By John Whybrow, an excerpt from a piece in Bonafide Mag, issue 3. This issue features a cover & interview with Stones Throw's Dam-Funk, and Malcolm Catto of Heliocentrics. www.bonafidezine.com

Imagine, you're flipping through records at your
local spot, when midway through the hip-hop
crate, floating above the monotonous sea of
Pen and Pixel efforts, a 12" canvas catches your
eye like that cutie you saw on the platform this
morning. The colours don't scream, they merely
snap their fingers to the beat (hell, they'd
probably be wearing shades if colours could).
All browns and yellows and off-kilter purples.
The illustration is simple but effective, not too
showy, not too abstract. You know the music
is dope, but there's something in the way this
thing Is put together that you can't help but feel
it is on your level. In essence: you dig. Record
in hand, you make your way to the counter
when a giant fibrous yellow ant-eater frantically
scouring the 45s looks up, burps out a lungful of
smoke, and gives you a conspiritorial wink amid
the haze. And somehow, you know you
done right.

AS ONE HALF OF THE ALTER-EGO WOULD YOU
SAY YOU IDENTIFY WITH QUASIMOTO, IN BOTH
AESTHETIC AND MUSICAL TERMS? DID YOU
TRY TO MARRY THE IMAGE TO THE MUSIC? THE
COMBINATION OF HIS APPEARANCE AND VOICE
ALWAYS STRIKES ME AS A NATTY ONE, LIKE HE'S
BUGGIN' OUT, WAS THIS SOMETHING YOU WERE
AWARE OF AT HIS INCEPTION? I'm not one half
the Quasimoto alter ego per se, I think that's strictly
Madlib – but I'm Quasimoto crew. The pictures
are very much guided by the music, It's now been four years since I drew a bunch of Quasimoto
characters set to music, and the previous record
was four years before that.

During the first record I felt I perfectly understood
the lifestyle Madlib & Quasimoto were writing
about. They were writing the music from a southern
California perspective and I was 400 miles north in
Oakland at the time, but it's still California living,
with a little bit of criminal, a little lazy, bored with
your mind wandering, anxious to make music and
things. On the second record it was a bit more of
adult Quas, dealing with a lot of adult bullshit that
none of us think we should have to put up with, so
his life, the music, and the drawings were a little
more chaotic. We're due for another Quas, but
times are different now than eight or nine years
ago when it started so I have no idea what to
expect next. As far as buggin' out, I don't think
that's Quasimoto's style, he's non-confrontational
and sedated, even when he's talking about
stabbing old folks with butter knives.

RIGHT! SO HOW DOES WORKING WITH SUCH A
UNIQUE BATCH OF ARTISTS HELP THE WAY YOU
SEE THE FINISHED PRODUCT? AS A CONSUMER
WE DON'T ALWAYS GET A STORY BEHIND
THE MAKING OF THIS OR THAT, DO YOU SEE
THE STORY BEHIND A RECORD OR DOES THE
FINISHED PRODUCT BECOME A SEPARATE ENTITY
FROM THE WORK-IN-PROGRESS? WHAT'S YOUR
BEST WORK TO DATE' I see our DJs, producers,
and rappers as unique but maybe in a different
way. Madlib and PB Wolf, who I've known since we
were young guys with funny haircuts, are the guys I got into this work with, and they're the ones I most
enjoy working with even when things get difficult.
We started out together, trying to make something
out of nothing with no expectations. It's always
different with the guys that have come around
since then: either they're experienced and Stones
Throw is one of many groups they've worked with,
or they're new-jocks struggling to make their own
mark within what we've built. What I'm trying to
say is that working with each person is a different
experience, and it's always changing. Some guys
are a little defensive and unsure of themselves,
others are confident in their role and my role.
This always shapes the finished project, but we
never know going into a new one if it will work out
positively, or leave everyone frustrated. The easy
and fun projects are most often the successful
ones, which makes the frustrating flops even more
annoying. And then we start the next one. My best
piece of work to date would be Madvillainy. It's a
companion piece to Madonna's first album cover.
Sort of.

THERE MUST BE AN INSANE AMOUNT OF
PROFILE PICS OUT THERE FEATURING THAT LP
HOVERING ON SOMEONE'S SHOULDERS. WAS
BECOMING ART DIRECTOR AT STONES THROW
AN ACCIDENT OF SORTS? OR WAS A JOB LIKE
THIS ALWAYS IN YOUR SIGHTS? It was never planned out. I mean, when I was
10 years old I was not sitting there drawing up a
master plan: “when I am grown up I am going to
be art director of a record label, in the decade
after the music industry goes down the fuckin'
toilet.” I'd like to say I was, but I cannot tell a lie.

WE HEAR YOU ON THAT. WHAT HAS BEEN THE
BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU
REGARDING THE WAY YOU PRODUCE WORK?
IN FACT, WHAT HAS BEEN THE BEST ADVICE
ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU PERIOD?
Oh, I wish had some good advice at some point.
It's such a pain in the ass learning by making one
mistake after another.

DO YOU HAVE A CONNECTION WITH OTHER
CREATIVE HEADS IN THE FIELD OR IS IT MORE
A CASE OF ARTISTIC INDIVIDUALITY? IS THERE
ANY BEEF? I've been a fan of George Dubose
since B52s, and Klaus Voorman when I saw his
name written into strands of hair on Revolver. Gee
Voucher from Crass is a favorite in the
world of album cover art. Props as
well to Cal Schenkel (Zappa), Warhol, Francis Wolff
& Reid Miles, Richard Hamilton for his stunt known
as The White Album, Ray Pettibon (SST), Push Pin
graphics, whoever it was that invented the black
metal logo style, Peter Beard who has never done an album cover but who set my imagination on
fire with the inside sleeve of some late 70s joint,
dozens of nameless dub records designers… And
perhaps most of all to Alex Steinweiss, the man
who was a young employee at Columbia
records in the 30s and suggested they start putting
pictures on the covers of records instead of
just cardboard.

PROPS TO MR. STEINWEISS. YOU SEEM LIKE A
NICE GUY, ALMOST LIKE THE PAPA SMURF OF
STONES THROW. LETTING DOOM CRASH AT
YOUR PLACE, LOOKING AFTER HO, OPENING
THE DOOR FOR MADLIB AT 5AM, IS THAT THE
REALITY? I wouldn't say I "let" him crash at my
place … I mean, if the door's locked, he gets in
through the window. Actually one time he got in
through the window when the door was open.
The Madlib incident at 5AM (as depicted in "Strip
Club") is true, but he was knocking at Egon's
window back when we all lived and worked at the
same house. Madlib's a great guy, but living with
him takes a lot of love.

*

Mr. Jank then, it seems, is not a hip-hop head
who's into art. He's an artist who happens to be
into hip-hop. Whereas the likes of George Dubose were responsible for laying the design foundations of what would ultimately
become the mainstream musical genre for 21st
century kids, Jank explores the genre's fringes,
driving a wedge between the played-out imagery
so prevalent in that mainstream and the genuinely
intimate side of hip-hop music culture as repped by
Stones Throw artists today. One might argue that
they have been set an even harder task than that
of their forefathers original hip-hop labels such
as Tommy Boy and Cold Chillin' could afford to let
loose and ride the bragadocious wave generated
by the cultural swell of the birth of an exciting new
music, yet nowadays independent hip-hop is wary
of, and even strives to distance itself from, what is
generally accepted as a rotten, stale scene.

Thankfully, breaking conventions comes as naturally
to Jank as breaking laws comes to Quas, probably
more than he himself realises. Andrew Emery, in his
excellent homage to the genre's visual escapades
(The Book of Hip Hop Cover Art, Mitchell Beazley,
2004) asks "is there anything left in the tank?" It's a
question that could solicit general discomfort given
the way hip-hop is moving at surface-level, so it's
with a sigh of relief that Bonafide can confirm that
there's still plenty left in the Jank.

Props to Public Emily for the hook up