"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 based on samples of records, it's "hard to say which ones, even in a general way".