Quasimoto is a side project of hip hop producerMadlib, from Oxnard, California. Quasimoto is composed of Madlib and his animated alter ego Lord Quas. Lord Quas is known for his high pitched voice, which often interacts with Madlib's regular voice. Quasimoto was conceived one day in the studio, when Madlib decided to rap to his own beats. Madlib did not like the sound of his voice so he decided to slow his recorder down, rap slowly, then speed the recording back up to produce Lord Quas' distinctive high pitched sound. Quasimoto's lyrics frequently address themes such as violence and drug use in a comedic fashion, and the character of Lord Quas has frequently been interpreted as a satirical take on gangsta-rap.
History
, DJ and owner of Stones Throw Records, heard Quas' demo tapes and encouraged Madlib to release more tracks under this alias. Quasimoto was featured on Wolf's My Vinyl Weighs a Ton album in 1998, on the song "Styles Crews Flows Beats." Later, Madlib put out Quasimoto's debut album - The Unseen - in 2000. This album received much praise from underground fans and from mainstream media, making it onto Spin Magazine's top albums of the year list. After the release of The Unseen, Madlib spent the next few years working on different projects such as Yesterdays New Quintet and his album Shades of Blue. Quas re-emerged in 2003, making a few guest appearances, notably on Jaylib's Champion Sound and Madvillain's Madvillainy. Quasimoto officially returned with the vinyl-only Bus RideEP in 2005, continuing his distinctive style of high pitched rhymes and unorthodox samples. In 2005, Quasimoto dropped The Further Adventures of Lord Quas which featured M.E.D. and MF DOOM. The album cover features a reference to Frank Zappa's debut album, Freak Out!, a picture of super-producer J Dilla, and a picture of Wild Man Fischer, who is also referenced in one of the songs. The voice of Melvin Van Peebles is sampled on several tracks from both albums. Quasimoto released their third studio album entitled Yessir Whatever in June 2013, which is a compilation of several previously unreleased works. It collects 12-tracks made by Madlib and Quas over a roughly 12-year period. A few were released on rare and out-of-print vinyl, while a few others are previously unreleased, now mixed and mastered for the first time.
Influences
In an interview, Madlib said that the atmosphere and sound on the Quasimoto albums owe much to the work of Alain Goraguer on the soundtrack of La Planete Sauvage. An early Quasimoto video features excerpts from the film, and the song "Come On Feet" contains a sample from its soundtrack.
