Interview: Illogic & Blockhead

The second installment of the Preparing for Capture EP series hits the web tomorrow

In the middle of the last decade, the thought of Illogic and Blockhead releasing free EP’s of original music to the public in hopes of landing a record deal of some kind would have been absurd.  Illogic was one of the independent rap game’s most prized lyricists, an artist who gained a lot of attention through the internet with the release of his masterpiece of teenage introspection and angst, Unforeseen Shadows, and continued to gain support with follow up projects like Got Lyrics? and Celestial Clockwork – all of which were released by the small Columbus, Ohio imprint Weightless Recordings – a label he helped build with his partner and collaboration Blueprint.  Blockhead earned his stripes as Aesop Rock’s go-to in-house producer, probably best known for producing a bulk of Aesop Rock’s classic Labor Days and his biggest single – at least at the time – “Daylight.”  But as we all know the record industry is not at all, what it once was and there are only a handful of legitimate record labels left putting out rap music at all anymore.

I caught up with Blockhead and Illogic to discuss Preparing for Capture 2, which is available for name your own price download on bandcamp on September 11th, as well on CD with some extra goodies.  We also talked about their forthcoming LP Capture the Sun, surprise guest appearances, and meeting each other in the Scribble Jam/Rocksteady era back around the turn of the millennium.  As we dug into their own creative processes Illogic revealed that he writes most of his rhymes at work at a call center, and Blockhead still produces on an ASR-10 without monitors, does not believe he invented Enya Rap beats, and once sampled John Tesh (sorry Tony I could only bury the lead so far down the page).  Finally we discussed what a good year it’s been for rap music and how the curse of the lack of record labels may be something of a blessing to the creative process for so many artists.

Album Review: Illogic & Blockhead – Preparing for Capture

“Matter of Minutes” Illogic & Blockhead

Illogic and Blockhead seem like a natural pairing for those who have followed the independent rap scenes of New York and Columbus closely for the last fifteen years.  On the Eastern cusp of the Mid-West, Columbus rappers often made the 9 hour trek to NYC to bring their unique flavor to the larger NYC independent scene.  The likes of the late Camu Tao and his MHZ crew (Copywrite, Tage Proto, Jakki, RJD2) made a seemless transition into the NYC-based Def Jux/Eastern Conference fold in the early 00’s, and while Blueprint maintained a local presence with his Weightless imprint and gained more national attention through his work with Minnesota’s Rhymesayers.  As one of the more prominent and talented independent artists to come out of Ohio in recent memory, it is Illogic’s more intellectual, artistic, and perhaps avant-garde slant in his music that makes him such a perfect match for a producer like Blockhead, who of course cut his teeth as the primary producer behind Aesop Rock’s most hailed projects.  Blockhead, known for melodic, quietly snared, minimalism, perfect for more introspective and contemplative lyricism, had a pretty full-plate until relatively recently between his work with Aesop Rock, Chase Phoenix, a solo instrumental hip hop career, and producing for other Def Jukies and affiliates as well as artists on small NYC imprints like johnny23, Embedded, and Nature Sounds among others.  As has been alluded to often, and occasionally discussed, Aesop Rock’s move out to the Bay Area a few years back has physically and perhaps creatively put some space between himself and former NYC collaborators, including long-time friend and primary collaborator Blockhead.  While Aesop and Blockhead still work together and remain close, Aesop has stated his need to go to entirely self-producing Skelethon in order to get in the proper creative groove for the record (despite the ease of collaboration over the internet, Aesop, like El-P and Ka for example, is among the few rappers and producers  who still strongly prefer to work in close physical proximity to collaboratively develop the proper cohesion for an album).  The absence of Aesop as a primary collaborator and the dead ball era of modern nerd rap (2008-2010) left Blockhead predominantly focused on instrumental work and only occasionally collaborating with emcees who spark his interest.