madlib, quasimoto, madlib: an independent study
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This is a semester independent study into the creation of personalities and narratives through the use of samples in hip-hop, specifically looking at Madlib's (born Otis Jackson Jr) creation of the Quasimoto persona in the 1990's. Email me: [email protected]TRANSCRIPT
Madlib, aka Quasimoto, aka Madlib
An Independent Study into the Creation of Alternative Personalities and Narratives Through Sampling: A Case Study in Madlib’s Quasimoto.
Raouf B. Grissa
Fall, 2013
Advisor: Tracy McMullen
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Identity: Past, Present, Future
“I had it up to here with the black on black”
-‐ Quasimoto Real Eyes (2000)
The creation of alternative identities within the hip-‐hop genre has presently
led to a plethora of diverse and complex characters, villains, and legends that use
musical and cultural borrowing, or sampling, to create narratives about those
personalities. The importance of creating an identity within hip-‐hop cannot be
understated; it allows the artist to separate itself from the social, cultural, and
political facades to which they are subjugated and enter a new aesthetic framework
of creation where they are limited only by their own imagination and the resources
at their disposal. Hip-‐hop’s prolific creation of identity is, as hip-‐hop scholar Tricia
Rose writes, “a form of reinvention and self-‐definition” (Rose, 193). However, this
diverse and rich flexibility between identities in hip-‐hop does not characterize the
genre’s entire history.
Although hip-‐hop’s origins in the 1980’s and early 1990’s contained a
similarly diverse range in styles, the mid-‐to-‐late 1990’s saw the genre become
increasingly commoditized to the point where there was an expectation to perform
under the guise of a ‘manufactured’ persona of black male identity. This static
identity led to the proliferation of the “gangsta”, a character who had lots of money,
girls, material possessions and a desire for violence, sex, and drugs. The prolific hip-‐
hop producer, DJ, and rapper Madlib, born Otis Jackson Jr., was able to challenge this
proliferated static “character” through the creation of the alter ego Quasimoto, a
high-‐pitched, no holds barred alien being whose voice sounds like he inhaled helium.
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The ensuing paper will go about deciphering the identity found in Madlib’s
Quasimoto, while bearing in mind that there are always multiple readings to be
gleaned from a hip-‐hop listen.
Madlib is able to transgress and subsequently challenge the ‘manufactured
character’ of black male identity inherent in hip-‐hop at the turn of the millennium
through the creation of Quasimoto, “The Unseen”. This argument will be presented
in three parts: the fist looks at how Madlib presents an identity that foregrounds the
marginal – through sounds and imagery – to bring the listener into the ethereal
world of Quasimoto, the ‘Unseen’ character. The second argues that Madlib is able
to confront the static subjectivity intrinsic within characteristic tropes of mid-‐to-‐late
1990’s hip-‐hop through the presence of multiple identities and dialogues within the
‘new Bad Character’ soundscape. Finally, Madlib’s reappropriation of cultural
modes of thought and evasion of the static allow him to create an alternative space
of dynamic creation that allows Quasimoto, and thus Madlib, to collapse the linear
progression of time.
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The ‘Unseen’
“Visualize the soundscape”
-‐ DJ Spooky (2004)
Madlib presents an identity that foregrounds the marginal – through sounds
and imagery – to bring the listener into the ethereal world of Quasimoto, the ‘Unseen’
character. Madlib’s Quasimoto combines the fragmented use of multiple samples
and sounds within a cut-‐and-‐paste aesthetic framework that help to foreground
marginalized sound. His approach to sampling and music creation epitomizes the
mood of his music and his identity at large, which brings the informed listener into
Quasimoto’s “soundscape”. The often-‐ignored “crackle” sound inherent to vinyl
records is a sound foregrounded in almost all of his songs (see: Come On Feet (2000),
Return Of The Loop Digga (2000), Astronaut (2002), Bad Character (2000), and
Shadows of Tomorrow (2004), among others). The foregrounding of marginal sound
not only applies to the crackle of the vinyl, but to Quasimoto’s broader aesthetic
framework. Often, the original sample is lifted straight from its vinyl recording and
only appears for a few bars before disappearing all together. A sample’s single use
creates a location-‐based sound that is exemplified within the larger soundscape.
Two songs that best exemplify this sampling aesthetic are Astronaut and Return Of
The Loop Digga.
Astronaut (2002) opens with a cut-‐and-‐paste snippet from Gianni Ferrio’s La
Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte (1973), the theme song of the movie by the same
name. As the brass and piano reach a crescendo (0:14) the sample fades out and
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does not reappear for the duration of the song. The song transitions into a chopped-‐
up version of John Dankworth’s Return From The Ashes Theme (1965) over a drum
beat. Although this sample is played out for the majority of the song, at (0:56) the
beat temporarily breaks down and another cut-‐paste sample is introduced, that of
Melvin Van Peebles’ You Ain’t No Astronaut (1974). While the aforementioned
sample is vocal, it is nevertheless reappropriated and echoed throughout the song,
through the scratching of the original record (characteristic to hip-‐hop), and
through both Madlib and Quasimoto’s repetition of prominent lines found within the
Melvin Van Peebles song, such as:
‘You ain’t no astronaut’ -‐ but we been out there in orbit, And walk further than the moon, ain’t we? ‘Ain’t we?’ -‐Melvin Van Peebles -‐ You Ain’t No Astronaut (1974)
& Quasimoto -‐ Astronaut (2002) For the sake of remaining focused on an investigation on the aesthetic
qualities of Quasimoto’s sound and image, what this straight reappropriation
implies within the context of the Quasimoto identity will be expanded upon in a
later argument. Another example of the mood that Quasimoto creates through his
cut-‐and-‐paste sampling aesthetic is found in Return Of The Loop Digga, off of
Quasimoto’s 2000 debut, “The Unseen”. Loop Digga can best be described as a
sample infused collage of shifting musical elements. It contains more than 10
individually sampled songs that are often played out for only four to eight bars
before a new sample, a new sound, is introduced and the old is cut out. The song
opens with an unknown horn sample, which is faded out after four bars into
recapitulations of “Yo it’s the Loop Digga, man it’s the Loop Digga, my nigga”
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repeatedly alternated by Madlib and Quasimoto over cut-‐up drum and keyboard-‐
bass samples from Oneness of Juju (1975) and Fragments of Fear (1971),
respectively.
The first verse -‐ by Madlib – echoes the artists aesthetic frame: he describes
his eclectic sampling style and how he strives “to create some way out other shit”, a
sound that is not “sampling the same ass shit” or “looping up…played out hits”.
Things take a turn for the bizarre between 1:08 and 2:02: the listener is thrown into
a soundscape of constantly changing samples and sounds. Seven samples are played
in succession within the span of 45 seconds (for a complete list of samples, see
Appendix A). These constant, rapid, cut-‐and-‐paste shifts in marginally spaced tones,
rhythmic structures, and instruments work to immerse the listener in the sonic
framework that emphasizes the foregrounding of the fringe. The rapid shifts in
samples accompanies an overlaid dialogue between Madlib and a ‘record store
owner’ (this is a slightly pitch-‐adjusted Madlib that is not Quasimoto) concerning
the availability of jazz records and artists such as Simon Cowell’s Strata East
recordings from 1974, Chick Corea’s “Inner Space” (1968) off of Atlantic recordings,
and Grant Green’s Blue Note recordings from 1958. This continuous layering of
multiple sounds creates another dialogue, one between sampled sounds and spoken
words that, together work to deconstruct the identity of the personality. In
Quasimoto’s case, this combined dialogue simultaneously showcases Madlib’s
extensive musical knowledge while, more abstractly; it further immerses the
listener into Quasimoto’s soundscape by bringing them into the action of the
situation -‐ record digging -‐ through imagery and sounds. The multiple dialogues
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and personas that Quasimoto’s music contains is a departure from the centralized,
unitary masculine form of African-‐American males in hip-‐hop that dominated
mainstream radio at the turn of the century. Madlib’s departure from dominant
forms of hip-‐hop through dialogue and multiple personas will be the focus of
discussion in a later section in order to not lose focus of the argument at present, the
foregrounding of the marginal.
The cut-‐and-‐paste sampling technique is not a fault or random coincidence, it
acts as a conscious element of Quasimoto’s “unseen” identity. In both Astronaut and
Return Of The Loop Digga, the sample’s limited use creates a singular, location based
sound that resounds within the listener. A sample’s singular use (especially a well
timed sample) will be foregrounded within the larger sound structure of the song
and subsequently be more noticeable to the listener. The fragmented sample almost
teases the listener, where the introduction of a sample may come just as quickly as
its departure. Joanna Demers (2002) echoes this sentiment, “rather than developing
gradually from the texture, samples can occur only once during the course of the
song. Often a mere guitar riff or drum break is the only clue that a particular song is
being borrowed” (Demers, 67). Madlib’s cut-‐and-‐paste sampling aesthetic works to
bring those isolated samples into the foreground. This cutting and pasting of
layered samples adds an additional textural element to Quasimoto’s already hazy
soundscape. The musical aesthetics elaborated on above work to foreground
previously marginalized sounds. The musical framework that defines Quasimoto -‐
in combination with the soon to be discussed imagery tinged with themes of science
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fiction and cartoons -‐ help to tease apart the origins of the Quasimoto personality,
and works to further accentuate his foregrounding of the marginal.
The discussion now shifts focus from a purely sonic aesthetic framework to
one that combines Madlib’s use of science fiction and cartoon imagery (within the
context of the Quasimoto personality) to further foreground marginal space. The
visual character of Quasimoto is loosely based on characters in La Planète Sauvage
(1973), an animated French-‐Czech stop motion science fiction film. Much of the
soundtrack of the film, composed by French jazz pianist Alain Goraguer, influences
the atmosphere and sound (soundscape) inherent in Quasimoto’s music, as is the
case with Come On Feet off of his debut, “The Unseen”.
The film takes place in a surreal future where humans known as “Oms” live
on an alien planet inhabited by “Traags”, alien beings hundreds of times larger than
the Oms. While some Oms are domesticated as pets (as is the main protagonist of
the film, an Om named Tiva), others are viewed as pests and are exterminated in
events known as “de-‐oms”. The Traags combine poisonous gas in their de-‐oms with
leashed Oms -‐ who wear red gas masks with protruding snouts -‐ used to seek out
‘wild’ Oms (see Appendix C). It is these masked Oms that are the origins and early
depictions of the visual character of Quasimoto.
Although the visual character of Quasimoto has evolved since his early
depictions (see Appendix C), Quasimoto’s reappropriation of the masked Om
reflects Madlib’s adoption of the science fiction narrative. Science fiction, as DJ
Spooky justly points out, “is the literature of alienation, a genre for those who don’t
relate to the world as it currently stands, for those who want to create alternative
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zones of expression” (Miller, 2004). The science fiction narrative allows the
creation of a place where things do not have to be the same. It is a recurring motif in
the music of afrofuturist artists -‐ such as Sun Ra, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Kool Keith, and
as will later be argued, Quasimoto -‐ as it is “an apt metaphor for black life and
history” (Rollefson, 83). Quasimoto’s use of the science fiction narrative can thus be
seen as a reflection and understanding of himself as already having been a robot, a
product of a ‘manufactured’ black past. His subsequent adoption of Quasimoto as an
alien character can be seen as:
…a response to an existing condition: namely, that [blacks] were a labor for capitalism, that they had very little value as people in… society. By taking on the robotic stance, one is ‘playing with the robot.’ It’s like wearing body armor that identifies you as an alien: if it’s always on anyway, in some symbolic sense… [one] could master the wearing of this guise in order to use it against [ones] interpolation.
(Dery, 1994)
The use of interpolation here implies an abrupt shift in musical elements (e.g.
harmony, tone, and melody) from the main theme, a brief ‘corruption’ of the
medium through the insertion of new matter. Although Quasimoto’s musical
aesthetic does just this to emphasize marginal space, these musical shifts are a
reflection of Madlib’s broader aesthetic framework; creating an immersive
atmosphere that mirrors his “unseen” character. As the samples come-‐and-‐go, so
too does Quasimoto himself. Madlib’s larger response to the interpellation of black
males in the 1990’s is echoed through his aesthetic frame. By ‘playing with the
robot’, Madlib, through Quasimoto, is able to use his identity as an “unseen” alien
being to confront the expected perception of black males in the 1990’s. Simply by
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being known as the ‘Unseen’, Quasimoto further foregrounds the marginal by
directly challenging the hypervisibility prevalent in centralized black masculine
forms in hip-‐hop at the turn of the millennium.
Quasimoto, the ‘Unseen’, is always hidden. His recording label, Stones
Throw, has written that Quasimoto has “never been seen in the same room with
anyone…” (Stones Throw, 2013). Quasimoto’s identity as an outside character
seems to parallel that of Quasimodo, the famed protagonist in Victor Hugo’s The
Hunchback of Notre-‐Dame. While the two are both marginalized “unseen”
characters, a key difference between the two lies in the conditions of their
marginalization. Quasimodo is shunned from the outside due to his grotesque
appearance and the constant ridicule that came from it. These conditions forced
Quasimodo’s identity to be tied to an immovable environment, whereby the identity
of the subject remains static. Quasimoto, meanwhile, has the choice and freedom to
be seen but actively acts on the contrary in order to evade the static subjectivity that
would arise from being tied down to one perception of identity. Through the
adoption of the science fiction narrative and ‘taking the robotic stance’, Madlib is
able to foreground the alienated “unseen” character of Quasimoto. The alternative
spaces of expression created through this adoption allows Madlib to create an
ethereal, immersive world where Quasimoto a.k.a. the ‘Unseen’ is the driver and the
listener is along for the ride.
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The ‘New Bad Character’
“My-‐story is different from his-‐story”
-‐ Sun Ra (1980)
Madlib is able to confront the static subjectivity intrinsic within characteristic
tropes of mid-‐to-‐late 1990’s hip-‐hop through the presence of multiple identities and
dialogues within the ‘new Bad Character’ soundscape. Before delving into a full
discussion on how Madlib is able to confront characteristic tropes of 1990’s hip-‐hop
through the Quasimoto identity, it is important to set the stage and understand what
those characteristic tropes were and how the creation of a hypersimplified hip-‐hop
male character allowed for the experimentation of masculine forms and the
emergence of the Quasimoto identity within a broader social and cultural frame.
The end of the 1980’s and onset of the 1990’s saw the emergence of hip-‐hop
as a cultural and social phenomenon that was capable of attaining mainstream
success. The diversity and variability of styles within the broad hip-‐hop genre at the
time was immense. There were styles of rap-‐gangsta that were equally played
alongside party, political, afrocentric, and avant-‐garde styles, each with multiple
substyles of their own. As the 1990’s progressed, the growth in corporate-‐promoted
mainstream hip-‐hop began to dilute the plethora of diverse styles that had emerged
at the turn of the decade. The “social, artistic, and political significance of figures
like the gangsta and street hustler substantially devolved into apolitical, simple-‐
minded, almost comic stereotypes (Rose, 2). These stereotypes, or tropes,
centralized black cultural practice and constrained the identity of black males in
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society to a “predetermined” social framework of identity that remained static. The
most well known tropes in hip-‐hop -‐ dubbed ‘the trinity of commercial hip-‐hop' by
Tricia Rose -‐ include the black gangsta, pimp, and ho. These tropes have been
corporately promoted and socially accepted to the point where they dominate “the
genre’s storytelling worldview” (Rose, 4). The promotion and acceptance of these
tropes in the 1990’s created a uniform, hypersimplified “character” of black male
identity that was constrained to using minimal lyrics, having oodles of material
possessions, and having a lust for violence, sex, and drugs (see artists such as 50
cent and Lil Jon, and more recently artists like 2 Chainz and Soulja Boy).
This static ‘gangsta’ character can be seen as the 1990’s equivalent to the
1970’s pimp depicted within blaxploitation films such as Shaft (1971), Sweet
Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), Superfly (1972), and Cotton Comes to Harlem
(1970), among others. These films portray a black man who uses his style, sex
appeal, and brute force to “negotiate a hostile world beset by racism and random
violence” (Demers, 42). The films often contain caricatured representations of
blacks and whites within an artistic frame centered on sex, drugs, and crime. The
Blaxploitation genre was also noted for the funk and soul music included on the
films soundtracks, a characteristic that is contributed to Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet
Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, a film (and artist) sampled extensively in Quasimoto’s
music (see Appendix A for a full list) (Demers, 44). There are three elements that
explain the genre’s allure within contemporary hip-‐hop music: “its use of theme
songs or anthems, its overt politicization, and its fascination with the ghetto or
‘hood’” (Demers, 48). Musical and vocal samples often evoke images of the
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characters and themes of the films themselves, which helps retain connotation with
the film outside its actual viewing. Within the context of the Quasimoto identity,
Come On Feet best captures this reappropriation through the thematic sampling of
La Planète Sauvage and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
Come On Feet opens brazenly with a vocal sample of Earth Wind &
Fire/Melvin Van Peebles’ Come On Feet Do Your Thing (1971) over a sample from La
Planète Sauvage and a Little Feat drum break. Within Sweet Sweetback, Come On
Feet Do Your Thing plays at a critical point when Sweetback is on the run from the
police. As the film cuts between Sweetback’s flight and surreal effects, the viewer’s
perception of the song becomes connected to his flight. Thus, the overlay of this
song within the context of the movie consequently turns the song itself into a
symbol of flight and resistance from the ‘man’, and is reapplied as such to
Quasimoto’s flight from the police in Come On Feet. This same mode of thought can
be applied to Madlib’s use of the Planète Sauvage sample. The sound – chemical pills
being shot out of a machine – plays at a similarly critical point within the movie,
when the alien Traags are exterminating the Oms in a de-‐om event. The sound here
is attributed to the plight of the Oms as they try to escape from the poison. This
sample within the context of Quasimoto’s Come On Feet is similarly used, akin to that
of running footsteps and subsequently the plight of Quasimoto as he tries to escape
trouble. The ability for thematic samples to be recontextualized within a familiar,
yet new aesthetic framework speaks to the larger notion of reappropriating cultural
and social ideas, that is to say, Signifyin(g), a term coined by Henry Louis Gates to
describe the imitation or repetition of a song or style with a difference or meaning.
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This regenerated sound and meaning, although applicable here, will be expanded
upon in a later argument that emphasizes issues of cultural evolution apparent
within the Quasimoto narrative. At present focus is Madlib’s ability to transgress
the static identity in hip-‐hop tropes through multiple characters and dialogues.
Often, the ‘trope-‐hop’ (hip-‐hop trope) character elaborated upon earlier
speaks directly to the listener with the constraining static subjectivity of “I am” or “I
have” (such as the many recapitulations of “I am rich” and “I have money”). The
listener remains separated from the sound due the “monologue-‐esque” narrative
that these tropes create. Although such hip-‐hop songs often include multiple MC’s
on the microphone -‐ sometimes in dialogue -‐ they remain static by reinforcing the
trope narrative through the music or lyrics. Identity in mainstream hip-‐hop at the
turn of the millennium ultimately became a social cipher, a Mr. Zero character. This
character’s only importance came through those mediating and promoting its own
acceptance within a socially engineered environment. Madlib’s “unseen” Quasimoto
intentionally takes on the trope of Mr. Zero through the creation of a new bad
character that critiques the broader centralization of black male identity through
the presence of multiple identities and dialogues.
Quasimoto’s characteristic helium-‐pitched voice is a direct departure from
even the most basic tropes in hip-‐hop due to its genderless and childlike sonic
qualities. To technically attain this voice, Madlib slows his recorder down, raps
slowly then speeds the recording up drastically, thus creating the high pitch voice of
Quasimoto. This voice critiques hypermasculine forms of black male identity
through its ambiguity towards gender and age and highlights a new subjectivity that
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is “articulated through the electro-‐technological mediation and amplification of the
human voice’s magic” (Rollefson, 88). Often, this voice is either foregrounded in
combination with Madlib’s, or vice versa, Madlib’s voice is foregrounded in
combination with Quasimoto’s (see: Come On Feet, Good Morning Sunshine (2000),
and Real Eyes (2000), among others). The overlaid dialogue in the previously
discussed Return Of The Loop Digga contains three personalities, all voiced by
Madlib: Madlib himself, Quasimoto, and the ‘record store owner’. In Real Eyes,
Quasimoto and Madlib challenge the static gangsta identity explicitly through the
lyrics (a transcription is available in Appendix D) and intricately through the
presence of both personas throughout the song. In Astronaut there is a constant
recapitulation of the lyrics in Melvin Van Peebles’ You Ain’t No Astronaut by
Quasimoto, Madlib, and the Melvin Van Peebles song itself. These vocal tones are
overlaid to the point where the listener is unsure who is speaking and the line
between individuals becomes blurred.
Madlib, like Kool Keith before him (the rapper behind such alter egos as Dr.
Octagon, Dr. Dooom, and Black Elvis, among others), “simultaneously draws upon
the signifying power of stable identities and subverts those identities by
highlighting their caricature status” (Rollefson, 89). The back and forth -‐ and often
combination -‐ of Madlib, Quasimoto, and Melvin Van Peebles’ lines pluralizes their
individual identity and produces an air of confusion for the listener as to who says
what. This confusion is achieved through the creation of a space of dynamic
subjectivity, whereby the manipulation and layering of Madlib’s voice proliferates
the alter ego. This proliferation of the alter ego, or “I be” challenges the
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aforementioned static subjectivity of “I am” by asserting that “I” is a crowd, a
multitude of identities that evades the labeling associated with remaining static
(Eshun, 27). Although these dynamic characteristics of identity act as a departure
from hip-‐hop tropes, Quasimoto is nonetheless considered a ‘bad character’.
He laments that this label is inescapable in the opening two songs of “The
Unseen”, Welcome To Violence and Bad Character. Welcome To Violence, the opening
track, is a sampled version of the intro to the 1965 exploitation film Faster, Pussycat!
Kill! Kill! The ominous opening sound gives way to a rolling baseline over a vocal
introduction to the labeling of “violence, the word and the act”. Within the original
context of the movie, the vocals are inscribing violence and “its favorite mantel…sex”
to “this dangerously evil creation…women”. Within the context of “The Unseen”,
however, the recapitulation of the sample can be seen as inscribing this violence to
black males:
…while violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises, Its favorite mantel still remains sex (sex, sex) Violence devours all it touches, its veracious appetite rarely fulfilled. Yet violence doesn’t only destroy, it creates and molds as well (molds as well)… But a word of caution, handle with care-‐don't drop your guard, This rapacious new breed prowls both alone and in packs... Who are they? (Who are they?)
-‐ Welcome to Violence (2000)
Madlib highlights the inherent tropes in hip-‐hop, “violence”, and its obsession
with the hypermasculine form, “sex”. The subsequent descriptions of “violence” can
be applied to characteristics of the static black male identity at the turn of the
millennium: its “veracious appetite” for violence; it “prowls both alone and in packs”
is paralleled to gangs and gang warfare; and the “word of caution” to the listener to
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not “drop [their] guard” plays upon the white fear of black males instilled and
expounded in mainstream media.
While Welcome To Violence introduces the listener to the “violent” ‘trope
world’ of hip-‐hop at the time, Bad Character introduces the listener to the individual
‘bad character’ label that is applied to Quasimoto. He repeats in the song’s chorus,
“I’m labeled as a bad character/No matter what I do I’m labeled as a bad character”.
The labeling of any object takes away from its complexity and limits its capacity to
be unique, ultimately making the subject static. Quasimoto, and thus Madlib,
challenge that label with the songs first and last lines: “Guess who’s the new bad
character in town”; and a Melvin Van Peebles sample: “I’m the new bad char-‐ac-‐ter”,
respectively. Madlib’s creation of this “new” bad character within the pre-‐existent
labeled framework of ‘trope-‐hop’ parallels Sun Ra creation of “my-‐story” against the
repetition of “his-‐story” in his 1980 jazz film A Joyful Noise, where he argues:
“…My story is different from his-‐story My story is not part of history Because history, repeats itself But my story is endless It never repeats itself Why should it? …Nature never repeats itself Why should I repeat myself?”
(Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980)
Similar to Sun Ra, Madlib challenges the pre-‐existent framework surrounding
black identity through the creation of a dynamically subjective space by which they
are both able to challenge and subsequently collapse the linearity of a
“’manufactured’ black past and equally overwritten white future” (Rollefson, 94).
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Bad Character abruptly ends and the next song, Microphone Mathematics,
begins with an unknown voice that’s “glad you all [the listener] made it to my
show/Hope you enjoy it…” It is difficult to distinguish whether the voice is a vocal
sample or yet another manipulated voice character of Madlib. The “show” that is
introduced to the listener is the rest of “The Unseen”. Madlib quotes and samples a
line from De La Soul’s The Bizness within the hook of the song: “you try ‘keepin it
real’/(yet you should try keepin’ it right)”. Both De La Soul and Madlib are
critiquing the constant need in trope-‐hop to keep it “real”, that is to say confined to
the static, and instead argue the need to “keep it right”, or truly authentic, unique,
and complex. Although the song comes third in the album, the first two songs:
Welcome to Violence and Bad Character work to introduce the listener to the static
world and then identity that Quasimoto subsequently challenges throughout the
rest of the album.
The centralized, commoditized masculine form described previously is not
strictly limited to the Hip-‐Hop genre; it has reappeared throughout 20th century
musical genres including jazz, blues, and rock. The most obvious example occurs in
rock at the turn of the 1960’s, a genre touted as “authentic forms of rebellion,
freedom, technical musicianship and uniqueness” (Stevenson, 29). Rock’s “macho
man” was, as Stevenson writes, “the self-‐indulgence of the masculine playboy”, a
lifestyle filled with drugs, alcohol, and excess (Stevenson, 10). Throughout genres
there was an interpellation to perform under the guise of commoditized male forms.
This constant promotion of a static male figure combined with the erosion of
diversity within a musical style forms a vacuum that allows for the creation of
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musical spaces outside that of the expected male character. David Bowie’s creation
of the Ziggy Stardust persona epitomizes this experimentation of masculine forms
with regard to rock, as it was a brash challenge to the core beliefs of centralized rock.
This experimentation of the masculine also occurred within the hip-‐hop genre in the
mid-‐to-‐late 1990’s. Here, Madlib’s conception of the Quasimoto persona created a
musical space outside the static framework of hip-‐hop tropes which allowed for him
to enter a creative space of dynamic subjectivity where the application of multiple
identities and an almost constant dialogue help to critique the linear repetition of
the static black male identity.
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Identity is not defined by experience, but conceived of as a task
“Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended”
-‐ Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974)
“We strive to create some way out other shit”
-‐ Quasimoto Return Of The Loop Digga (2000)
Madlib’s capacity to transgress static subjectivity through multiple identities -‐
in conjunction with his reappropriation of cultural modes of thought -‐ creates an
alternative space of dynamic creation that allows Quasimoto, and thus Madlib, to
collapse the conception of the linear progression of time. Madlib’s use of dynamic
subjectivity acknowledges that he is not tied down to one identity, and thus, the
creation of identity is conceived of as a task -‐ maintaining an element of constant
fluidity -‐ rather than solely experienced and static to the individual or mediated
through collective forces. The diverse range and constant manipulation of identities
presented throughout “The Unseen” challenge the static through Signifyin(g), which
indulges in an “escapist fantasy…that stresses the present’s connection to, and
disjunction from, the past” (Demers, 70). Signifyin(g) offers listeners a range of
possible readings and associations due to the breadth of social and historical
implications attached to the samples used. The application of these samples not
only regenerates its sound but also reappropriates its meaning and context within a
new aesthetic framework. As was argued, the vocal Melvin Van Peebles sample in
Come On Feet retains its association to the flight of Sweetback within the movie, and
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recontextualizes it within a new frame, that of Quasimoto fleeing from the police.
The samples reappropriated within “The Unseen” allow Madlib “to demonstrate
intellectual power while simultaneously obscuring the nature and extent of [his]
agency”, that is to say, his ability to act independent of mediated musical and
cultural forms (Schloss, 138). Madlib’s application of Signifyin(g) culturally evolved
forms of Blaxploitation and Afrofuturism within the Quasimoto persona further
emphasizes his dynamic subjectivity.
Madlib’s aforementioned creation of a “new ‘bad character’” is essentially an
evolved form of the ‘bad character’ of Blaxploitation films applied and re-‐examined
through a new, sample based aesthetic framework. The capacity for Madlib’s
reappropriated form of the ‘bad character’ to challenge hip-‐hop tropes emanates an
Afrofuturist philosophy, one that evinces African diaspora through a techno-‐culture
and science fiction lens. Afrofuturism acts as “a mode of meaning-‐making and
historical production that navigates, counters, and ultimately transcends the history
of African American oppression while retaining a critical blackness” (Rollefson, 104-‐
5). The Afrofuturist philosophy, which critiques the present while re-‐examining and
revising the past, acted as a departure from “the rigid binary” of blackness and
whiteness to a more dynamic form that was able to rewrite “blackness in all its
complexity” (Rollefson 105). Sun Ra -‐ one of the leading pioneers of Afrofuturism -‐
was well known for his ‘cosmic’ philosophy, which vocalized the ‘manufactured’ past
of black identity as one that's “not their past, it’s not their history” (Space is the Place,
1974). Madlib’s previously mentioned ability to ‘play with the robot’ through the
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Quasimoto alien character acknowledges this manufactured past, and his adaptation
of the alien mirrors that of Afrofuturist artists Sun Ra and Kool Keith, who:
... embody their critique through the sights, sounds, and movements of their interplanetary presences and therefore move past the written rhetoric that has upheld the fallacies of liberty and equality – ‘rising up above what they call liberty and what they call equality’ as Sun Ra put it (Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980)
(Rollefson, 107)
Madlib, within the context of Quasimoto, samples and reappropriates
passages from Sun Ra’s music to exemplify Quasimoto’s connection to a cosmic
philosophy that critiques the linear, static approach to history and identity and
works to create “that way out other shit” that ultimately collapses the paradigm of
linear time. Madlib’s capacity to actualize this “non-‐linear”, endless approach to
history is best seen in Shadows Of Tomorrow (2004), which, through its lyrics and
samples work to trivialize the past, present, and future through repetition,
recapitulation, and critique.
Shadows of Tomorrow is a song off the 2004 “Madvillainy”, a collaborative
album between producers MF DOOM and Madlib, also known as Madvillain. The
song combines the voices of Quasimoto, Madlib, and sampled Sun Ra, which strive to
create an alternative space outside the linearity of time. The song opens with an
unknown vocal sample that is quickly replaced by yet another unknown keyboard
sample that scales down into the beat. The beat is a sampled wind and string
opening to Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon (a song from the 1976 Bollywood
film Maha Chor), over a drum kit. Throughout the two verses by Quasimoto and
Madlib, respectively, the background voice of the other constantly accentuates the
foregrounded voice of the one who is presently rapping (as mentioned earlier). In
Quasimoto’s verse, the listener can pick out Madlib’s voice in the background
panning left and right, echoing the lines of Quasimoto in whispers. Similarly in
Madlib’s verse, a combined deeper and higher voice is heard echoing Madlib’s lines
in whispers. The lyrical content explicitly critiques the past, present, and future, and
those who mediate its linearity:
[Verse 1: Quasimoto]
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Today is the shadow of tomorrow Today is the present future of yesterday Yesterday is the shadow of today The darkness of the past is yesterday And the light of the past is yesterday …Reality is today of eternity The eternity of yesterday is dead Yesterday is as one… …The past is yesterday, today The past is yesterday, today While we’re searchin for tomorrow. [Verse 2: Madlib] …The past is certified as a finished product Anything which has ended is finished That which is perfect is finished The perfect man is no exception to the rule The perfect man of the past is made according to the rule of the past The rule of the past is a law of injustice and hypocrisy The revelation of the meaning of the law is revealed through the law itself The wisdom of the past is the light of the past The light which is to be the wisdom of the future The light of the future casts the shadows of tomorrow
Shadows of Tomorrow -‐ Madvillain (2004) (see Appendix D for full transcription)
Both verses draw upon the signifying power of repeated words such as light,
dark, today, tomorrow, and yesterday to accentuate the subsequent critique of
linear time and issues of blackness and whiteness. Within the first verse, the lines
“the darkness of the past is yesterday/and the light of the past is yesterday” enforce
Madlib’s critique of the culturally rigid binaries of blackness and whiteness, while
other lines within the verse such as “reality is today of eternity/the eternity of
yesterday is dead” set up the second verses later critique of the “past [as] certified
as a finished product” by explaining that the rules and laws of the past (i.e. racism
and sexism) “is a law of injustice and hypocrisy”. Finally, the last two lines of
Madlib’s verse, “the light which is to be the wisdom of the future/the light of the
Raouf Grissa 24
future casts the shadows of tomorrow” reflect the consequences of an overwritten
white future that ultimately puts limits upon the tomorrow of black identity. At the
end of both verses come the recapitulated vocals of a Sun Ra monologue from his
1974 film, Space is the Place which explicitly reinforces the artists departure from
the linearity of time:
The music is different here The vibrations are different, Not like planet Earth Planet Earth sounds of guns, anger, and frustrations… Up there on the different stars… Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended. We work on the other side of time.
-‐ Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974) (see Appendix D for full transcription)
Madlib, through Quasimoto, is able to challenge and collapse the linear
progression of time through the created space of dynamic subjectivity. This -‐ as
mentioned before -‐ turns “I” into a crowd that is able to evade the labeling
associated with static subjectivity through multiple identities and dialogues. The
delineation of “I” into a crowd ultimately transmutes the creation of identity from
being exclusively based on experience to one that lauds creative freedom and the
reappropriation of culturally evolved modes of thought within new aesthetic
frameworks.
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The Endless End
“...this music is all a part of another tomorrow, another kind of language”
-‐ Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974) -‐
As has been shown, Madlib is able to transgress and challenge the
manufactured ‘character’ of black male identity inherent in late 1990’s hip-‐hop
through the creation of Quasimoto. Quasimoto works to foreground the fringe
apparent within issues of identity and the creation of soundscapes, which speaks to
his larger persona as “The Unseen” character. Madlib’s ability to create multiple
discourses between identities of his own conception (within the context of the
Quasimoto character) shows his ability to contest preconceived notions of identity
that challenge the static and create a dynamic space by which he is able to
proliferate the alter ego into a “multi ego”: the aforementioned “I” becomes a crowd.
Lastly, Madlib’s ability to reappropriate cultural modes of thought through his
multi-‐ego allows him to transcend the linear, repetitive nature of history and write
his own history (as Sun Ra says, my-‐story) that is outside of mediating forces.
Madlib, is one of the most prolific artists in hip-‐hop today due to the breadth
and quantity of his diverse individual musical endeavors such as: Yesterday’s New
Quintet (in which he plays all five characters); The Last Electro Acoustic Space Jazz
& Percussion Ensemble; The Otis Jackson Trio; DJ Rels; Ahmad Miller; and the Beat
Konducta, among others. As Madlib he released the 13-‐album multi-‐genre series
“Madlib Medicine Show” over the span of two years, with the first 10 being
completed in 2010. It is important to reiterate, the previously mentioned groups
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are just the current solo endeavors of Madlib, and all have multiple releases under
each guise. He has also acted as producer on a plethora of albums within a diverse
range of genres including jazz, funk, samba, and most recently, rock. Madlib’s
approach to identity highlights the importance of reinvention and self-‐definition
that is characteristic within hip-‐hop forms that are not corporately mediated and
are a result of the artist’s pure creativity.
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Works Cited: Demers, J., 2002, Sampling as Lineage in Hip-‐Hop: Princeton.
-‐, 2003, Sampling the 1970's in Hip-‐Hop: Popular Music, v. 22, no. 1, p. 41-‐56.
Dery, M., 1994, Black to the Futurue: Interviews with Samual R. Delaney, Greg Tate,
and Tricia Rose, Flame Wars: The discourse of cyberculture: Durham, N.C., Duke University Press.
Eshun, K., 1998, More brilliant than the sun: Adventures in sonic fiction, London,
Quartet.
Floyd, S. A., 1991, Ring Shout!, in Caponi, ed., Signifyin(g), Sacntifyin, and Slam
Dunking, University of Massachusetts
Miller, P. D., 2006, Rhythm Science, MIT.
Rollefson, J. G., 2008, The "Robot Voodoo Power" Thesis: Afrofuturism and Anti-‐
Anti-‐Essentialism from Sun Ra to Kool Keith: Black Music Research Journal, v. 28, no. 1, p. 83-‐109.
Rose, T., 2008, Hip-‐Hop Wars: What We Talk about When We Talk about Hip-‐Hop -‐
and Why It Matters, New York, Basic Civitas.
Schloss, J. G., 2004, Making Beats: The Art of Sample-‐Based Hip-‐Hop, Middletown, CT,
Wesleyan.
Stevenson, N., 2006, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision, Polity press.
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Appendix A Songs: Welcome to Violence – Quasimoto (2000)
Intro/Run Pussy Cat – Bert Shefter, Igo Kantor, and Paul Sawtell (1965) @ 0:00
Bad Character – Quasimoto (2000) I’m a Bad Character – Melvin Van Peebles (1972) @ 0:14 and 1:45 Microphone Mathematics – Quasimoto (2000) Complete Communion – Don Cherry (1965) @ 0:20 The Bizness – De La Soul (1996) @ 0:17 (and throughout) Goodmorning Sunshine – Quasimoto (2000) Back in the Country – Hurricane Smith (1972) @ 0:17 (and throughout) Unfinished Melody – Augustus Pablo (1978) @ 0:00
Heh Heh (Chuckle) Good Morning Sunshine – Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @ 0:13 (and throughout)
Wafer Scale Integration – Prince Jammy (1986) @ 0:14 (and throughout) Return Of The Loop Digga – Quasimoto (2000)
Oneness of Juju – African Rhythms (1975) @ 0:03 Fragments of Fear – Sight and Sound (1971) @ 0:05 On The Move – The Impressions (1974) @ 1:08 Tidal Wave – Ronnie Laws (1975) @ 1:18 Cussin’, Cryin’ and Carryin’ On – Ike and Tina Turner (1969) @ 1:28 Stockyard – Galt MacDermot (1970) @ 1:32 Darkuman Junction – Sons and Daughters of Lite @ 1:38 North, East, South, West – Kool and the Gang (1973) @ 1:58 Holy Are You – The Electric Prunes (1968) @ 2:02 A Divine Image – David Axelrod (1969) @ 2:58 Supermarket Blues – Eugene McDaniels (1971) @ 3:23
Real Eyes – Quasimoto (2000)
Canibus – Freestyle -‐ Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 0:00 Accadde a Bali – Arawak (1970) @ 0:06 (and throughout) I Found a Way Out – Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:07 I Know I Can Handle It – Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:10 Bill Talks About Pushers – Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:16 GangStarr Freestyle – Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 1:17 Mobb Deep Freestyle – Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 2:14 My Flows is Tight – Lord Digga (1998) @ 2:22 High as Apple Pie – Slice II – Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band (1970) @ 3:04
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Come on Feet – Quasimoto (2000) Fool Yourself – Little Feat (1973) @ 0:00 Le Bracelet – Alain Goraguer (1973) @ 0:22 Maquillage De Tiwa – Alain Goraguer (1973) @ 0:22
Come On Feet, Do Your Thing – Earth Wind & Fire and Melvin Van Peebles (1971) @ 0:00 (and throughout)
Put A Curse On You – Quasimoto (2000) Put a Curse on You – Melvin Van Peebles (1971) @ 0:49 (and throughout)
Green Power – Quasimoto (2000) Khidja – Mandrill (1974) @ 0:26 (and throughout) Manhattan – George Russell (1959) @ 2:46 Inner Space – Bobby Lyle (1978) @ 0:02 Salamaggi’s Birthday – Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @ 0:32 Three Boxes of Longs Please – Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @ 1:58 and 2:25 Itsoweezee (HOT) – De La Soul (1996) @ 0:05 Phony Game – Quasimoto (2000)
Where Do I Go? – Dave Wintour and Pat Whitmore (1968) @ 0:23 (and throughout)
The Phoney Game – Melvin Van Peebles (1972) @ 0:08 Astronaut – Quasimoto (2002) La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte – Gianni Ferrio (1973) @ 0:00 Return From The Ashes Theme – John Dankworth (1965) @ 0:20 Space is the Place (Live) – Sun Ra (1973) @ 2:50 You Ain’t No Astronaut – Melvin Van Peebles (1974) Shadows of Tomorrow – Madvillain feat. Quasimoto (2004)
Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon – R.D. Burman (1976) @ 0:11 (and throughout)
Space is the Place (film) – Sun Ra (1974) Albums: “Buhloone Mindstate” – De La Soul (1993) “Stakes is High” – De La Soul (1996) “The Unseen” – Quasimoto (2000) “Astronaut EP” – Quasimoto (2002) “Madvillainy” – Madvillain (2004)
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Appendix B (title, year, director) Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! 1965, Russ Meyer La Planète Sauvage, 1973, René Laloux Space is the Place, 1974, John Coney Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980, Robert Mugge Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971, Melvin Van Peebles Appendix C
Copyright Argos Films 1973
Copyright Stones Throw 2013
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Appendix D Real Eyes – Quasimoto (2000) (My words burn through your exterior) (They eat away at your interior I’m superior You’re talking loud but saying nothing for the dollars You better off quitting, start working blue collar Lord quas up in the place slapping out y’all phonies Y’all niggas is played like pimp sessions with tenderonis When y’all suckers gonna learn how this rap shit goes I hate it when the fake nigga try to doze Rap about his clothes and fakes ass stories and hoes Or how he shot up his rival foes Like I ain’t heard that story befo’ I had it up to here with the black on black Cause that shit is worse than a klan attack Some niggas brain lack Common sense, common knowledge and confidence We trying to put the stop to your wack incompetence Once we come through ain’t no stopping this (x2) I roll through like Rahsaan Roland Kirk So niggas better be alert when I insert You better… (Real eyes) (You better realize) (Ain’t tolerating blatant disrespect for this artform) (You disobeyed the laws, got no cause to kill for) Y’all dummies should have learned after Self Destruction Sucking negativity like a human suction Quasimoto crew bring the eruption So what’s up when, we release the verbal dumping Y’all talking loud plus y’all saying nothing You’re trying to wild out like David Ruffin Oh, them some niggas let the money control the soul And flip their goals, and end up in holes Some niggas is using this artform like jazz music It don’t matter to some rappers, they just want to make the money Try to clock figures, we trying to climb ladders You talking about pulling triggers, talking ‘bout your life don’t matter But we roll through see we’re Quasimoto auxiliary
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Lord Quas, father of invention, you mention we The Beat Konducta hit you like high consciousness Niggas feeling envy when they be watching us (So what the deal is dude think you got a little confused) (Real eyes) (You better realize) (Tired of niggas flopping, they ain’t hip they just hopping) (From one… style to the next) (Niggas want checks but need to check themselves) (It happened for the love of the game) Shadows of Tomorrow – Madvillainy (2004) Today is the shadow of tomorrow Today is the present future of yesterday Yesterday is the shadow of today The darkness of the past is yesterday And the light of the past is yesterday The days of yesterday are all numbered in sum In the world once Because once upon a time there was a yesterday Yesterday belongs to the dead Because the dead belongs to the past The past is yesterday Today is the preview of tomorrow but for me Only for my better and happier point of view My point of view is the thought of a better or try Reality is today of eternity The eternity of yesterday is dead Yesterday is as one The eternity of one is the eternity of the past The past is once upon a time Once upon a time is past The past is yesterday, today The past is yesterday, today While we’re searchin for tomorrow (The music is different here The vibrations are different, Not like planet Earth. Planet Earth sounds of guns, anger, and frustrations. There was no one to talk to on planet earth who would understand So we set up a colony here) The light of the past is the light which was
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The wisdom of the past is the light of the past The light of the future is the light which is to be The wisdom of the future is the light of the future see Yesterday belongs to the dead Tomorrow belongs to the living The past is certified as a finished product Anything which has ended is finished That which is perfect is finished The perfect man is no exception to the rule The perfect man of the past is made according to the rule of the past The rule of the past is a law of injustice and hypocrisy The revelation of the meaning of the law is revealed through the law itself The wisdom of the past is the light of the past The light which is to be the wisdom of the future The light of the future casts the shadows of tomorrow (Check the vibrations For the better of course) Sun Ra Sun Ra Lord Quas Madlib (Up on the different stars, That's where the [indistinguishable] of destiny would come in Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended… We work on the other side of time)