Madlib is Otis Jackson Jr., the Oxnard, California producer, DJ, and MC born in 1973, who works under more aliases than most labels have artists — Quasimoto and Yesterdays New Quintet among them. Madvillainy (2004, with MF DOOM) is the crown jewel; Bandana with Freddie Gibbs and Sound Ancestors run close. Shop Madlib vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Otis Jackson Jr., performing as Madlib, was born in Oxnard, California on October 24, 1973. His father Otis Jackson Sr. was a recording engineer and his uncle Jon Faddis is a jazz trumpeter. He has worked under dozens of aliases - Quasimoto (his sped-up vocal alter ego), Yesterdays New Quintet (his one-man jazz quintet), Sound Directions (his more conventional jazz), DJ Rels (his house music alias), and others - alongside his Madlib production credits. His extensive collaborative discography includes Madvillain (2004, with MF DOOM, widely cited as one of the most important hip hop albums of the 2000s), Champion Sound (2003, with J Dilla as Jaylib), Pinata (2014) and Bandana (2019) with Freddie Gibbs (as MadGibbs), and Sound Ancestors (2021, edited and arranged by Four Tet). His foundational influence on contemporary alternative and underground hip hop is widely cited.
Madlib's sound combines hip hop, alternative hip hop, instrumental hip hop, jazz rap, beat tape, abstract hip hop, jazz fusion, and underground hip hop with his distinctive sample-heavy production aesthetic (drawing on global crate-digging across rare jazz, soul, funk, Latin, and world music sources), extensive instrumental work, and collaborative output.
Stones Throw and Madlib Invazion pressings of the Madlib catalog are foundational items in underground hip hop collecting. Multiple anniversary editions of Madvillainy and other landmark releases have been released.
Listeners new to Madlib typically start with Madvillainy (2004) or Sound Ancestors (2021).
