Madlib and MF Doom still set to release ‘Madvillainy 2’
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Madlib and MF Doom still set to release 'Madvillainy 2'

DJ Madlib and the late rapper MF Doom are still set to release Madvillainy 2, the long-awaited follow-up to 2004’s Madvillainy. Almost 20 years have passed since the arrival of the original album, which was well-received commercially and critically. Nearly three years after MF Doom’s death, Madlib has revealed that the album is still under production and in the pipeline. 

MF Doom was confirmed dead on New Year’s Eve 2020. He died unexpectedly at the age of 49, leaving his former collaborator Madlib, with whom he formed the Madvillain duo, to complete work on Madvillainy 2 alone. 

In a recent interview, Madlib confirmed that the album is still coming. Appearing on Hot 97 alongside Talib Kweli to promote their new joint project, Liberation 2, Madlib explained to the host, Peter Rosenberg: “We have like ten joints. [It’s] just not complete.

“It’s more like a demo to me because we didn’t piece it together or anything, and some of them it sounds like he just did one take, and that’s it. [But] I’m gonna finish it. I gotta change a lot of the beats because some of the beats were used also.”

He added that the pair had been working on the follow-up project for nearly two decades, with recording beginning shortly after their first album together. However, progress was slow because MF Doom would only record a couple of songs a year. 

The pair released Madvillainy in 2004 via Stones Throw Records, whose founder, Peanut Butter Wolf, revealed that the follow-up was on the way at the time of DOOM’s death. He was apparently “85% done” with the album at that point. 

“DOOM was always telling me, ‘It’s 85% done, it’s 85% done.’ That was the magic number,” Wolf said on the Juan Ep is Dead podcast.

He continued to recall how DOOM had sent him 11 tracks for the follow-up in 2009, but wanted to hold off on releasing the project until “a few more songs” were finished.