Madlib Speaks on 'Madvillainy' Sequel

Sitting down with Tim Noakes at DAZED Digital for brief Q&A, legendary hip hop producer/rapper Madlib took the opportunity to address a number of pertinent topics, one being the long-delayed sequel to he and DOOM‘s 2004 collaborative-classic, Madvillainy. According to Madlib, the two talented musicians have already started working on the project, and just need to make sure the right tracks are created for the final project.

Dazed Digital: You and DOOM just played on the same bill in Manchester. Will you release the sequel to Madvillainy in time for its tenth birthday?

Madlib: I’m about to go see him right after this and figure that out. I’m not forcing him to do it. He doesn’t even have to do it; I just want to know where we are at with it because we recorded like, 10, 13 songs, but out of those we probably only used 4, so I want to see how the recordings are going. It’s not close to finished because it has to be a continuation of the last one. It doesn’t have to be better or worse but it has to be a continuation.

DD: You made Madvillainy in the same period as Champion Sound with Dilla. How do you look back on that era?

Madlib: That was the favourite time of my life. We were just musical cousins – there wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on because we already thought the same. Just a whole lot of handshaking and eye contact. When Dilla was healthy it was crazy. When he moved to LA we hung out every week, went to clubs, acted crazy, got drunk. I think about him all the time. I always bump his music.

Noakes and Madlib also spoke on taking more money to go “Pop,” growing up in his hometown of Oxnard, turning 40 and The Beat Konducta even offered his recommended snacks to consume while listening to his music. Down below you can check out a few more questions from the interview, and for those looking to read the entire Q&A, be sure to click here.

DD: Have you ever been tempted to take a big cheque to produce a pop star, like Dilla did with Janet?

Madlib: Money’s cool but it’s not all about money. If it was all about money I’d be doing that other thing. But they don’t really come at me, the big cheques don’t really come, I just live comfortable.

DD: You once said that you’ve only released 30% of the music you’d made. How much of the remaining 70% of music is actually worth releasing?

Madlib: Oh, a lot of it. I think if I recorded it down and left it on tape then, yeah. It’s not for everybody to get. Ten people are going to like that one and not that one. That’s how it’s supposed to be.