Rapper and producer
Oh No was born Michael Jackson in Oxnard, California, in 1978. The brother of DJ phenom
Madlib, son of soul singer
Otis Jackson, Sr., and nephew of jazz trumpeter
Jon Faddis,
Jackson decided to also try his hand in the music world. Nicknamed
Oh No the Mischievous Rebel by
Lootpack MC
Wildchild,
Jackson soon shortened his name to simply "
Oh No." Hooked on DJ'ing and rapping since age 11,
Oh No would practice making beats during breaks at work. The effort paid off when
Oh No recorded his first singles with Stones Throw and Groove Attack and started producing for
Medaphoar,
Aloe Blacc, and
Murs. His solo album
The Disrupt, which
Oh No both produced and MC'ed, was released in 2004, and two years later,
Exodus Into Unheard Rhymes, which took its beats from the
Galt MacDermot (composer of Hair) catalog, came out. In 2007, after exploring the psychedelic sounds of Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, and Italy,
Oh No issued the beat record Dr. No's Oxperiment. Ethiopian funk, jazz, soul, and rock were sampled for his 2009 release Dr. No's Ethiopium, while 2010 found him partnering with producer
the Alchemist for
Gutter Water, an album released under the project name
Gangrene. In 2012, a second, more '70s-themed
Gangrene album dubbed
Vodka & Ayahuasca arrived, along with two
Oh No solo releases, the beat album
Dr. No's Tornado Funk, and Ohnomite, an effort built out of samples from
Rudy Ray Moore's
Dolemite soundtracks. In 2015 he worked with producer
the Alchemist on two projects, a third
Gangrene effort dubbed
You Disgust Me, and Welcome to Los Santos, an album based on music the duo created for the video game Grand Theft Auto V. In 2014,
Jackson issued Animal Serum with
Organized Konfusion rapper
Prince Po. Three years later, he released a collaboration with TriState, 3 Dimensional Prescriptions, which featured guest rappers like
Hus KingPin,
Lyric Jones, Xiomara, Brotha J,
Evidence, and more. ~ Marisa Brown