version of the album.  And as it turned out, I do.

There's an energy here that I don't hear on the final version.  The beats seem to hit a little harder and the vocals are delivered in a more spirited way.  At least I think so.  Again, I'm not super familiar with the other version, but whether it's the sequencing or the versions of the songs used, this version connects more with me, to the point where I actually bought the record.  There's some meandering instrumentals that don't always land, but as 36 minute long listen, the demos version is tighter and again, just connects with me more than the other.

Madvillainy has always been one of those records that I feel like I should like more than I do based on the opinions of people whose taste I trust.  But this shorter, rougher version?  This is more my bag.

Madvillain – Madvillainy Demos:
https://madvillain.bandcamp.com/album/madvillainy-demos

Czarface & MF Doom - Super What? LP

Silver Age (2021)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Most Wednesdays I write up something about an album from around 1988 - 1994, what I consider to be the best time for hip hop.  Lately I've been finding the occasional record that was released as late as say 1995 that I hear for the first time or rediscover.  Those are momentous occasions.  But today we go even crazier.  This album came out this year.   And I like it.  Will wonders never cease.

Czarface and MF Doom have collaborated on an album before, but Super What? is my first time dipping my toe into that pool.  I've never listened to Czarface before as I knew Inspectah Deck from Wu Tang was involved and I've never been a Wu Tang fan to be honest.  As far as MF Doom goes, I love his work with KMD from the 90s, but his other work is more hit and miss for me.  I'm not sure what made me go take a listen to this new release, but I'm glad I did.

My biggest beef with modern hip hop is that I find the beats to be weak and uninspired.  I can't really get down with minimalism in hip hop as I need the big bass lines and boom bap snare cracks to connect.  Super What? has the sort of production work that I really can get behind weaving in classic 90s vibes that Czarface (mostly) and MF Doom (here and there) lay down colorful verses and interesting rhyming patterns.  You're going to get my attention if you drop a lyric about pro wrestler Orange Cassidy.  It's a short album, maybe even too short.  But the quality that they maintain from start to finish is quite astounding.

Not only is this the best new hip hop album I've heard in years and years, I'm impressed enough that I plan on seeking out some other Czarface albums to see if this was a one off anomaly, or if there's finally new hip hop I can pay attention to.

Czarface & MF Doom - Super What?:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYAXEFn5fxMQqqZ2huvNamnAgxqUaLgdQ