Quasimoto

Quasimoto is the utterly bizarre alter ego of production wizard/MC <a href="spotify:artist:5LhTec3c7dcqBvpLRWbMcf">Madlib</a> (born Otis Jackson, Jr.), one of the leading underground producers on the West Coast hip-hop scene. <a href="spotify:artist:5LhTec3c7dcqBvpLRWbMcf">Madlib</a> got his start with the Oxnard, California-based <a href="spotify:artist:2D0NqDyt2R9RVar9MNs8kP">Lootpack</a>, which recorded an acclaimed album, Soundpieces: Da Antidote, for <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stones+Throw%22">Stones Throw</a> label in 1999. At <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a>'s urging, the initially reluctant <a href="spotify:artist:5LhTec3c7dcqBvpLRWbMcf">Madlib</a> subsequently began to concentrate on his Quasimoto side project, with which he'd been experimenting since 1996. Quasimoto's music had a decidedly different flavor: free-associative raps sped up during the recording process to sound like their creator had been inhaling helium, backed by liquid-flowing jazz loops and a heavy stoner atmosphere. <a href="spotify:artist:5LhTec3c7dcqBvpLRWbMcf">Madlib</a> debuted the Quasimoto voice on <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a>'s My Vinyl Weighs a Ton in 1999, and also used it sparingly on the <a href="spotify:artist:2D0NqDyt2R9RVar9MNs8kP">Lootpack</a> album. The first Quasimoto single, Hittin' Hooks, appeared later in 1999, and the Microphone Mathematics 12" began to make <a href="spotify:artist:5LhTec3c7dcqBvpLRWbMcf">Madlib</a>'s mysterious "protégé" an underground favorite. A second 12," Come on Feet, was released in 2000, and the first Quasimoto full-length, The Unseen, followed on its heels. The Unseen was greeted with generally glowing reviews (and some confusion as well), earning comparisons to legendary hip-hop eccentrics like <a href="spotify:artist:7ajUo7DyiAOYvCndGLoJ1u">Prince Paul</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3zFaWPA8Jobgf5egh38KD2">Kool Keith</a>; some critics went so far as to call it a left-field masterpiece. An instrumental version of the album followed later, and as its reputation continued to spread, he returned in 2002 with the three-song, vinyl-only EP Astronaut. The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, the second full Quasimoto record, appeared in 2005 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stones+Throw%22">Stones Throw</a>. Yessir Whatever, a collection of rare tracks and unreleased material from the project, arrived in 2013. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi