M.E.D. appeared on Madlib and MF DOOM‘s classic collaborative LP Madvillainy nearly 20 years ago – and he allegedly still hasn’t been properly compensated for it.
Formerly known as Medaphoar, M.E.D. appeared on the track “Raid” from the 2004 album. But according to the California MC, he only received $500 in total for his appearance – despite the album selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
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He also alleged that producer Daedelus had gotten his royalties, after his song was sampled on “Accordion.”
“342,648 physical copies. 59,562 digital albums sold,” M.E.D. began. “Yea that’s crazy @stonesthrow [and Stones Throw Records founder] Peanut Butter Wolf lied and tricked me out of royalties and publishing. After 15 years of trying to get it back w no success I found out the[y] gave @daedelus his. Happy for him. I gotta find another approach. More info OTW. I got paid $500 in total [face palm emoji]”
Following DOOM’s passing in 2020, Madvillainy made U.K. history as it became certified silver in Britain (which means 200,000 total album-equivalent units). This marked DOOM’s first time achieving the certification, making it bittersweet that he wasn’t able to celebrate it.
Madlib and DOOM began working on the project in 2002 and the lauded producer created 100 beats in a matter of weeks — some were used on Madvillainy, others wound up on his collaboration album with J Dilla, Champion Sound, while some ended up on M.E.D.’s and Dudley Perkins’ albums.
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After an internet leak, Madvillainy was finally released in 2004 via Stones Throw Records. It achieved moderate commercial success for the label, landing at No. 179 on the Billboard 200 chart – but its impact on the culture would prove to be immeasurable. Earl Sweatshirt once credited the project with influencing his generation the same way Wu-Tang Clan influenced the rappers of the 1990s with 36 Chambers.
There was also supposed to be a sequel, though it never materialized. During a visit to Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg’s Juan Ep Is Dead podcast in the wake of DOOM’s passing, Peanut Butter Wolf discussed the long awaited Madvillainy 2 and broke down the situation with the album over the years.
“Madvillainy 2, DOOM was always telling me, ‘Oh, I’m 85 percent done’ — that was always the magic number, and I was like, ‘This is cool,’” he said. “He basically sent us 11 tracks in 2009 and I was ready to try to just finish it up at that point, and it was always like, just wait for a few more songs, wait for a few more songs, then tracks would start being on other albums. I got a little frustrated, and I was just like, ‘Well, it’s gonna happen when it happens. I don’t wanna be the guy to force creativity or any of that.’
“Over the past few days, I was just thinking of the [A] Tribe Called Quest documentary, where I think it was Chris Lighty was like, ‘Give me the fucking album,’ you know, ’cause otherwise it never would have happened, and that was kinda what happened with us.”
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PBW continued: “So you know, I don’t know what we’re gonna do with those tracks. We were talking to DOOM’s manager Saadiq and Saadiq was basically all with the idea, but we haven’t worked everything out or whatever. I always have weird feelings about doing things after someone passed away.”
