Workaholic: Constaintly working man, who needs the strain like a drug. Otis Jackson Jr. aka Madlib for example is such a man, who fits into this description without a doubt. His little brother, the 25 year old Mike “Oh No“ Jackson beats it. The Mc, DJ and “Beatsmith” just produced his first album “The Plague” for his homie Kazi, now his own debut “The Disrupt”, the first step to the Oh No-Invazion is approaching.
“The album with Kazi is increadibly raw and primitive, while my solo album is kept more personally” a friendly Oh No describes his versataility early in the morning in sunny California. Before “The Disrupt” he did beats for kings of the westcoast-underground like Wildchild, Medaphoar, Declaime or the Visionaries (some of those songs were just released on the Mix-CD “Disrupt Chronicles”) – now some of those stepped on the mic for “The Disrupt”. Guest productions are made by J Dilla (Jay Dee), Kan Kick and of course his brother Madlib. “It’s a family thing” in every way: Once upon a time he founded a duo with Madlib. “When I was young, I always sneaked into his homestudio and turned the buttons until he showed me everything one day” Oh No tells laughing. “We’ve done mad albums together. Unfortunately he moved and I had to get my own MPC.”
There are thoughts about an official brother-vice-versa collabo in the style of Jaylib or Madvillain, but the time is a problem. “He’s a very busy man and I’m getting busier, too. I have a lot of super-mad albums together and I’m working on new projects”, the videogame-freak describes, who calls every videogame since ’82 including Handhelds and Consoles from the Now-Generation his own.
“I’m doing an album with Aloe Blacc from Emanon. I produce beats for Andre (AG) from Show & AG for Look Records. I’ve recorded an EP with Grand Agend. And I just started working with Wise Intelligent from the Poor Righteous Teachers.
“You know, all I Do is produce beats, write rhymes and play videogames.” Another wonderful definition of “Workaholic”. Just Oxnard-style.
Text: Stephan Szillus, Foto: Christian Boehm, Translation: Dennis Mellert