A Book About MF DOOM & Madlib’s ‘Madvillainy’ Album Is Coming

A book about MF Doom and Madlib’s 2004 album Madvillainy is being published by 33 1/3 Books.

The legacy of MF DOOM lives on in an upcoming book from the 33 1/3 series. On Tuesday (November 1), the book imprint and DOOM’s former record label Stones Throw Records, announced that a book centering DOOM and Madlib’s 2004 album Madvillainy will release next March. The album, which was executive produced by Madlib, was also an introduction to the Madvillain superduo.

Written by author and journalist Will Hagle, the 152-page book will feature interviews with people involved in the album’s creation, and will also be told from the perspective of three fake journalist superheroes. The official description for the book said it “blends fiction and non-fiction to celebrate Madvillainy not just as an album, but as a folkloric artifact. It is one specific retelling of a story which, like Madvillain’s music, continues to spawn infinite legends.”

MF DOOM died on October 31, 2020, although his wife Jasmine confirmed his death on December 31 of that year in an Instagram post. In a 2021 interview with NPR Music show Sound Ancestors, Madlib confirmed that he learned of DOOM’s death through social media when “everybody else did.”

“His family’s very private, so they probably didn’t know how to approach that one. I still can’t believe that he died. That’s weird,” he said.

To commerate the two-year anniversary of DOOM’s death, Jasmine penned a heartfelt message on Instagram on Monday, marking his transition as “DOOMSDAY.”

“It is tears of joy of having the pleasure to have been with the man whom many call DOOM, we call him Old Dad. You will always be missed,” Jasmine wrote.

Madvillainy 33 1/3 is available for preorder via Stones Throw Records. This is the second book related to DOOM to be announced this year, with a biography on the enigmatic figure called The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast set to arrive some time in 2024.