Hip Hop and Breakz

It was 1999 and although we had heard rumours of this entity called Quasimoto and even heard him on the Lootpack album we were unsure of what exactly he was. Was he a rapper in his own right or was he Madlib on helium ? The names Quasimoto and Madlib have been linked since the Soundpieces album that we first heard him on. Yet they’ve never been seen in the same room together. In fact, Quasimoto’s never been seen in the same room with anyone – he’s The Unseen as his debut album's title told us. But you can hear him - and there’s no mistaking his voice. The rumour goes that Peanut Butter Wolf first heard him on a dusty old tape, one of Madlib’s infamous beat tapes – the kind he’d make to listen to himself or pass around to the Likwit crew. Madlib and Quas had been up in Oxnard, CA, making music for years without the slightest intention of releasing it to the masses. Wolf got it out though – after some begging and pleading, and after signing a contract with Quas vowing not to revea...

It was 1998 and although the name Madlib had been known to underground heads since Tha Alkaholiks superb Coast II Coast album where he had produced the smoking WLIX no one had even the slightest idea how Madlib would go on to become a musical Juggernaut who would drive through genres with more aliases than Carlos the Jackal over the next decade. He went on to produced on the Alkaholiks' follow up album, Lkwidation in 1997, he secured himself and the rest of Lootpack a slot in the Likwit crew. But it was The Lootpack's debut album in 1998; Soundpieces: Da Antidote that really allowed Madlib to show just how creative he could be. The album was a success and allowed Madlib to introduce his style of bass heavy, Jazz and obscure sampling production. Not to mention a certain Quasimoto, my favorite of all his aliases. It was a long album, 22 full track to be exact and 2 or three interludes. Although Stones Throw had already shown themselves to be the best indie label on the Left C...