By Jrox
photo; chris woodcock
This is the second verse of a three-part blog on Hip Hop – part two, producers. It’s a bit overwhelming, being there are so many producers that I admire. I decided to try and simplify things by only choosing two, but these artists and their work are far from simple.
The cover art of the second Quasimoto record has a Mothers of Invention reference. Madlib has a cartoon bubble with the words ‘Freak Out’. I can see a lot of similarities between Madlib and Frank Zappa. They are both brilliant musical inventors with catalogues that are all over the map. I think if Frank were still here, he would be a fan too. From his origins with Lootpack and working with The Alkaholiks to his most recent Stone’s Throw releases, Madlib’s catalogue explores many musical genres. He’s remixed Bluenote Jazz, Trojan Reggae even Bollywood. Just like his many musical hats, he also works under multiple identities: Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet, and the Beat Konducta just to name a few. He’s also done some brilliant collaboration albums including the masterpiece Madvillainy with MF Doom and Champion Sound with the second producer I want to focus on, J Dilla.
From his Detroit origins to his tragic passing in February of 2006, Jay Dee aka ‘Dilla’ produced a lot of great work and left his original stamp on music. With his thick Detroit sounds and his brilliant ear for crate digging and reshaping obscure samples (check out 10cc’s, Worst Band in the world mixed up for Workinonit).
I can also associate points in my life with various records in his catalogue. Pharcyde’s ‘Runnin’, De La Soul’s ‘Stakes is High’ and Slum Village take me back to my younger years while Donuts, Welcome 2 Detroit, and Rough Draft contain some of the most played tracks currently on my iPod.
Both of these artists have extensive catalogues and lots of information available at:
I will be speaking more about Stones Throw in the third and final part of my blog, labels.
R.I.P Dilla
R.I.P Zappa