Lord Quas of Oxnard, California

A musical alias for an artist is no strange feat. From DJs such as Eric Prydz performing under Cirez D, to rappers like MF Doom with King Geedorah. Aliases are part of a creative genius that separates the small fish from the big ones, being able to create almost completely new body of work whilst maintaining your own original sound as your main stage name. One though that I find consistently captivating with every track, album and artwork produced is the yellow furry character signed to Stones Throw Records. I speak of none other than the infamous Madlib and his animalistic alter-ego Lord Quas (otherwise known as Quasimoto).

The brainchild of legendary beat maker and hip-hop producer Madlib. Lord Quas is a yellow, long nosed, high-pitched character that was born to fill a gap for some of Madlibs private tracks for him to listen to. Due to Madlib not liking his own low toned voice all too much, he chose to slow down the tempo on tracks and heighten the pitch of his voice, thus creating Lord Quas as we know him today. Rapping on violence and drugs, Lord Quas is seen as a satirical take on the popular gangsta-rap genre. Other references made within some of Quasimotos music is also taken from the animated film from 1973 'Le Planète Sauvage' [Fanstastic Planet], mainly due to Madlibs obsession over the artistic classic.

Owner of Stones Throw Records, Peanut Butter Wolf, heard some of these Lord Quas tracks and with haste encouraged Mablib to release some. This later lead to the release of Qausimotos features on tracks such Lootpacks– ‘Whenimondamic’ and debut album in 2000 – ‘The Unseen’.

The Lord Quas Character was first drawn by Keith Beats (DJ Design) for the ‘Microphone Mathematics’ Single and to this day has virtually remained untouched in terms of design. The cigarette smoking icon has become a staple illustration that has been converted into main different mediums; from toys, tattoos, vinyl, apparel designs – you name it, they’ve done it.

Over the years Lord Quas has been seen side by side on projects with underground Hip-Hop greats like the late MF Doom on the joint Madlib, MF Doom – Madvillian alias. Or a more recent partnership with Freddie Gibbs on albums such as Piñata (2014) and Bandana (2019), which was launched in the UK with an exclusive Boilor Room listening party with both artists present for a performance like no other.