When you think about essential hip-hop records, where does your mind go? For us and many others, underground icons MF Doom and Madlib gave us one of those kinds of albums back in 2004. We are referring to one of the most studied and highly-regarded offerings in the genre's 50-year history, Madvillainy. We recently put up a densely-detailed feature on the crazy samples, references, and bars from Doom and Madlib. We highly encourage you to check that out if you are a huge fan of the record. But we are back to talking about Madvillainy today because it just became certified gold.
According to a tweet from HipHopDX, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) updated the sales numbers on Monday, March 25. That led to them discovering that Madvillainy hit the required 500,000 copies to achieve that mark. What is ironic about all of this is that Doom and Madlib's album turned 20 years old the day before this announcement. If you really think about it, this is a remarkable feat for this album.
Madvillainy Is Still A Hit All Of These Years Later
With how off the wall and experimental it is and dropping well before the streaming era, hitting gold status is wild. Just for some stats, three of MF's 10 most popular tracks on Spotify are from Madvillainy. "All Caps" slots in at fifth with over 146 million plays. Next is "Meat Grinder" right after with 99 million plus. Finally, "Fancy Clown," which sits at eighth has collected over 76.8 million streams.
What are your thoughts on Madvillainy by MF Doom and Madlib going gold? Are you surprised it took this long for a classic record to hit this mark, why or why not? How impressive is this achievement considering when this was released? What tracks are you still bumping from it? Are MF Doom and Madlib the greatest rapper and producer duo ever? Is this the best hip-hop record of all time? We would like to hear what you have to say, so be sure to leave your takes in the comments section. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding MF Doom and Madlib. Finally, stay with us for everything else going on around the world of music.