“…Me? Well..I’ve never been there…well, perhaps once…”

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble covers “SpottieOttieDopaliscious”, one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard (peep how they flip Sleepy Brown’s verse)

PS – I can’t wait to cover this song live again (coming soon).

I usually don’t have the time and energy to find new music on the internet. Specifically hip-hop. After a while the blogs all start running together. Every couple of months, a new rapper comes along that everyone buzzes about and over-hypes to be the most amazing dude on the planet since the last most amazing dude on the planet three months ago.

So I had heard about the Black Hippy group for a while. And I thought Kendrick Lamar was dope and everything just like everyone told me I was supposed to. But last week I was intrigued by this new Schoolboy Q record “Habits & Contradictions”. I don’t know why. Then I listened to it and watched the “Hands on the Wheel” video. Now I like it. And him. And his record. And his videos. This dude is really creative and I like that he could give two shits about anything except what he’s on. I miss this energy in hip-hop right now. This vibe is sorely lacking. These dudes have picked it up and put a nice twist on it. I fuck with it. I love discovering artists at this moment in their careers. It’s like a small layover of time where they’re discovering their potential, style and sound in front of the world before the industry folks try to market it. It’s still raw as shit, but not unpolished.

Hit the jump for a couple videos:

LxE just hipped me to this dude a couple days ago, as sometimes they he backs LxE up on the decks when he performs.

Then I came across a post on this record by my friends at TheHigherPlane.

Which is cool and all. But then I looked at the tracklist.

I feel like outside of my circle, no one in Ohio really messes with half the artists I mess with, so when I see FlyLo, J*Davey, and The Weeknd (amongst many others) on here, I get relieved that I’m not going crazy.

Here’s the trackslist & link

Corey Grand Says:

Based on a journey of self-exploration through his craft, he has woven a fabric of sounds that showcase his diverse ear for music. One of the main points of emphasis presented in this collection of mixed original content arrives with an eerie ambiance letting the listener know this is no ordinary compilation.

I make beats.

Then I flesh the beats out into productions. Then I bring in musicians to play my ideas, and vocalists to accentuate the song-writing. Then I begin the process of mixing, post-producing and anal-retentive analysis that leads to months in a basement working on a single song.

I can’t use them all. Some of them have to just stay beats and semi-fleshed out ideas. These ideas need homes. They’re orphans with empty bowls of porridge, looking for a singer, emcee, or musician to nourish them and put a blanket over their sad, cold bodies.

Enjoy!

Oh, and here are some more from before.

Ps – Shouts the homie David Perez for the always amazing pictures of pretty ladies. And shouts to this coffee shop I’ve been in ALL DAY designing the cover.

Yup, I always post about them. Now they’re album is out.

$3 on their site. Grab it. Don’t believe me, Stream it HERE first. Ordering mine right after I post this message.

LxE For The Uncool ft. Nemo Achida- OG Champion Hoodie (Raekwon Tribute) from Walter Nini on Vimeo.

The homie LxE for the Uncool has re-released his super-slept on EP “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (with a bonus song “Dragon Sea”, that I actually recorded and mixed a couple days ago).

He rocked a few of these songs religiously on tour this past Spring. My favorite song from our group set was actually the joint “Monster”, which you find on the download here.

To help celebrate, he also drops a video for the jump-off “OG Champion Hoodie”.

His Full-Length follow-up will be out this Winter.

This is not really an album.
This is a collection of instrumentals available for purchase, primarily for musicians, singers, emcees, and other artists.
This collection will keep evolving; I’ll be adding new instrumentals here and there. Some will get snatched off as I randomly decide to write to them
…or if someone purchases one. Either way really.

If you like listening to instrumental hip-hop, enjoy.

If you sing, play, emcee, etc. and one of these instrumentals hits you, you can reach me at illpoetic@illpoetic.com

Enjoy.

I really don’t know where to start here. I’m typing this off some pretty raw emotion with little-to-no filter as I haven’t even finished reading this Village Voice article.

For those who don’t know, I dropped a mash-up album producing Portishead around Joe Budden (and guests) vocals.

The mash-up got a lot of attention, going as far as Rolling Stone Magazine. Pretty awesome for something that was knocked out in a weekend over 2 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese.

A month or 2 later, I was passed an interview with Joe Budden where he gave props to the mash-up and said it was one of the better remix projects he’d come across.

No diss to Joey, that was a pretty insane moment for me.

But this moment I’m feeling right now sits at the top of a lot of special moments in my music career and life in general.

To be recognized and to have my project put in such high regard by an actual member of Portishead leaves me beyond speechless. As an artist who kinda gives 2 shits about “what blog your on”, “who’s featured on my album” and all that other bullshit that clusters over genuine love for music, nothing means more than having an artist you respect the hell out of acknowledging your work using their material.

So….

THANK YOU GEOFF BARROW. And THANK YOU PORTISHEAD.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for digging the music.

And thanks for letting all the ideas you guys throw out to the world bounce off me and right back to you again.

Thanks for pushing new music, new ideas, and new sounds forward into space.

I love this moment.

And I’m going to sit in it for a little while longer.

Here’s the Village Voice Article (the part in question is below if you don’t want to read the whole thing).

“But Portishead’s relationship with hip-hop has always been symbiotic; its music is synonymous with the flickering, noir sense that rappers have been trying to evoke for years. The band has been dutifully sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and a young Timbaland, not to mention flipped on records by Slick Rick, Three 6 Mafia, and Canibus. (Barrow’s favorite Portishead rework is the Cincinnati DJ Ill Poetic’s mash-up of their music and the vocals from Joe Budden’s mixtape Mood Muzik 3.) “

Here’s Budden Meets Portishead for FREE Download

Here’s the Instrumentals as well.

This really put a battery in my back for this new album.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR CARING.

New Weeknd Mixtape. I’ve been Playing “House of Balloons religiously for 3 months now. Hope this matches.
DOWNLOAD HERE