Top Albums of The Decade #14
Quasimoto – The Unseen (2000)
J Dilla and Madlib are like brothers from another planet. Both eschew overproducing their music and making anything sound too clean. Warped vocal sample? Leave it in. Scratchy drum break? Rhyme over it. Both work at breakneck pace and have a seemingly endless output, moving on quickly to new projects with hardly any time to look back. The similarities end there however. While Dilla is the masterly producer’s producer, Madlib is the erratic, perpetually-stoned oddball. Like Sun Ra to jazz and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry to dub, Madlib brings a dose of eccentricity and unpredictability to hip-hop without being overtly tongue-in-cheek or gimmicky.
The Unseen best typifies Madlib’s anything-goes but strictly crate-diggin’ aesthetic. ‘Return Of The Loop Digga’ for instance has him rapping about how, “Some niggas be samplin’ the same ass shit / Some niggas be loopin’ up them played out hits,” and striving ‘to create some way out other shit that you ain’t heard yet’. For the most part though it’s Madlib’s helium-voiced compatriot Quasimoto who takes on mic duties with stories of mischief, getting high and mostly just being an unpleasant individual. From ‘Bad Character’: ” I’m always lookin’ under some girl’s dress / With a vest, cause some ducks wanna put me to rest / Now I’m a soldier in the town drinkin’ Butterfly Snapple / I walk around the streets passin’ out poisoned apples.”
Who exactly is Quasimoto anyway? Madlib and Quas are intrinsically linked (more than you may realise), but according to the Stones Throw website, “.. 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.” Go figure that out.
‘Bad Character’
‘Return Of The Loop Digga’