Madlib created most of the instrumentals during a trip to Brazil in his hotel room using minimal amounts of equipment: a Boss SP-303 sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck.

Soon after, Stones Throw Records managed to collect the money necessary to pay Doom and a contract to the label was signed, which was written on a paper plate.

Even though Stones Throw booked Doom a hotel room, he spent most of the time in Madlib's studio, based in an old bomb shelter in Mount Washington, Los Angeles.

When the duo was not working on the album, they were spending free time together, drinking beer, eating Thai food, smoking marijuana,[9] and taking psychedelic mushrooms.

[13] Madlib also went crate digging during his time in Brazil, searching for obscure vinyl records he could sample later, with fellow producers Cut Chemist, DJ Babu, and J.Rocc.

Most of the album,[14] including beats for "Strange Ways", "Raid", and "Rhinestone Cowboy", was produced in his hotel room in São Paulo, using a portable turntable, a cassette deck, and a Boss SP-303 sampler.

Additionally, the label also requested the duo make a proper ending for the album, forcing them to rent a studio for the recording of "Rhinestone Cowboy".

[13][22] Sam Samuelson of AllMusic compared the album to a comic book, "sometimes segued with vignettes sampled from 1940s movies and broadcasts or left-field [marijuana]-toting skits".

Club compared the album to a buffet, where "Madlib and Doom are interested in throwing out ideas as fast as they have them, giving them as much attention as they need, and moving on to the next thing".

[22] Despite originally featuring a more enthusiastic, excited delivery, the leak prompted Doom to go with a slower and more relaxed flow on the final version of the album.

[29] PopMatters wrote, "You can spend hours poring over the lyric sheet and attempting to grok Doom's infinitely dense verbiage.

If language is arbitrary, then many of Doom's verses exploit the essence of words stripped of meaning, random conglomerations of syllables assembled in an order that only makes sense from a rhythmical standpoint", the critic added.

[21] The Observer stated that "the densely telegraphic lyrics almost always reward closer inspection" and that Doom's "rhymes miss beats, drop into the middle of the next line, work their way through whole verses" allowing for a smooth listen.

I mean, who the hell goes around with a metal mask, what's his story?The photo was created by photographer Eric Coleman at Stones Throw's house in Los Angeles, and edited by Jank.

"All Caps" and "Rhinestone Cowboy" appear on the DVD Stones Throw 101[38] along with a hidden easter egg video for "Shadows Of Tomorrow" as a special bonus feature.

[39] In November 2024, Stones Throw re-released "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Accordion," to their YouTube channel, both remastered by director Andrew Gura from the original files to 4K resolution.

[40] An instrumental version of the album was released in 2004 only in vinyl format and digitally through various online stores, with the tracks "The Illest Villains", "Bistro", "Sickfit", "Do Not Fire!

[50] Alternative Press praised Madvillainy as "all invention and no indulgence",[49] while HipHopDX dubbed it an "experimental, eclectic, raw, spontaneous" classic.

[24] Mojo praised the album, calling it "a symphony of such densely constructed chaos" and noting that "Madvillainy's very opacity is part of its brilliance".

[12] Q called Madlib "the most innovative beatsman since Prince Paul", who created "an oddball, cartoon-heavy backdrop for MF Doom's mellifluous wordplay".

[52] Rolling Stone described Madlib's tracks as, "fuzzy and crackling with dust", and praised MF Doom, whose flow was commended as "a particularly elegant slur, with syllables spreading over a beat, not crisply adhering to it".

[59] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times called it "a delirious collaboration" and hailed MF Doom as a rapper who "understands the deformative power of rhyme" and "delivers long, free-associative verses full of sideways leaps and unexpected twists".

[62] PopMatters positioned it at number nine on their list of the 100 best albums of 2004, commending MF Doom's "royal, pop culture-laden flow" and Madlib's "beat-mining expertise".

[63] Spin ranked it number 17 on their list of the 40 best albums of 2004, praising Madlib's production, "thick, woozy slabs of beatnik bass", that "keeps things hotter than an underground volcano lair".

[65] In The Village Voice's annual poll Pazz & Jop, which combined votes from 793 critics, Madvillainy was ranked number 11 on the list of the best albums of 2004.

[72][73] HipHopGoldenAge ranked it first in their list of the Top 150 Hip Hop Albums of the Decade, calling it "a perfect example of what can happen if two left-field geniuses combine powers.

"[88]Pitchfork also ranked Madvillainy as the 25th best album of the 2000s, describing it as "a preternaturally perfect pairing of like-minded talents" who "have each been responsible for tons of great, grimy underground hip-hop".

[93] Spin ranked it number 123 on their list of the 300 best albums of the past 30 years (1985–2014), calling it "a genius cross-pollination of seemingly divergent styles".

[97][98] Among some of them are rappers Joey Badass, the late Capital Steez, Bishop Nehru, Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt,[9] Danny Brown,[99] Kirk Knight,[100] producer and rapper Flying Lotus,[101] producer and DJ Cashmere Cat,[102] neo soul collective Jungle,[103] indie rock band Cults,[104] and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke.

[111] In 2024, Marvel comics released Doom #1, which opens with the line "living off borrowed time, the clock ticks faster," in direct reference to the track "Accordion".