Third installment from The ILLZ’s In Between Video Series, which can be downloaded on August 17th. Really excited to hear the full project… I’m really diggin what The ILLZ has been putting out lately and the visuals that accompany the songs have been nothing less than stellar. Aside from that, the chick in this video is absolutely smokin… wow.
Synopsis by filmmaker Kristopher Rey-Talley: Round 3: don’t have a ton to say this time. Beauty of this video is what it become in contrast to what we set out to do. What was supposed to be a simple picnic vid became a sensual and romantic ode to French New Wave Films. I wanted it pretty, so I shot long lensed, and to give it that easy, nice flow, would give them topics to talk about and just let them interact as I shot. It was almost like I was staging a documentary and then capturing it. Of all our collabs, this may be the one I’m most proud of. I figured out how to rig a new lens system (my own secret) to give it a very cinematic feel. There’s something effortless and earnest about the video and that’s what I love. Even the performance shot was nailed in one take and I have no qualms about it, as it looks damn great.
Any other place to download?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
@Kev, that’s the biggest problem w/this artist, “the visuals that accompany the songs have been nothing less than stellar” and it just highligts how he’s the problem. The cinematography is outstanding and stands on its own as incredible piece art in and of itsself; yes, she’s smoking. The same goes for the production with its haunting horns and stark melodies that basically write the songs titles. Finally, and unfortunately comes the weakest link – the emcee. The only redeeming value was the gravel and echo of his voice but his flow & pedestrian lyrics sabotaged the tool his parents blessed him with. This was like going to the mechanic and finding out that your fully loaded Mercedes 500S has a chevette engine.
I agree with Jigsaw… perhaps ILLZ is using hip-hop to land an actor’s position?
Kevin,
This is def a beautiful post! The video is beautiful and timeless and heart felt BUT the artsit himself wasnt convincing, Now me being an artist myself…I look at it from a different perspective. He needs to put alot more work into his craft as an artist. It was too boring, but the Beat and the chick kinda brung us back to were i guess he was tryna take us, but he himself was WHACK. No hard feelings from an artist point of view. Dope video thou
uhhhhh wtf did i just witness here?
Drizz, what you’ve just witnessed is an all-too familiar but rarely talked about phenomon in the land of Hip-Hop called LD…Lyrical Dysfunction. Brought to the nation’s attention during the post-apocalytic days of the Y2K scare by Meth-ical in his opus “Judgment Day.” In it he referenced “a plague” that was killing our hip-hop and in its wake were only a “few real hardcore emcees” who were trying to find a cure.
I can only surmise by the current state of hip-hop and the election of the canadian-born emcee “Drake” as the future that a cure was either: a)never found, b) found to be ineffective unless given under the direct supervision of Dr. Dre. While this is truly a travesty, there have been pockets of resistance, most notably from the southern lands of T&A – the Nottinghammers, led by their stalwart leader, Sir Kevin of Bloggland. In addition, a devastating salvo was recently fired on the wack by that Knight of the Round Mic – Wise Intelligent and his band of Pour Righteous Teachers. The battle was initially in doubt as Soulja Boy contemplated releasing another demoralizing single of wack shit over the airwaves. This was further compounded by our loss and corruption of the god Rakim’s last album and continued addiction to buffoonery by Benedict Flava Arnold. Thankfully, the valiant Roots of iLLadelphia and Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty have maintained an incredible veteran presence of quality product to sustain the masses. Furthermore, our forces have also been sustained by the nourishments of the Lady Tye Phoenix and the young Duchess Lola Maxwell.
Our queen Rap has rejoiced with the newest addition to her “Ladies in Waiting” the articulate Arasia of Substance. We can only hope that she has the queen’s ear and along with the nobleman Rizzle convince Sir Kevin to lighten his burdens so that he can personally oversee the remix of Rakim’s holy words. Such a feat would surely stir the masses.
Be of good cheer for contrary to the great seer Nas’ prognostications: Hip-Hop is not dead. A blessing was just pronounced by the Abbott Rza, as the Wu went on a succint swarm followed with several skirmishes against the wack by the HipNOTT brigade; an incredible troop of emcees. We will continue to maintain our underground presence and gorilla tactics; vigilance is the price of freedom as our forces have report a Minaj sighting . The counter-insurgency is being directed by the great DJ Premier from his ubiquitous satellite position…maintain your post and know that the all is not lost. We recently welcomed back into the fold the deadly, yet dysfunctional, assassin Eminem – fresh from his recovery after numerous losses taken against the wack.
Fare thee well Drizz…additional updates & coordinates will be disseminated by our directors of covert intelligence and scribes Thomas & Justin.
ok, wtf was that?!?! lol
@Kevin-that was awesome!
Thats what makes Jigs unique. An excellent, but wordy explanation of what I had to watch. I really felt like that video was a waste of time. I’m never one to hate on someone’s grind, but we really need to step up our approach in this culture/industry/game/etc. I am a lyrics person firstly so all the glorified visuals come last in regards to a track. Too many rappers r just spillin w/o thinking imo. Any and errybody is directing a music video or makin a video blog contributing to the exposure of lameness. There has to be some sort of restriction or meter to limit this flurry of BS I keep seeing daily. I’m fuckin sick of heavy lyricism & beats getting shunned for laziness. Every got dayum blog is doin it. Yall give the limelight to erry single 9th wonder knock-off & Lupe sound-a-like (or in this case another sluggish sounding rapper). I know a lotta heads think the same ish when they visit bloggerland, but don’t say it. I’d even go as far to say that if this vid came out in the mid-’90s it would’ve gotten ridiculed. Lets step it up for fucks sake.
Yeah, Jig is a unique cat…. every time he goes into a rant like that, I end up feeling that much dumber lol.
But yeah, I definitely hear what you guys are saying and can appreciate where you all are coming from. I’ve always told people…. said it plenty of times on here and I’ll say it again — I’m a beats guy, always have been and always will. I can honestly listen to a track and when it’s done, have no idea what the song is about cuz I was just vibing out to the beat. That’s just me.
LOL – ok, the first joint was a rant, the second I was just wasting some time in this meeting. That being said, I have to disagree with each of you on some aspects of what you guys said. For instance, Drizz, my son and hip-hop need artists like illz & soulja boy as much as he needs Black Thought and OutKast. Without those contrasting standards it clouds his ability to discern the wack from what’s quality. You see, if you’re constantly fed garbage then you have zero appreciation for milet mignon. More importantly iron sharpens irons and we all need that blade. Hell, if I’ve made Kevin feel intellectually challenged upon occassion, then I know the feeling because Ararisa (I know I spelled it wrong) has given me pause a few times reading her post and Justin/Thomas/Rizzle generally come with it…but from a perspective that entails depth & breath.
“People died so I could rock the mic, you think I’m gonna waste my nations time” – KRSONE
Now I come from Hip-Hop Day 1 and you had to have some lyrics because we were ryhming over someone else’s phat song or break. TO ME, there was an abundance of phat beats coming out in the early ’90s as producers began to move out of the MCs shadow. This, coupled with the fact that alot of this phat beats had wack MCs caused people to gradually move to the neck-cracking aspects of hip-hop and away from the cereberal stimulation. “You use the beat for help, we help the beat” – Jada Kiss and vibing to just the beat to me, is like the difference between masturbation and hitting some ass raw dog…but that’s just my opinion.
One of the illiest lines in the history of hip-hop, “I’m the best or at least I’m the one YOU like” – by DMC accurately reflects why I say what I say about hip-hop…
Clearly you guys have only heard this record from the illz, though it is different I was reading the lyrics on a page minus the record and they were amazing. Hiow the fuck did one of u just put him on the level of Soulja Boy lmao wtf where am i? …go check out his project The Pursuit then maybe you can give an informed opinion since that will obviously inform you of this artists outside of this video. Come on guys…i hear a mess about laziness but where is the effort to actually do some research on this artist before you fucking write an article on it lol.
@ESum-it… since u brought it up, I’m not that idiotic that I would form an opinion w/o having done my research. I’ve heard many tracks from dude. I don’t just jump into the water not knowin how to swim. If u like the mans work then cool… more power to u buddy. Real talk when he did “the moment u feel…” I thought it was intriguing and somethin diffrnt. Still it was a slow pace. So then when I started to check ALL of his material out it was surprised that it was all kinda drowsy & slow. Just not my feel ya dig. I read diffrnt blogs and they all talk about how deep his shit is, but its truly average. Nothin mind blowing.