MF DOOM’s Posthumous ‘Madvillainy 2’ Still on the Way, Madlib Confirms

Madlib and Talib Kweli’s recent media tour has brought about some intriguing insights this week. After announcing that he has a collaborative album with the late Mac Miller that is still in the works, the iconic Madlib revealed that he’s also still cooking up the sequel to his and MF DOOM’s classic joint LP.

On Wednesday (March 29), Kweli and Madlib visited the Hot 97 radio show for an interview. Promoting their recent collaborative project, Liberation 2, the duo’s conversation came just two days after they joined the Sway in the Morning radio show as well.

During their discussion with Hot 97’s host Peter Rosenberg, Madlib discussed his fallen friend MF DOOM, and how he still plans to put together and release their tape, Madvillainy 2.

“The second one is just not complete, it’s more like a demo to me,” he said. “We didn’t piece it together or anything. Some of (the songs) sound like he just did one take and that’s it, you know what I mean? I’m gonna finish it, though. I gotta change a lot of the beats because some of the beats were used also. Half of the beats have been used already.”

Later, Madlib confirmed that he and DOOM had been making songs for the project since the first rendition of Madvillainy came out in 2004. Widely regarded as his most impressive and beloved album in his career, MF DOOM’s death in late 2020 led many fans to revisit his LP with Madlib.

When speaking about DOOM’s death, which was publicly announced two months after it happened, Madlib explained that he learned about it when the public did. “I found out the way everybody else found out,” he said on Hot 97. “Nobody called me or nothing, I thought it was a joke for a couple weeks. But we were in contact about a month earlier than that so I thought I was gonna see him again.”

Overall, Madlib says his vault of music contains nearly 10 different projects with MF DOOM. While it is unclear which of the others he intends to release, if any at all, it’s reassuring to hear that DOOM’s most celebrated album will get a sequel, eventually.

Photo by Ross Gilmore/Redferns