In this full-length interview, Illmind shares his thoughts on winning two Grammy awards, the depths of his music catalog moving to Brooklyn about 12 years ago, and the way in which J Dilla inspired his style as a music producer. From there, the 41-year-old reflects back on working with 50 Cent and G-Unit for the first time before sharing what it was like to work with Lin Manuel on the soundtrack for “Moana” and the “Hamilton Mixtape.” As the discussion moves along, the New Jersey native shares his thoughts on why Kanye West chose to boycott the Grammys this year. Lastly, Ill Mind talks about working with heavy hitters such as Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, and Beyonce.
Illmind came through for his first-ever VladTV interview, where he spoke about growing up in New Jersey, but having a strong connection to New York. He then spoke about J Dilla inspiring him to become a producer, and Illmind revealed that he copied J Dilla’s beats to learn how to make them and start producing. Moving along, Illmind opened up about 50 Cent’s “Make a Movie Out of Em” being the break-out song that he worked on, and he added that “The Morning” on GOOD Music’s “Cruel Summer” was another turning point in his career. After speaking about working with Little Brother, Illmind detailed getting a production management deal with G-Unit as 50 Cent was on top of his career. To hear more, including Illmind speaking about working with 50 Cent in the studio, hit the above clip.
In this clip, Illmind reflects back on signing a publishing deal that he should not have signed back in 2010. The iconic record producer states that the he signed the contract out of desperation because he needed the money. He also shares that anyone who intends on signing a publishing deal should get a lawyer first. From there, the New Jersey native reveals that he used to sell hip-hop beats for $25-50 before sharing that he now charges $50,000 per beat. This prompts Shirley Ju to ask the record producer how the track that he created for “The Morning” landed on the radar of Kanye West. To that, Illmind details the events leading up to the epic collaboration for the “Cruel Summer” compilation album and the doors that opened for him in the music industry afterwards. The 41-year-old then shares his feelings on Kanye West, the artist/producer before explaining why he looks up to him so much as a creator. Moving along, Illmind talks about being on one the first music producers to release his own brand of sound packs (back in 2012) for musicians to use with their production software. Lastly, Illmind gives the origin story for how he earned his stage name.
In this clip, Fredro Starr talked about the meme that’s circulating which calls him the “Evil Pharrell” and how spot on that side-by-side of the famed producer and himself. He also gave his take on the older generation of rappers calling today’s generation trash. Fredro made the point that hip-hop is a young person’s game from the music to the fashion.
Cynthia Kao, producer, filmmaker and comedian, in a TikTok video going viral has pointed out the similarities between a short film she made in 2016 and a short film that recently won an Academy Award.
Without making any direct allegations, Filmmaker Cynthia Kao notes how her film Groundhog Day For A Black Man and Two Distant Strangers, Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short Film, share plot themes while giving her audience an insight into the backstory.
In the aftermath of George Floyd‘s killing and the resultant protests, Kao says she was contacted by publication NowThis News in 2020 for permission to amplify her short film on their platform, owing to its topicality.
‘When a black man lives the same day over and over again, he tries changing his behavior to survive a police interaction,’ reads the description for Kao’s short film Groundhog Day For A Black Man on YouTube.
The permission email, which Kao shows on screen, mentions the channel would give her credit when sharing her film. “They ended up posting it to their Facebook and Twitter page,” Kao says in her TikTok.
“One year after NowThis posts my short, Netflix puts out a short called Two Distant Strangers on April 9, 2021… it’s about a Black man who lives the same day over and over again and tries to survive a police interaction,” she says in her TikTok.
Two Distant Strangers has been directed by Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, distributed by Netflix and produced in association with companies Dirty Robber, NowThis and Six Feet Over. The film had received critical acclaim upon its release last year November and in April 2021, won an Oscar.
“I don’t know what happened, I’m not making any assumptions,” Kao ends her TikTok video saying.
Kao is a prominent award-winning short film director also known for other titles like If Men Had Periods It Wouldn’t Be Gross and Relationship Status. She currently works for Walt Disney TV Directing Program, as per her website bio.
Ever since her claims went viral, netizens have been outraging against NowThis for allegedly “ripping off” her work and passing it off as an original production. Comments under Two Distant Strangers on YouTube too have amassed multiple allegations against the short’s makers of “stealing” Kao’s idea.
MF DOOM deserves a college course dedicated to him. He feels like a puzzle, trapped in an enigma, bear-hugged by metaphor. Since the 1999 release of what can be considered his solo debut album, Operation Doomsday, MF DOOM has lived in a self-created mystical world on the opposite side of the universe from contemporary Hip Hop. He’s impossible to pigeonhole and incredibly tough to describe, because he assumes different characters constantly. His music is the best kind of bar-heavy, astoundingly vivid. Almost always unconventional song structure. Few hooks allowed. Let’s break it down…
Chris Rock sounded off on films that deal with Civil Rights struggles and said the issue with the majority of these films is that they “make racism look very fixable.” Rock said the stories his mother used to tell him about the Civil Rights Movement era make it clear these films should be “dirtier,” if they want to be accurate.
“I hate all Civil Rights movies,” Rock said. “Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the effort and they should exist. The problem is they only show the back of the bus and the lunch counter. They actually make racism look very fixable. They don’t get into how dysfunctional the relationships were in the ’40s and ’50s, white men would just walk in your house and take your food… it’s a predator-prey relationship. Do you think when it was time to rape, [white men] were raping white women? No. They would go and rape the women they could actually rape without going to jail for.”
“This shit is so much dirtier than any movie ever shows,” Rock continued. “My mother used to get her teeth taken out at the vet because you weren’t allowed to go to the dentist. No movie shows you that.”
Rock did not call out any Civil Rights movies by name, although his argument that such films “make racism look very fixable” were the same criticisms thrown at Best Picture winner “Green Book.”
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