When the once dominant Rawkus Records, and the East Coast generally, fell on hard times earlier this decade, hip-hop’s underground-loving backpack brigade was left without a label to champion. Perfectly positioned to pick up the slack was an imprint from Los Angeles led by a guy who called himself Peanut Butter Wolf.

Wolf (aka Chris Manak) started Stones Throw Records in 1996 when he released an album he’d recorded three years prior with his close friend and rap partner, Charizma. Charizma died shortly after finishing the album in 1993, but the buzz surrounding the recording turned a lot of eyes towards Wolf.

Around the same time, another L.A. area hip-hopper was starting to garner attention. Madlib began his career with Lootpack and eventually connected with Wolf in the late ‘90s. In 2000, Stones Throw released The Unseen LP, which featured Madlib as the first of his several alter egos, Quasimoto. Madlib’s rapper-on-helium vocals and space-age production work were sonically out of left field. His music’s freshness rapidly made him a critic favorite.