was the year's best-reviewed rap album and third highest reviewed album overall, according to the website. It also was the second most acclaimed rap album at the time of its release, behind Outkast's Stankonia. Sam Samuelson of AllMusic wrote that album's strength "lies in its mix between seemingly obtuse beats, samples, MCing, and some straight-up hip-hop bumping" and that "MF Doom's unpredictable lyrical style fits quite nicely within Madlib's unconventional beat orchestrations". Will Hermes of Entertainment Weekly called it "indie rap blowing session by two guys near the top of their game". Alternative Press praised Madvillainy as "all invention and no indulgence", while HipHopDX dubbed it an "experimental, eclectic, raw, spontaneous" classic. Mojo praised the album, calling it "a symphony of such densely constructed chaos" and noting that "Madvillainys very opacity is part of its brilliance". Pitchfork called Madvillainy "inexhaustibly brilliant, with layer-upon-layer of carefully considered yet immediate hip-hop, forward-thinking but always close to its roots", noting that "the samples are smart and never played-out, and the production and rhymes reveal a determined sense of cooperation, as MF Doom spouts off his most brilliant lyrical change-ups and production-conscious playoffs". Q called Madlib "the most innovative beatsman since Prince Paul", who created "an oddball, cartoon-heavy backdrop for MF Doom's mellifluous wordplay". 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". Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine called it "a chameleonic masterpiece that alone validates the artistry of sampler culture". Robert Christgau, writing for The Village Voice, praised the album as "a glorious phantasmagoria of flow". Blenders Jody Rosen called it a "torrid album that marries old-school rap aesthetics to punk-rock concision." Madvillainy also attracted positive reviews from several publications with infrequent coverage of hip hop music. David Segal of The Washington Post called the album "hysterical, [...] perplexing, arresting, thought-provoking or just plain silly". 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". Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker praised the album, noting that "the point of Madvillainy is largely poetic—celebrating the language of music and the music of language" and that while the album's beats are