The deaths of DJ Train and Eazy-E would however prove to be a huge setback and Ren stepped off the scene for a while.

Following his return from Egypt, MC Ren continued to work on his album, this time however scrapping all the material he recorded with DJ Train.

Enlisting Cold 187um and Dr. Jam to produce his album, Ren began recording new material.

While making The Villain in Black, MC Ren was closely affiliated with the Nation of Islam, which had a large impact on the some parts of the album's content.

The album titles is a reference to MC Ren's nickname, The Villain.