Madvillain – Papermill

Madvillain is a force to be reckoned with, even almost 7 years after Madvillainy changed the way we look at Hip-hop. The sheer lack of material by the dynamic duo isn’t that obtuse considering Doom’s usual propostorous amount of output being put on hold for unknown reasons and Madlib out offering free street-cred, most recently to Action Hank look-a-like Guilty Simpson.

However, we find the two back again but with Adult Swim, masters of oddly idiosyncratic musical manifestos, making “Papermill”, the second track released for the upcoming Adult Swim mixtape, sound a lot more like Dangerdoom than Madvillain. It’s not just Adult Swim’s ominous presence that brings back flashes of Doom and the Mouse’s one-night stand, it’s the flow of the track itself.

Doom spits out lyrics like a high-speed locomotive, never losing himself, but then again this is the master we’re talking about. However, he does sound almost like he’s trying to get out everything he has to say in enough time to fill a Schedule Bump slot at 1:30 at night. Madlib samples, of all things, the theme to Initial D, making the track an up-tempo blaster that is severly lacking in Madlib’s usual bass-attack, but is still his brand of hazy sample-centric production.

The track sounds great, it’s just a bit of a head-scratcher. It sounds more like Dangerdoom, as previously mentioned, but it has that special brand of quick-wits only Doom and Lib are capable of. Just thank god they’ve still got it, even if it is a bit odd how it comes out sometimes.

Score: B

by Trevor “Oddly offput by the lack of pot references” Johnson