They had released a full-length debut album, 1999's Conflict & Compromise, and a few shorter works including the Eyedea collaboration The Whereabouts of Hidden Bridges,[1][3] when two of the members, rapper Advizer (Adam Waytz) and producer/DJ Deetalx (Devon Callahan), moved to New York City to go to college.

[4][5][6][1] The group did not break up, but instead used the opportunity to begin networking in New York, not only a much larger city but one with a close connection to hip-hop's roots and a vibrant support structure for the music-business side.

Afterwards, the band decided that recording Absorbing Playtime had been rewarding enough despite the long-distance issues for the remaining Minnesota-based members to move to New York also; this would lead to their most commercially successful album, 2003's Drums.

Despite its fragmentary genesis, the generous-length EP was hands-down one of the most exciting creations to hit the hip-hop world in 2000, a veritable playground of innovative beats and equally exceptional lyrical dispatches from the progressive side of the prairie.

[2] French website Hiphopcore called Oddjobs' albums Absorbing Playtime and Drums "highlights of this beginning of the century, with their irreproachable productions, their skillful audacity and their subtle mix between samples and acoustic instruments.