Madlib spoke about the death of MF DOOM in a new interview with Piotr Orlov for NPR Music. News of the rapper’s death in October 2020 was announced late last year when Madlib says he also heard about it for the first time. “I found out when everyone found out, on social media,” he said. “His family is very private, so they probably didn’t know how to approach that one. I still can’t believe he died. This is weird.”
The prolific producer, who collaborated with DOOM on the 2004 underground hip-hop masterpiece Madvillainy, said he was in intermittent contact with DOOM last year. “We talked once or twice a year, but it has always been this way. We talked last year and everything looked good, ”he said. “It was mainly me sending beats to him, he rarely sent me things. But yes, we checked, whether it was music or not, talking about our kids or whatever. “
The interview focuses mainly on Madlib’s new album Sound Ancestors, which was organized by the Four Tet and arrives later tonight. Kieran Hebden told NPR that the two considered postponing the launch after news of DOOM’s death surfaced. “When we hear about [DOOM’s passing], it was all completely shocking, ”he said. “Like, maybe we just need to pause everything a little bit. But maybe [releasing Sound Ancestors] it can be a very positive thing to happen in the middle of it. You know, Dilla is gone, DOOM is gone, but Otis [Madlib] is holding on, going strong and not giving up. In fact, he has a new album coming out and continuing to keep the spirit of all that music, the whole style in which the three feel like a kind of super-powerful magical trinity.
News of MF Doom’s death came on December 31 in a statement shared by his wife, Jasmine Dumile. She wrote that the rapper, born Daniel Dumile, had died two months earlier on October 31. The news sparked a wave of condolences and memories, including Flying Lotus, Thom Yorke, Questlove and Tyler, the Creator.
Revisit Pitchfork’s 2014 feature “Searching for Tomorrow: The Story of Madlib and DOOM’s Madvillainy“In the field.