Ill-Literacy Interview: SXSW 2010

Describing its upcoming SXSW performance as "Animal Collective crossed with P-Funk crossed with Steve Jobs presenting the iPad -- with no budget," the art of the live show is everything for hip-hop trio Ill-Literacy. Having recently moved from Oakland to Brooklyn, the group is currently working on the follow up to their first album, 'iB4the1.1,'which was released for on the group's site in November 2009. Spinner had a chance to chat with members Dahlak, Drizzletron and N.i.C about their upcoming trip to Austin, and what they're bringing in their survival kit.

How did the group form?

Drizzletron: We started off as a campus organization at UC Davis. The main reason why we started, and what we've always maintained throughout, was to serve as a beacon for folks in our area to be able to find each other -- specifically, the type of flavor, the type of music we listen to, the type of influences we have, down to the fashion -- everything. So, in a population of 25,000 people, we were looking to create events and a kind of venue for people that have a similar type of culture as us. And since then, we've been doing that, whether it's through our blog platform, or through our live shows. In the beginning, we were more of an open collective -- an open student organization. In '05 and '06-ish is when we started touring professionally as our current group.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Dahlak: I like to call the music "sample-inspired." It starts with the sample -- whether it's contemporary, or '60s soul, '70s funk -- but the beat is kind of built around that. Basically, with the first album, 'iB4the1.1' is kind of us building on a sample, whereas now it's a little bit more stripped-down. We're still using the same concept of being inspired by the sample, and taking the derivative of it in another direction

Drizzletron: Disney-inspired hip-hop. One of the key characteristics about what we do is that even though this is our first recorded project, we've been performing live for about four years as a group. And through that we've done theater, we've done spoken word, we've done live music. So there's a lot of performance that's incorporated into the recorded music, I think because that's where our base is. Coming from the perspective of being on stage very much first, before getting into the booth, we incorporate a lot of, for example, animated voices, and ... we also want to inspire as much visually and through other senses besides just listening.

N.i.C: But to be even simpler, it's quirky, it's crazy, it's fun, you can work out to it, you can wake up to it. It's functional music. We call it funk for a reason.

How did you come up with the band name?

Drizzletron: So "Ill" is short for "interactive Listening and Living." And "Literacy" is the base of what we do. We're all writers, in particular. And even before landing where we are, we all individually had experience, whether it's writing through poetry, or theater or fiction. When we first started off, we were very much in the spoken word scene, and this was in the early 2000s, during a time, for example, that 'Def Poetry' was on the air, and there was a lot of controversy about spoken word and whether it was a valid form of poetry. It was kind of taking the idea of culture and art on the fringe, the type of art that is still up for debate of whether or not it's valid. Hip hop's been through that before, rock's been through that before, punk's been through that before, so it's kind of acknowledging that as a key crux in what we're always presenting as new ways to look at things that are on the fringe.

What are some of your musical influences?

N.i.C: Our musical influences range a lot. Everywhere from Metric, to of course Parliament, to Jay-Z and everything in between. Of course, we're very, very funk-influenced -- Parliament, P-Funk ... all of that is definitely a starting point for us.

What's one of your biggest vices?

Scotch whiskey.

What's in your festival survival kit?

A bottle of Jameson, a wine key, a bunch of lighters, the Perfect Pushup, Stunna Shades, attention-grabbin' fashion, an ice cream cart, water (for the people), your own generator (to charge your cell phone), and a box of Peach Optimos or Strawberry Swishers.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

N.i.C: Halle Berry, when I was eight years old.

Drizzletron: The fairy in 'FernGully.'

What are you guys listening to right now?

Dahlak: Sade.

Drizzletron: Janelle Monae. She's definitely in the influences pool as well.

N.i.C: Dam Funk. Rick Ross.

What album would you take to a desert island?

Dahlak: Marvin Gaye's 'I Want You.'

N.i.C: OutKast's 'Aquemini.'

Drizzletron: Rotary Connection's 'Greatest Hits.'

What can we expect from your live shows?

Drizzletron: The live show is what we're going to be premiering at SXSW. We're currently working with Kamilah Forbes -- she's the director of Def Poetry on Broadway, and also the director of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival.

N.i.C: They can expect to see sneakers, live beatmaking. And then hopefully they can expect it to be -- even though it will most likely be a little abstract because we're long-winded -- a narrative about this world that we're trying to create that wlll hopefully inspire imagination.

Dahlak: We will be at work the entire time on stage. It's gonna be all of us working to build this set literally from the ground up. The whole purpose of our show and just our philosophy, is so based in progress, and watching our progress. Watch us grow, and then hopefully, at the end of the show, what you'll see is a creation come together.


Jennifer Bergen is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.