Rhythm J Interview and The Illiance Project @rhythmj

Tell us about yourself and your music?

I have a long history of placing music in shows on TV, name your favorite shitty reality show, I probably have something on it. But the first love that still stands today is actual music production as an art form. I came up loving to sample, chopping up records like most producers did in the early-mid 2000s, but I have since progressed away from samples a few years or so, and it has led to being able to further create and push the envelope more. There are so many different sounds out there and as I do still dabble in sampling a bit, it has to be mangled to the point where you can't recognize it. I always try to ad textures that are different. The key word for me is always different, if it's not different, why will anyone be interested?  

How would you describe your sound?

A Rhythm J type-beat.  I sound like me.  I make that point because I can't stand these producers out here making music that sounds like other producers.  I strive to go against sounding like someone else.  I'll scrap full tracks if they stat to give off a certain vibe that already exists. 

As I do get inspired by what I hear, I'd rather work directly with a producer I admire than trying to sound exactly like them.  Why copy when you can collab? What I sound like is up to the audience, I just hope it's positive.

Talk about the experience making your single?

I chose not to pick a single for The Illiance album because I see it as a full body of work.  In today's landscape where people want to eat bitesize pieces of albums and not hear the rest of it, I'll let the people listen through and pick their own single.  But if I were to share an experience with one track it would be Heat Waves, which would probably be the most "mainstream" sounding track if you had to pick one that was more upbeat and bright.  B Korn, who has worked with DJ Khaled, Lil Wanye, Chris Brown, and recently got the new Lil Kim single, sent me a bunch of ideas and made it into the full track you hear today.  There was only one problem, the idea was a sample !!  We tried clearing the sample ourselves but the original writer said "no" before ever hearing it lol.  So we had to scrap the sample part and B Korn went in and played something completely new.   We moved quick on our feet and made a positive situation out of it, and it came out real dope 

What are you currently working on? Any new projects? Shows?

Right now I'm just going to stay focused on making new material for artists - whether that be full songs, hooks, beats, just looking to further build on relationships that lead to positive things.  Maybe an Illiance vol. 2 is in order after we see what the feedback is with this one.

What has been your biggest highlight in your music career this far?

I can't really pinpoint one as I don't think it's happened yet.   Just having a history of brushing shoulders with producers I consider some of the GOATs, guys like Premier, Rza, Just Blaze, Pharrell, Stevie J and D Dot of The Hitmen.  Most of them won't even remember our interactions, but they will stay with me.  

Name your ideal collaboration: mainstream or independent artist(s)?

I would love to work with Hov and Em, but who wouldn't.  I actually get tight when their albums come out and my name isn't in there.  My bucket list is like many others I'm sure, Nas, J Cole, The Lox, but also newer guys like Dave East and Joyner Lucas.

Name something random that people do not know about you?

I worked at ASCAP for a while - so public service announcement to anyone trying to sign me, I kind of know my shit when it comes to publishing and how business is set up.  I know what questions to ask, waving a monster advance in my face isn't going to make me sign a dotted line because I know the exchange won't be in my favor long term.  

What’s one thing you have learned or discovered while being in the indie music scene/industry?

It's small.  If there's a 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon in the world, theres a 3 degrees or less to Dr Dre within the industry.  It also comes down to timing as well I think.  Meeting in person is such a big factor now because an email from a random person vs. an email with someone you just interacted with the day before goes a long way.  We can all get lost behind a computer a lot of the time, being unproductive when we think we are being productive, I'm guilty of this as well, sometimes you need to shake all of that and just work smarter.

What can we expect from you in the future?

Just working hard with my team, big shout to the Vocal Junkies, you're going to hear a lot about these writers soon, I promise you.  It's so hard to find talented songwriters, vocalist, mixer's engineers, male and female, that can also rap, combined they can do anything on a record.  We have a bunch of records done already, and we'l have more done in the future that should find a home soon.

Rhythm J – The Illiance here.

November 29, 2017 5:18pm ET by One Percent PR   Comments (0)

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