Yesterdays Universe!

Shortly after the completion of the first Quasimoto record, Madlib took a sabbatical from traditional beats-and-rhymes hip-hop — or at least as “traditional” as he got — to work on something even stranger. Creating an entire label roster’s worth of alter egos and taking on all their different instrumental roles, Madlib reverse-engineered ’60s and ’70s spiritual, cosmic, and soul jazz by creating one-man-band compositions that would soon mutate into full-ensemble efforts. Yesterdays Universe! chronicles the transition from his Yesterdays New Quintet solo-ish work to an alias-riddled collaborative project with drummers Karriem Riggins and Ivan “Mamão” Conti, a definitive statement that hip-hop couldn’t just sample jazz, but be jazz.