Will Madvillainy 2 Ever Come Out?

Few albums have achieved the cult status and enigmatic allure of Madvillainy. Likewise, not many albums are as anticipated as the long-awaited follow-up album, Madvillainy 2. The brainchild of Madlib and the late MF DOOM, the first album is a collaborative masterpiece that defied convention and continues to inspire. It’s no surprise fans have patiently waited, hoping and praying for Madvillainy 2 to drop. However, so far, the sequel album has eluded listeners even though its creators have said it exists. 

Madvillainy turns 20 on March 18th, 2024, so evidently, fans have been waiting quite a while for Madvillainy 2. Following the unfortunate passing of MF DOOM in 2020, however, the optimism is slowly waning. Since Doom's death, more and more fans have been left wondering if the album will ever be released. While some have completely lost hope, there is still a slight chance that listeners will get to experience Madvillainy 2 sometime in the future. Here are the updates the duo has given us about the album over the years.

On March 24, 2004, the supergroup Madvillain released their critically acclaimed debut album Madvillainy. It remains their sole album and it is widely regarded as a classic in Hip Hop circles. Fans have clamored for a continuation of the musical gem, and for a while, they were met with silence. However, in 2009, they finally received some very exciting news about Madvillainy 2. Stones Throw, the label that released Madvillainy, announced that the duo would reunite on the sequel album. Although no timeline for release was given, this news was enough to keep fans going.

Subsequently, in late 2011, fans got another update about the possible release of Madvillainy 2. During an interview with the Red Bull Music Academy in November 2011, MF DOOM spilled the tea. The rapper shared that he and Madlib had been working on the album for a while and that it has been nearly done for about two years. Although he didn’t give a specific date for the album’s release, he did say that it should be out “soon.” According to DOOM, he wasn’t done with his part on the album, at the time. However, he disclosed that he would probably finish his part on Madvillainy 2 sometime in January 2012.

January 2012 went by, and fans hoped that meant that DOOM had finished with his part on Madvillainy 2. Many diehard fans who had seen the Red Bull interview were confident that a release date would finally be announced sometime soon. However, that was unfortunately not the case. After hearing nothing from Madvillain, fans finally got the next update about Madvillainy 2 in September 2012. During an appearance on Benji B’s late-night BBC Radio 1 show, which he co-hosted, DOOM shared that he only had to “touch up a couple of tracks” on the album. The rapper then said that there was still a possibility that the album would drop in late 2012. According to him, it depended on when Madvillain’s label, Stones Throw, would choose to release the project.

On January 9, 2014, Dazed published their interview with Madlib. Among the many things the DJ and producer spoke about, Madvillainy 2 was arguably the most exciting for fans. However, the news he shared about the album was not exactly what fans had hoped they would hear. When Madlib was asked about the album, he admitted that it was yet to be completed.

“I’m not forcing him to do it. He doesn’t even have to do it,” Madlib said referring to DOOM. “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,” he added.

Apparently, the album was 85% done, according to Stones Throw Records founder, Peanut Butter Wolf. In a 2021 interview with Pete Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds on the Juan Ep Is Dead podcast, Wolf explained that DOOM submitted 11 songs for Madvillainy 2, though he wanted to add a few more records. "DOOM was always telling me ‘It’s 85% done, it’s 85% done.’ That was the magic number,” Wolf said, though he eventually began growing impatient. "I got a little frustrated, and I was just like, you know, ‘It’s gonna happen when it’s gonna happen.’ I don’t wanna be the guy to force creativity or anything." However, he admitted that he wasn't sure if those songs would ever see the light of day.

In March 2023, Madlib made an appearance on Hot 97 with Talib Kweli to promote their joint album, Liberation 2. While the aforementioned project was the primary reason for the interview, Madlib did give fans a new update on Madvillainy 2. This was several years after DOOM’s passing, and many fans had lost hope that the project would be released. However, Madlib successfully revived the excitement in the hearts of some fans.

“It’s more like a demo to me because we didn’t piece it together or anything and some of them it sounds like he just did one take and that’s it. [But] I’m gonna finish it. I gotta change a lot of the beats because some of the beats were used also,” he said. While there still is no release timeline or specific date, that’s a very clear confirmation from Madlib that Madvillainy 2 is still on the way. It may arrive later than we’d hoped it would, but according to Madlib, the album will come out sometime.

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