Recording
Doom and Madlib's contract for Madvillain also covered two follow-up albums. [1] Recording sessions began shortly after Madvillainy's release, [9] and Stones Throw announced Doom and Madlib were working on a second album in October 2009. [10] [11] Doom worked intermittently, [9] recording only a song or two a year. [12] According to Stereogum ,Madlib produced Madvillainy 2:The Madlib Remix (2008) in "an attempt to get Doom excited enough to work on a true follow-up", [13] after he grew tired of waiting for him to record. [14]
Doom submitted 11 songs in 2009, but did not want to release them until he recorded more. [15] Madlib and Doom's studios were located in the same building, a former Masonic lodge in Los Angeles, until Doom was denied re-entry to the US and relocated to the UK in 2010. [1] [16] In November 2011, Doom suggested he would finish Madvillainy 2 in two months, and in September 2012, he said he only had to finalize a few tracks. He said a late 2012 release was possible, but it depended on Stones Throw. [11]
In 2013, Madlib expressed doubt that Madvillainy 2 would materialize, as he struggled to maintain contact with Doom after he relocated to the UK. [17] He indicated the release was contingent on Doom recording his verses. [18] Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw's founder, grew frustrated, but "[didn't] wanna be the guy to force creativity or anything ... It's gonna happen when it's gonna happen." [15]
In early 2014, Doom informed Peanut Butter Wolf that he was nearly finished with Madvillainy 2 and preparing to submit it. Peanut Butter Wolf posted a screenshot of Doom's email on Instagram; this angered Doom, known for his reclusiveness, and he did not send any music. [1] That year, Madlib said he would not force Doom to see Madvillainy 2 through: "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 four... 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". [11] Pitchfork reported that most of Madvillainy 2 was stored on Doom's hard drive in London. [1]
In 2019, Doom told Spin that he had recorded enough material with Madlib for multiple albums, and that he was waiting to release Madvillainy 2 until he felt the time was right. [19] It remained unreleased when Doom died in 2020. [15] Peanut Butter Wolf recalled that Doom always said he was "85% done", [15] and Doom's frequent collaborator Kurious said he may have finished recording before his death. [20] In 2023, Madlib said he would finish Madvillainy 2, which comprised around 10 songs. He still considered it a demo, as he and Doom "didn't piece it together or anything and some of them it sounds like [Doom] just did one [vocal] take". [9] Madlib plans to redo many instrumentals, as some were used in other tracks. [9]