ILLOGIC

HOW IS IT THAT I CAN SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE AS AN MC LIKE ILLOGIC, BUT IT NEVER SOUNDS HALF AS GOOD? MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT WHAT HE DOES WITH IT FAR SURPASSES WHAT MOST OF US ARE CAPABLE OF, BE WE COMMON MAN OR AVERAGE MC. READ ON TO SEE WHAT THE COLUMBUS, OHIO-BASED MC/POET HAD TO SAY ABOUT HIS MUSIC, LIFE, AND BRINGING GOOD HIP-HOP BACK TO THE AIRWAVES.
Vinnie: Is the album officially out yet?
Illogic: No. April 13th is the official street date.
V: Have you been reading a lot of the press on it?
I: Nah. I’m trying not to read the press until the record is out. (laughs) I have read a couple of the reviews. It seems to be getting pretty good reviews.
V: Is that something you always look at?
I: Yeah. I like reading my press, and what people have to say about my music. It’s interesting. Especially when people say things about your music, but you didn’t mean for it to come across that way. Sometimes it can be more insightful than you even thought you were.
Both: (laugh)
I: I think that’s kind of cool. Even the negative press is good to read.
V: Are there any friends or family members that you go to for opinions after you release an album?
I: My friend, DJ Eyamme, who produced Write To Death, he and I are pretty close. I go to him all the time. He knows the step-by-step process of what’s going on in my music career, and, when I’m kinda stressed out, he’s my go-to. (laughs)
V: So, when you made this record, did you notice any substantial differences between it and Unforeseen Shadows?
I: Oh, yeah. All of my records are completely different from one another. I don’t necessarily go into it with that purpose. Usually, I just write what I’m feeling at the time. I go through different moods, and I go through different stages of my life, and none of those stages are the same. We grow as people. And one of the things I don’t understand is, especially if you consider yourself an artist, how you can recycle the same thing over and over and over again. If you put a new album out that\'s just like the one you put out five years ago, I don’t understand that. You’re not the same person you were five years ago. That’s why I appreciate artists like Outkast, Common, and The Roots. People like that, who constantly change according to how they feel, and not according to what’s \"hot\" at the time. It’s just what they’re going through at the time, and whatever music fits them.
V: Do you think that has a lot to do with people not being concerned with being very open and honest? I mean, you’re very open about things. Almost to a point where, I get taken aback a bit by how honest and straightforward you’re being. You don’t seem to be afraid to tell people exactly what’s going on in your life.
I: I think that has a lot to do with people changing or being the same. As an artist, some people say, \"I’m this person on stage,\" or, \"I’m this person on record, so that’s who I have to be when I write this song,\" instead of just being themselves. Myself, as an artist, I am the person that I am, whether I’m picking up the pen, or changing diapers, you know? I’m still that same person, and I don’t know any other way to convey myself in my music.
V: Were you always that way, or did you ever think, at any point, that you had to meet some standard of what you thought hip-hop was?
I: In hip-hop, when I was coming up, the thing was to be original. To be yourself. That’s what got you signed back then. \"They don’t sound like anyone. We have to pick up this artist.\" Nowadays, everybody’s trying to be a carbon copy of Jay-Z, or this person or that person. On the production tip, everyone’s biting, you know? As a child, I was always taught to be yourself, to be an individual. If that’s considered \"going against the grain\", then so be it.
V: Yeah.
I: I don’t necessarily care what people think about my music. I prefer them to think positively, (laughs) but I do my music for me, and no one else. If people like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. That’s how I’ve always lived my life, and how I go about my music.
V: When you record, how do you go about it? What hits you first? Is it a thought or a memory you want to expand on, or do you come up with some sort of concept, then pull from your experiences to make a song about it?
I: Sometimes I’ll go into writing with a concept and write according to it. Other times, I’ll be writing, and a concept will develop as the rhyme develops. I usually don’t go in with an idea of exactly what I’m going to write about. I just have an idea or thought or emotion hit me. Or I’ll hear a story that I think might be cool to write about, or one that I think someone can relate to, and I’ll put my own spin on it. But I don’t necessarily have a formula I go through every time I write a song.
V: Does it get emotionally draining to perform certain songs? You seem so involved and vulnerable with what you write.
I: It all depends on what songs I do in a particular set, because I have a lot of sides to me as an artist. I can battle with the best of \'em, you know what I’m saying? (laughs) I can get personal, if necessary, when performing certain songs. Like, for example, I don’t perform \"Hate In A Puddle\" too often.
V: Right.
I: The first time I tried to perform that song, I couldn’t get through it, because I started crying. I couldn’t contain it, you know what I’m saying? It’s a very emotional song. And there are other things, too. When I do a battle rap, there’s a passion that comes across, because you have to believe what you’re saying. So, sometimes it can be draining.
V: So then, does your music serve as a way to help you through things, like internal conflicts and such?
I: Oh, definitely. My music is my therapy, for the most part.
V: Yeah.
I: If I go through something-- like in \"Hate In A Puddle\", for example. That was a time in my life when I was really down on myself. I had some major self-esteem issues at the time, thinking that I might not be worth the air I was breathing. I needed to get those emotions out, and I did, and it helped me get past feeling that way. My music is, for me, very therapeutic in that way.
V: I don’t know how you deal with things going on in the world, but have you ever thought about creating a separate, solely political album, to deal with all the political views you have?
I: No. Not necessarily all political views you might have. I mean, the world is a real messed up place right now, and that does affect us as human beings. That affects how we feel about ourselves, and our surroundings. But I don’t look at it as thinking like, \"I have to be political on this song.\" Politics may find its way into one of my songs if that’s what’s on my mind at the time. Like, on that limited edition Write To Death that I did, I had a song called \"War\". A friend of mine, who was on the track with me, wrote his verse from the perspective of an American soldier, and I wrote mine from the perspective of an Iraqi child; just trying to put myself into different positions and views of people in the world, and how they perceive certain things. That can change how you live your life. I’m more concerned with that than having something specifically be or seem political.
V: Is it hard for you to get into those different perspectives or characters?
I: Sometimes. The verse that I wrote as the Iraqi child was written right when the war began. So, I had to put myself in the perspective of, \"Someone came over and killed 3,000 people in our country.\" But, meanwhile, we’re over in their country, killing thousands and thousands of people. And these people are civilians, you know? Some believe in Saddam Hussein, or believe in all the terrorists that are doing these things to America, but not all of them think that way. And by doing what we’re doing, we’re affecting lives, whether we want to believe it or not. We are going after these \"bad guys\", but everyone that we’re killing and involving in this struggle aren’t necessarily those \"bad guys\". We have to learn how to put ourselves in other people’s shoes if we want to make change, or make this world a better place. I mean, say someone punched your mom. You\'re not going to think about how their mother would feel if you punched her in the face. You’re just thinking of revenge at that time. But we, as human beings, need to take a step back and think, \"Is there a reason for this? How would I feel if I were in their situation?\" Usually, we just act before we think.
V: Well, I had to ask because of \"First Trimester\". I was listening to the album, and painting while I was doing it. But when that song came in, specifically that last verse, I just kinda stopped what I was doing, and was like, \"Oh my God!\" That was a really amazing song, man.
I: (laughs)
V: It totally caught me off-guard, and I was trying to imagine you coming up with the idea, and the perspectives you narrated it from.
I: Well, that’s all based on a true story; something that happened to me. Everything on Celestial Clockwork-- all the stories-- are things that I’ve gone through and situations I’ve been in. Writing that song, it was easy for me to put myself there, because I was there. I was the guy who really cared about this girl. She was pregnant, and had the abortion without telling me, and my reaction to it is what I put on paper. Everything that happens in the song isn’t exactly what happened in real life, but it’s more or less a true story.
V: So, then, how do you and Blueprint work? Do you bring him rhymes, then work together to build the music around them?
I: With Celestial..., I wrote most of it before we recorded any of it. I’d tell him the concepts I was working on, when I was working on a concept. I would go over and piece stuff together with him, like, \"This concept kind of goes with this beat, and this beat goes with this concept.\" That’s how it was for this record. It doesn’t always work like that, though. Sometimes he’ll just have beats laying around, and they’ll just fit something I’m working on. But, we’ve grown to know each other pretty well. We’ve developed a personal friendship outside of music, and I think that’s what gives us the chemistry that we have.
V: What were your influences growing up?
I: Actually, I listened to a lot of gospel music as a child. Coming up, I listened to a lot of R & B and things like that. I was always into music. I played some saxophone when I was younger, so I listened to a lot of Charlie Parker and Coltrane. Even Miles. There’s a lot of jazz influence on me. Even just the idea of jazz is a huge influence on hip-hop, you know? That sort of free expression. It’s where we get a lot of our freestyling from, and all the improvisation in our music. That’s how I learned to go about expressing myself-- however I feel at the time I have the pen and paper in front of me.
V: Are there any non-musical influences?
I: Definitely my Christian background. I’m a Christian, and my spirituality definitely is a huge influence on my music. And now that I have a family, and children, you’ll hear a lot about that in my future music. A lot of my influence is life influence, too. A lot of what inspires me to write are situations I’ve gone through in my life, and what people go through in their lives.
V: Do you feel at all that that’s lacking from mainstream artists?
I: Oh, definitely. I was saying in an earlier interview that a lot of hip-hop nowadays is just a party. People aren’t interested in the person behind what’s coming out on the record. People are more interested in the party scene, you know what I’m saying? Everything’s based on how much money you have, how many girls you got, and so forth. In reality, unless you’re a pimp, that’s not an everyday thing that you go through.
V: Yeah.
I: People cry. People laugh. They get their hearts broken. Things like that. In our music nowadays, eveything’s happy-go-lucky. It’s a party; just a lot of shit you can’t relate to. The only people in the mainstream now, who I can find some sort of relatable point to, are Outkast. They’re really, really in the mainstream. Then, of course, you have people like Common and The Roots and Talib Kweli, who stray away from that mainstream. They make videos and get airplay, but aren’t in constant rotation like Lil\' John and people like that-- the party shit. Hip-hop is definitely lacking that personal substance in the mainstream, but I think it’s exactly what we need right now. People are using music to escape that substance, when in reality, they need to be embracing it.
V: Yeah. Diverse was saying pretty much the same thing. It seems like substance in mainstream hip-hop kinda stopped after De La Soul.
I: Oh, yeah. Everything kind of died between 1993 and 1996. That’s when Busta Rhymes was putting out some of his best music, and you had the Native Tongues always hitting you with something. Something of substance that you could relate to. But now? I mean, I don’t have a Bentley, you know what I’m saying?
Both: (laugh)
I: A lot of today’s popular music I can’t relate to, so a lot of the music I’m listening to winds up being music from my friends, like Brother Ali, Atmosphere, El-P, Mr. Lif, and all those cats.
V: And it seems like all that music is sort of simmering just beneath the mainstream surface, you know? Like, Def Jux and Rhymesayers and Weightless, people are more aware of those labels and those artists now.
I: Yeah.
V: Do you envision a day like back when you could hear Tribe on the radio? Only now, it’ll be one of your songs on the radio?
I: I think that day is coming. I think we’re still kind of far off, though. But it’s coming. I mean, we have Aesop and Slug having videos on MTV 2. We know that day is coming. And I am looking forward to it happening. Music will be a lot better off when this stuff of substance does come back out in the mainstream.
V: Will you be touring for the record?
I: I’m definitely gonna be getting out on the road pretty soon. We don’t have any definite things lined up yet. We’re still planning it. I will be out on the road with Blueprint and Eyedea & Abilities for a week in May. We have some other things in motion right now, but nothing definitely concrete.
V: As far as your career goes, do you feel like you’re at a point that you’re happy with?
I: Oh, I’m definitely happy with what I’m doing. I have no qualms. I get to do music for a living.
V: Word. I don’t know if there’s anything else you’d like to say, but the floor’s yours to wrap this up.
I: (laughs) I don’t think there’s anything else I have to say. I’d like to thank you guys for doing this interview, and thank all the people who will buy the album when it comes out.
V: Thanks a lot, man.
I: No problem.