Happy 15th Anniversary to Quasimoto’s second studio album The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas, originally released May 3, 2005.
Otis “Madlib” Jackson, Jr. is one of the best and most accomplished producers working today. First as a member of the Lootpack, he helped establish the Los Angeles underground hip-hop scene. As a producer, the Oxnard, CA native is a trailblazer, helping build the foundation for the Los Angeles beat scene. He has collaborated with artists like Jay Dee, MF DOOM, and Freddie Gibbs to create some of the greatest albums of the last two decades.
Madlib is a prolific artist, often recording and releasing music under many identities. He released multiple projects as Yesterday’s New Quintet, a jazz fusion ensemble where he played all the instruments. As DJ Rels, he released Theme For A Broken Soul (2004), his take on the London broke-beat scene. And this just scratches the surface. Truthfully, some of his best “solo” releases have come under the guise of a bi-pedal aardvark named Quasimoto.
Madlib created Quasimoto by pitching up his vocals and transforming himself into a helium-voiced cartoon. He first started using the “Quasimoto” guise on Lootpack’s Soundpieces: Da Antidote (1999) and began recording dozens of “solo” tracks under the alias. He released The Unseen in 2000, an appropriately weird and creative experience.
The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas, released 15 years ago, is even more out there than his debut, and possibly just a little better. It’s a bit of a challenge to nail down what, if anything, Madlib is trying to “say” through Quasimoto. Lord Quas does sort of represent Madlib’s proverbial unchecked musical Id. As a rapper, Madlib is a bit more introspective in his Quasimoto persona. He’s a little rougher around the edges than Madlib, and that’s reflected in both his lyrical content and musical approach.
Madlib has never really played it safe as a producer, but he takes things even further to the left with Quasimoto’s sophomore project. He uses a mix of soul, funk, jazz, reggae, and other international records and stretches and morphs them into almost unrecognizable shapes, while still maintaining their grooves. The album runs a whopping 26 tracks deep, not including uncredited interludes, and right around an hour and five minutes in length. However, most of the compositions are relatively short statements; many hover around two minutes and thirty seconds.
Quasimoto re-announces himself as a “bad character” on the album opening “Bullyshit,” “scalping old folks with butter knives” and punishing those who dare use his bathroom by “roll[ing] my toilet paper on poison ivy leaf.” He delivers some solid braggadocio throughout Further Adventures, notably on “Strange Piano,” where the “pied piper in a helicopter” gives one of his best performances over an appropriately odd piano loop.
Madlib creates a comparatively Spartan aesthetic on “1994,” which has him and Lord Quas trading short verses over a simple percussion sample, along with occasional guitar licks and horn blasts. “Enter in the palace, we roll wide like a chalice,” Quasimoto raps. “Tascam villains, gonna hurt your feelings.”
Melvin Van Peebles was always the muse for the Quasimoto albums. The elder Van Peebles is an artistic genius and Renaissance man. He’s probably best known for his directorial work, helming acclaimed films like Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song a.k.a. the first Blaxploitation flick. However, he is also an accomplished actor, playwright, painter, novelist, and musician. His visual and musical creations are known for their politically and socially incisive commentary on race and class in the United States.
Madlib primarily draws inspiration from Van Peebles’ spoken word releases, though he’s also clearly a fan of the soundtracks to his stage-plays. Madlib incorporated Van Peebles’ vocals prominently throughout The Unseen and follows suit on Further Adventure. Van Peebles “appears” on eight of the album’s tracks. He’s like a third vocalist on the album; Madlib/Quasimoto dub him “Willie.”
One of Madlib’s greatest strengths as a producer has always been integrating the source material from a sample into the fabric of his songs. On Further Adventures, he seamlessly integrates Van Peebles’ vocals into the DNA of songs like “Bus Ride,” “Bartender Says,” “Hydrant Game” and “Chippin’.”
Madlib/Quasimoto vacillates between feeling jaded about the rap industry and expressing love towards hip-hop music itself. “Players Of The Game” is a look at the perils of working as a professional rapper, as both detail the drag of the touring grind, suspect music critics, unappreciative fans, and phony peers. On “Another Demo Tape,” the two grouse about being inundated with wack demos from seemingly hundreds of aspiring rappers. In another example of Madlib expertly manipulating his source material, he adds extended vocals from Albert Ayler’s “Island Harvest” in between the short verses.
At other times, Quasimoto and Madlib profess great zeal for their love of hip-hop music. “Raw Deal” finds the pair on the run from police, scrambling through the streets in order to escape arrest for distributing dope hip-hop music. Meanwhile, “Rappcats Pt. 3” features Madlib and Lord Quas shouting out their favorite emcees, DJs, producers, crews, from the well-known to the obscure. The likes of Beatmaster Clay D and Maestro Fresh Wes get love along with the likes of Public Enemy and Dr. Dre.
Occasionally, Madlib harkens back to Quasimoto’s earlier releases on Further Adventures. “J.A.N.” a.k.a. “Jive Ass N****s” is a sequel to Unseen’s “M.H.B.” (“Money Hungry Bitches”). Here Quasi and Madlib skewer fake people over a sped-up vocal sample. Meanwhile, “Fatbacks” is a parody of Showbiz & A.G.’s “Fat Pockets,” with Madlib transforming the song into a dedication to fat asses. The song is a throwback to the some of the earliest Quasimoto releases, including “Broad Factor” (as in Skillz’ “No Factor”) and “Hitting Hooks” (a send up of Biz Markie’s “Picking Boogers”).
Madlib has long used his music to express his love for marijuana, and, unsurprisingly, Further Adventures is littered with references to partaking in the sticky herb, as well as other “natural” substances. Some entries, like “Greenery,” are unique in that they create the aural sensation of being high. “Shroom Music” is as trippy as the title suggests, with Quasi and Madlib musing about tripping (and wrestling with their appetites) over distorted sounds and squeals, along with what sounds like a clicking metronome.
Quasimoto does draft some guests for Further Adventures. “Closer,” featuring MF DOOM, is a highlight of the album and would have been one of the best songs on Madvillainy (2004), the classic collaboration album between the Metal-Face Villain and Madlib. It’s a swirling psychedelic disco composition, filled with ghostly vocals and a sublime bassline. DOOM is in vintage form, rapping, “He say these Black Negros is crazy / Hey, these wack trees don’t even phase me / Part of a new race / Chrome face 24-7 stay screw face.”
Frequent Madlib collaborator and Oxnard native M.E.D. (a.k.a. Mr. Medaphor) drops a solid verse on “The Exclusive,” the smoothest track on the album. M.E.D.’s rugged delivery complements the soulful string sample quite well. “Raw Addict, Pt. 2” doesn’t feature a guest per se, but is a bit of anomaly, as the song is essentially a Madlib solo track. It’s also a sequel to a bonus track from Jaylib’s Champion Sound (2003) and is the closest the album comes to a traditionally structured hip-hop track.
The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas is essentially the final Quasimoto album. Madlib released Yessir Whatever (2013), a compilation of B-sides from singles Quasimoto had released over the years. This was followed up by one final 12-inch offering, “Talkin’ Shit” w/ “Planned Attack,” about a year later. Though Madlib rarely includes Quasimoto’s vocals on his current endeavors, he remains a mascot to his music, and of his Rappcats imprint in general; he appears on the cover of Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Bandana (2019), riding a zebra.
Madlib doesn’t do much rapping anymore, as Quasimoto or himself, focusing his energy on production. And drinking wine. Maybe he just doesn’t have anything to say anymore as an animated aardvark, or maybe he doesn’t need to create an alias to be an experimental producer. Further Adventures really pushed boundaries of traditional hip-hop production, but it's never a chore to listen to. Madlib might not need to revisit this territory, but it was central to his development as a legend.
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