Magnolia Thunderpussy

Reviews:

For all his Frankenstein-stitched '80s R&B beats and early '90s Shaolin-raw ambience, there's an odd hint of 1964 about MF Doom. This quality gradually evolved between "The Gas Face," recorded in '89 when he called himself Zev Love X, and "Gas Drawls," from his '99 breakthrough Doomsday. It's not just in Doom's alter-ego references-jet-age icons like his metal-faced namesake or his other alias, Toho monster King Geedorah-but his lyrical style. He burbles like a Cosby without a pause, with the aloof beatnik intonation of Mad Magazine snappy-answer wordplay. This collaboration with underground bebop breakbeat kingpin Madlib puts Doom's four-color newsprint street rhymes where they belong-in front of a '60s New York backdrop where Jack Kirby and Stan Lee sketch storyboards at the Village Vanguard. Madlib's underwater Mingus bass wobbles like the audio track to a faded red-tint super-8, and he mixes in the occasional Stax-Volt strut ("America's Most Blunted") and lounge dirge ("Curls") for extra mod flavor. Lead single "Money Folder" swings the hardest (and weirdest): the midnight horror show electric piano riff that comprises the beat cuts out to make room for a necktie-flailing chase scene hi-hat interlude, then resumes to let Doom's Groucho pimp routine work its stuff ("Don't mind me/ I wrote this rhyme lightly over two or three heinies/ And boy was they fine, g!/ One Spanish, one Black, one Chinese"). In fact, Doom's laidback volleys of complicated yet natural assonance shine throughout. And though only five of the 22 tracks on Madvillainy last longer than 2:30-hardly sufficient space for any real clobberin' time-they're great while they last.

"For all his Frankenstein-stitched '80s R&B beats and early '90s Shaolin-raw ambience, there's an odd hint of 1964 about MF Doom. This quality gradually evolved between ""The Gas Face,"" recorded in '89 when he called himself Zev Love X, and ""Gas Drawls,"" from his '99 breakthrough Doomsday. It's not just in Doom's alter-ego references-jet-age icons like his metal-faced namesake or his other alias, Toho monster King Geedorah-but his lyrical style. He burbles like a Cosby without a pause, with the aloof beatnik intonation of Mad Magazine snappy-answer wordplay. This collaboration with underground bebop breakbeat kingpin Madlib puts Doom's four-color newsprint street rhymes where they belong-in front of a '60s New York backdrop where Jack Kirby and Stan Lee sketch storyboards at the Village Vanguard. Madlib's underwater Mingus bass wobbles like the audio track to a faded red-tint super-8, and he mixes in the occasional Stax-Volt strut (""America's Most Blunted"") and lounge dirge (""Curls"") for extra mod flavor. Lead single ""Money Folder"" swings the hardest (and weirdest): the midnight horror show electric piano riff that comprises the beat cuts out to make room for a necktie-flailing chase scene hi-hat interlude, then resumes to let Doom's Groucho pimp routine work its stuff (""Don't mind me/ I wrote this rhyme lightly over two or three heinies/ And boy was they fine, g!/ One Spanish, one Black, one Chinese""). In fact, Doom's laidback volleys of complicated yet natural assonance shine throughout. And though only five of the 22 tracks on Madvillainy last longer than 2:30-hardly sufficient space for any real clobberin' time-they're great while they last.

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