The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

His name is already attached to three of underground rap's seminal releases (Lootpack's Soundpieces: Da Antidote!, Madvillain's Madvillainy, and the first Quasimoto LP, The Unseen), so it can't come as a surprise that Madlib's return of Lord Quas takes its place right alongside them. When he debuted in 2000, Quasimoto immediately became one of hip-hop's most bizarre characters, a helium-voiced, barely-teenage-sounding rapper capable of drawling the dozens like a Cosby Kid gone to seed or spouting more insane gibberish than a crackhead casualty. Helpfully, his obtuse material appeared over the most innovative new production style in rap -- crackly, bouncing productions with samples reflecting his obsessions with jazz-funk maestros like Stanley Cowell and Grant Green. While on The Unseen, he moved through the streets like a ghost, Further Adventures finds him a streetwise inhabitant of his Lost Gates neighborhood, with nearly every possible permutation of low-intensity inner-city conflict covered on tracks like "Bullyshit" (on bullies), "Greenery" (weed), and "Bus Ride" (panhandlers). It's a parody of urban life -- Madlib grew up in Oxnard, after all -- that's half-Fat Albert and half-Sweet Sweetback (the latter no accident, with the inclusion of vintage Melvin Van Peebles film dialogue on eight tracks, much of it ingeniously interwoven with Quasimoto's new performances). Not that Further Adventures could be described as linear -- these 26 tracks actually conceal close to 50 individual skits, grooves, sci-fi dialogue, educational records, and pot fantasies -- but Madlib has formed a tighter frame around his productions than ever before. The sound, what's recognizable of it, expands on Madlib's base of soul and jazz-funk, adding snatches of '80s urban and '70s smooth soul, the perfect bed for these tales. For the most part, Quas doesn't allow himself any nostalgia, but when he does, it becomes almost a little poignant, as on "Rappcats, Pt. 3" (where he shouts out to all his favorite old-school rappers) or the point on "Bartender Say" when the wisdom yields this little nugget: "What's the prettiest thing you ever seen?/ The sun pushing down, making things grow/The silence in the dawn when a car goes past." ~ John Bush

J・ディラとのジェイリブ、仮面男MFドゥームとのマッドヴィレインといった共作から、ブルー・ノートやトロージャンの音源を独自のタイム感で料理した作品、イェスタデイズ・ニュー・クインテットによるスティーヴィー・ワンダーのカヴァー集まで……アシュラマンのごとく表情を変え続けるマッドリブがそのバッド・テイスト趣味を総動員するカジモトとして久々の新作をリリース。変調ハイトーンMCの下を3分単位でトラックが展開する本作では、B級TVドラマの台詞、ラジオのMC、フュージョン、早回しソウル、ジャズなどの雑多なネタが、あの規格外のレイドバック・ビート（“Players Of The Game”がスゴい!）と共に展開。そのうえ、DJミックスでもお馴染みの大胆な編集技（唐突なカットインで曲のテンポが変速することも）がアルバム全体のバッド具合を加速!　ネタ師のコラージュ根性と変態性が爆発した一枚です。
bounce (C)リョウ 原田