Ill Poetic Presents… Outkast Meets NIN: Nine Inch NAliens

I know I’m late on this one. I think Ill Poetic sent this to me a couple of months ago and I know I’ve seen it on other blogs since then. At any rate, it’s still worth a post up here.  Outkast and Nine Inch Nails? Who would have thought? Definitely worth checking out.

The Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast rose to prominence in 1994 with the release of their seminal debut album “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”.  They have since changed the musical landscape of hip-hop and beyond on countless occasions. From the ethereal feel of “Elevators”to the drum-n-bass gospel “B.O.B.”, Outkast has never fit inside a box, a genre, or an era. They just kind of exist on their own plane.  For 10 years, they held on to their souls and were rewarded with hip-hop’s first ever “album of the year” grammy win for the diamond-selling “Speakerboxxx/Love Below”. Outkast continues to be a huge and deserved influence on multiple genres of music, as well as a reminder to just be yourself, (“fuck bein’ anything else”).

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails follows this same philosophy. After ditching New WaveBands in the 80’s, Trent ventured out to form his own band, comprised of…himself (though others are always in the line-up for assistance). Beginning with his debut album “Pretty Hate Machine”, and leading up to his recent free download “The Slip”, Trent has made a career pushing the boundaries of sound, distortion, and atypical instrumentation. Who else can make piano keys sound like water trickling down over distorted frequencies of a toaster being thrown into a bathtub (that’s what it sounds like to me).

Ill poetic would harvest organs (preferably not his own) to work with any of these people. This is the closest he’ll get for now. Ill Po is best known his 2007 LP “The World is Ours”, as well as the successful release “ill poetic presents Budden Meets Portishead: Mood Muzik’sThird”, which garnered extremely favorable press at rollingstone.com, allhiphop.com, hiphopdx.com, and quite possibly the very place you’re reading this right now. Why cross NIN and Outkast? Fuck it, that’s why. Take two artists who threw away all their boundaries, and write your name in the snow of another boundary by crossing them together. Ill poetic still writes his own press-releases, but I’m sure you couldn’t tell.

So without further ado, ill po gives you the free download “Nine Inch Naliens”, a record that sounds like something Otis Redding would mosh to in Phil Spector’s living room.

DOWNLOAD

• Ill Poetic on MySpace