On this day, March 23, in hip-hop history...

2004: On March 23, 2004, hip-hop duo Madvillain, consisting of rapper MF Doom and producer Madlib, dropped their debut collaborative album, Madvillainy. An innovative and unabashedly different duo on the the hip-hop scene, Madvillain created an eccentric, anti-commercial brand of hip-hop with this album, one that railed against everything mainstream hip-hop music stood for. For this reason, Madvillainy is hailed amongst the greatest hip-hop album's of the new millennium.

In 1999, Los Angeles-based producer Madlib listened to MF DOOM's first full-length LP, Operation: Doomsday, and was thoroughly impressed with the masked Long Island MC. In 2002, Madlib and MF DOOM met at the Stones Throw Records headquarters in Los Angeles, and the rest was history. Madlib's classic-yet-abstract, sample-driven production served as the perfect backdrop for DOOM's free-flowing lyricism. This is the album that put the duo on everyone's radar, hip-hop purist or not. Both DOOM and Madlib's profile loomed larger after this, and both began to get more of the respect they rightfully deserved.

The duo released Madvillainy and though it didn't soar commercially, debuting at 179 on the Billboard 200, the album was greeted with universal acclaim from their hip-hop fans and critics alike. In 2010, Rhapsody ranked Madvillainy as the No. 1 hip-hop album of the decade. The album was ranked 13th in Pitchfork's list of the top 100 albums of 2000-04. Any true hip-hop fan should definitely to take a listen to this experimental landmark album.