The Genie leans back and closes his eyes. Slender dreadlocks caress his shoulders as he sways gently from side to side, his hands stroking the Fender Strat that rests on his lap. Instead of holding the guitar up by its neck, the instrument is placed horizontally, allowing him to slide his fingers across the frets in a turntable-like fashion.

His audience looks on, mesmerized, while the sweet aroma of hookah smoke and the ethereal rhythms that stream from the amplifiers at his side lure curious passersby into the doorway of Oz, a smoking lounge in San Francisco's Mission District.

Born in Los Angeles, 35-year-old Luis Monterrosa, "The Genie," grew up in the colorful Mission District after relocating to San Francisco with his Guatemalan mother and Salvadoran stepfather. About seven years ago, this talented SF State alum introduced himself as the innovator of an unusual guitar style, dubbed "scratch guitar."

"His style is unlike anything I've seen before," said Teresa Kabba, 21, who watched the Genie perform. "I don't quite understand it, but I'm intrigued."

"I saw him on Haight Street and it was magical," said Johann Konneus, 22, who catches his set at Oz every Tuesday night. "He's extremely talented."

The Genie usually starts his jam sessions with a technique called "live looping," in which he creates his own background by recording bits of his playing with a foot-controlled loop pedal. While beatboxing into a microphone, he will loop the beat or riff and play slide guitar over it. The result is one man recreating the textured, beautifully complex live performance of an entire band.

"I try to transcend the conventional way of looping and make it a true organic morphing collage," said the Genie. "There's not even vocabulary for what I do yet."

Although the use of pre-recorded loops is a common technique in many styles of music such as hip-hop, the Genie prides himself on doing it all live -- which includes remixing.

"People do remixes with a laptop -- I do it all manually," said the Genie about a technique that he calls "Gemixing." With an iPod strapped to his guitar with Velcro, he will play a song and drop his own beat on top of it, while simultaneously dubbing and filtering with his right foot on the loop pedal.

Besides a guitar, the Genie utilizes a loop pedal, a microphone and a kaoss pad, with which he can create effects such as distortion and filtering, to build his distinctively large sound.

In 2002, the self-taught guitarist dropped out of his master's program at UC Berkeley to become a full-time musician -- and ended up performing for commuters in Montreal, Canada's metro stations.

"Part of my advantage was my disadvantage to work with the system," he said, leaving the academic track for the road less traveled. "From a young age, I never felt that I was able to compete in the rat race. I liked creativity much more."

Though he does not read or write music, his career took off in unexpected ways. In Montreal, he managed to obtain a slot at the DMC World DJ Championships at Club Soda, and quickly captured the attention of judge and music producer, DJ Horg, who signed the Genie on for his debut album entitled "Rebel Music."

After three years of traveling back and forth between Canada and California, he returned home to make a name for himself, and most importantly, to share his profound insights by tapping into people's imagination.

These days, the Genie can be found traveling the country and playing at cafes and clubs around San Francisco. When it's sunny, he'll even post in front of the Amoeba record store on Haight Street to share a little bit of his magic.

"Taking years to do this taught me to stay true to the artistic vision," said the Genie. "Music allowed time to be my ally. Each year that goes by, I'm richer for it. I'm better."