Madvillian, Madvillainy (2004)
So this guy buzzes me the other day, says “What do you make of this record, any good?” And I tell him that Madvillain – the pairing of MF DOOM and Madlib – was golden as far as I was concerned; like a really big deal for me. It arrived when I was about as into hip-hop as I had ever been and I was a Madlib fan – he was everywhere, his fingerprints on so many recordings, so many aliases trailing behind his blaze. And DOOM was just about as good as he had ever been or would ever get on this album and on a couple of his own solo recordings around this time. It was music that transcended the genre, I told him. You didn’t need to be any sort of hip-hop head to appreciate it, and if you were any sort of hip-hop head you’d totally love it. So he replies, “Cool, I have a copy, I’ve never listened to it, I’ll check it out…” And he does. And he digs it. We meet up for lunch a couple of weeks later and he says, “You know what, you can have that album – it’s good! I listened to it a couple of times, but I’ll probably never play it again. And you seemed to be really excited about the mere mention of it. So, it’s yours…” Well, there have been a few great days in my life obviously: Getting married, having a son, finding out that the band Rush was hanging up its soggy proggy boots….And now this!  

Sample Track: Great Day
The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown