Multifaceted Hip Hop artist Ill Poetic’s creative mix skills have been on display again recently. Just a week ago, he released the above remix of genre-bending Hip Hop jazzers IsWhat?!'s “Fanta,” the first release from the group’s forthcoming Big Appetite album, which comes out in Europe a little later this year and in the States sometime in 2010. IsWhat?! sent out some “stems” from the song and asked for remixes. Unsurprisingly, Ill Poetic’s is one of the best. —-
And just today Ill Poetic sent out e-mail blasts with links to download his latest mixtape, a collaboration with cohort Voice of Reazon titled Soul Broken Volume 1. Ill Poetic calls it “a dusty little mix from myself and Voice of Reazon of some forgotten and rare soul gems” and reveals they only used vinyl as a source. Roy Ayers, Jackson 5, Prince and Billy Paul are among the artists whose tracks get reanimated.
Ill Poetic is a modern Renaissance man, at least within the field in which he hustles. He was half of the smart, tight duo Definition, has produced some strong work as a solo artist and has does everything from MC, write beats and produce to graphic design work, inventive remix/mash tracks and a Hip Hop column for CityBeat (links to his last two columns can be found here). Once based in Cincinnati, he is now a bit of a nomad, going where the music needs him. Somehow, he often manages to leak tracks as they are finished, seemingly every other week.
Though he is still doing a little bit of everything, his calling card of late has been his series of mash-up projects, crafting new pieces of art with the tools of two different (sometimes disparate) artists' albums. And he has received a lot of attention for these conjoined-album-twins project, which have mixed together sounds from Nine Inch Nails and Outkast, as well as, more recently, MC Joe Budden and Trip Hop masters Portishead.
Those projects as well as others have earned Ill Poetic a lot of attention in the Hip Hop underground, as well as from the Ohio Hip Hop Awards, which has nominated him for Producer of the Year for its 2009 event. Go here to vote.
Check out Ill Poetic’s MySpace here to find tracks like the above mentioned and more. And try to get on his mailing list for frequent free goodies.
