Mr. Oizo (French pronunciation: [ˈməsjø ˈwazo] born 14 April 1974) is the stage name of French electronic musician and film director Quentin Dupieux. His pseudonym is a corruption of the French oiseau, meaning "bird". He is currently signed to French electro record label, Ed Banger Records.
Quentin Dupieux was born on 14 April 1974 in Paris, France. At the age of 12, he found a camera and started taking photographs. At 17, he began to play music to illustrate his images, and bought his first synthesizer. In 1997, Laurent Garnier of F Com bought a car from Mr. Oizo's father. Garnier then found out about Dupieux's talents and let him direct the music video for his song "Flashback". Later Dupieux was signed by F Com Records where he released his first EP, "#1".[citation needed]
"Flat Beat" was a track with a repeated bass loop. As stated in an interview with XLR8R magazine he said that it took him two hours with a Korg MS-20 to make. Dupieux is however most known for this track, which became a hit throughout Europe in 1999 and was featured in a series of Levi's jeans TV commercials. Dupieux also directed the advertisement, which featured a yellow puppet named Flat Eric nodding his head to the sound of the track while riding in an old beat-up car. After "Flat Beat", Oizo spent two months creating his first full album, Analog Worms Attack. The Flat Beat EP has sold over 3 million copies.[citation needed]
Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004) was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB. He was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a Hip-Hop group primarily from Staten Island, New York that first rose to mainstream prominence with their 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol' Dirty Bastard went on to pursue a successful solo career. However, his professional success was hampered by frequent legal troubles, including incarceration. He died in late 2004 of a drug overdose, two days before his 36th birthday. Prior to his death, Ol' Dirty Bastard managed to record his third solo album, which has been repeatedly re-shelved.
Jones was often noted for his trademark microphone techniques and his "outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes delivered in a distinctive half-rapped, half-sung style". His stage name was derived from a childhood alias given by RZA, the relevance of which was articulated by Method Man's assertion that there was "no father to his style".
Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, also known by his artist name Para One, is a French electronic music producer and film director.
Laubier first came to prominence as one of the main producers of French rap group TTC, and was responsible for producing their 2004 signature tune Dans Le Club. With fellow TTC producer Tacteel he made up the now defunct live/improvised electro outfit Fuck-A-Loop (whose only recorded material prior to 2007's nine hour digital album The Early Aughties was a 2006 remix of Ellen Allien's Down). In 2007, he remixed The Prime Time of Your Life by French house duo Daft Punk. In 2008, Para One got his biggest commercial hit by remixing #1-hit song Greatful Days by Japanese popstar Ayumi Hamasaki. This song was released on the album Ayu-mi-x 6: Gold.
He also produced the soundtrack of the film Water Lilies directed by Céline Sciamma in 2007. In 2011, the song "Always" from his and Tacteel's Fair Enough EP was featured in the same director's film Tomboy.
Apart from his musical career, Jean-Baptiste de Laubier also works as a film director. In 2009, he directed the short movie It Was On Earth That I Knew Joy for French brand Sixpack France. The movie was presented on February 20, 2010 at SCION Installation, Los Angeles.