ILLClinton

(AllHipHop Features) The city of Atlanta is the epicenter to some of the most accomplished Hip Hop acts in history like OutKast, T.I., Goodie Mob, Ludacris, and Young Jeezy. One set of siblings from “The A” is looking to add their name to that illustrious list in the future.
22-year-old emcee/producer Brennan and 24-year-old producer Blake of North Atlanta’s ILLClinton draw inspiration from their musical influences Kanye West, No I.D., 9th Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Jay Z, OutKast, and The Pharcyde. The former Alabama A&M University students were raised by a mother who spent two decades as a chorus teacher, and they participated in band and orchestra programs in high school, so music has been ingrained in their life since infancy.
The duo jumped into the rap music world when they began making beats in 2007, but it was not until last year that they decided to go beyond just producing tracks to actually crafted a career as the Hip Hop group ILLClinton. After dropping their debut mixtape ILLANTA earlier this year, Brennan and Blake recently released the Scion AV hosted EP The ILL Experiment. AllHipHop spoke with the buzzing brothers to discuss the project, what makes them different from other Atlanta rap acts, and whether they think Hip Hop is dead.
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AllHipHop: What’s the meaning behind your group’s name?
Brennan: ILLClinton is like a play on words. You know of course Bill Clinton. The real meaning behind it is we just feel like we’re the illest of an era. We grew up in the 90’s which you can call the Bill Clinton Era. We just think we’re like the illest of the era that we grew up in.
AllHipHop: How did you connect with pro skater Sal Barbier to work on your “New Alexandria” video?
Brennan: That was kind of a hook up through Scion. We never actually got up with Sal. He’s just kind of a creative director for the video. He just gave a blueprint of an idea that was cool with the theme, content of the song. It ended up being real cool. He’s a nice guy. We spoke with him a few times over the phone.

AllHipHop: On your EP you have a track called “Hip Hop” where you say, “if Hip Hop’s dead then we gonna resurrect this s**t.” What’s your opinion of the current state of Hip Hop?
Brennan: I actually think that Hip Hop is in a pretty good state. I feel like it’s coming back. I feel like it’s a lot of new talent that is bringing a resurgence of Hip Hop. I feel for awhile it kind of strayed away from what it’s roots were. But with “if Hip Hop’s dead, then we gonna resurrect this s**t,” it was more of a statement like if you think it’s dead, it’s not dead at all. We’re not gonna let that happen.
AllHipHop: Atlanta is a real hotbed for rap music. What makes ILLClinton stand out from other rising acts from the city?
Blake: I feel with music everything is its own entity, so we just want to create our own lane that doesn’t really sound like everyone else in Atlanta. We just wanted to create something that will be our own and not sound like everyone else.
Brennan: I’m real big on lyricism. I feel like content is everything. I want to be able to spread messages through the things that I’m saying. If you can do that in a city like Atlanta, where it’s a big music influence down here, it’s a big platform for people to hear when you say something.
AllHipHop: Do you guys have any plans on releasing a full album?
Brennan: A full studio album is definitely in the future. We’re probably going to start working on another project before that. Just to get some content out. We released our first project back in February of this year, so we’re still kind grinding away at the underground route. But definitely in the near future we’ll probably drop an album in 2014.
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ILLClinton will be performing at the Scion AV Open Mic event in Brooklyn on October 9th.
Follow ILLClinton on Twitter @ILLClintonUSA, @brennanuptown, and @blakebelair.
Stream/Download ILLClinton’s Scion A/V Presents: The ILL Experiment EP below. - AllHipHop

(AllHipHop) Atlanta Hip Hop group ILLClinton is back with the sequel to their debut project. ILLANTA II is the next installment of emcee Brennan and producer Blake Belair’s ode to their hometown.
The 17-track free mixtape includes the cuts “Roll Up America II,” “Prophets,” and “The People.” - AllHipHop

Read my lips, I love Booth newcomers ILLCLINTON. I don’t know what to say about ILL’s Illest Alive other than that it’s, well, ill. On this Booth-exclusive world premiere, the Atlanta rap duo showcase a unique, creative style that would make another legendary A-Town twosome proud (cough, Outkast, cough). Brennan and Blake (the two halves of ILlCLINTON) create the track’s electronic beat with a little bit of attitude. Brennan promptly eviscerates the beat, exhibiting a razor-sharp, out-the-box flow that sets off the instrumental’s gritty undertones. Illest Alive is one of six cuts on ScionAV Presents, The ILL Experiment, set to drop next week. - DJ Booth

We live in the time of the quick come up, where a Hip Hop artist can release a tape in February and receive national attention by summer. Such is the story of Atlanta’s ILLClinton, whose tape ILLANTA got them picked up by Scion Open Mic, the legendary Hip Hop division of Scion A/V that has collaborated with everyone from Danny Brown to Vic Mensa. ILLANTA showcases the rare combination of hype and consciousness, trading bars and tracks between topics you’d scream along to at a party and shit you’d talk about with close friends after the party. Scion put ILLClinton — composed of brothers Brennan (rapper/ producer) and Blake (producer) — on for an EP, entitled The ILL Experiment and also hooked them up with Sal Barbier, the legendary skateboarder and designer, on the wild and visceral video for their track “New Alexandria.”

While the extremely up-and-coming brothers were prepping for their second show (ever) in Brooklyn, we caught up with them at King & Groove to hang out and chat for a bit. It didn’t take long before a couple of things become instantaneously clear. One, they're both style-aware in sound and look: their combination of backpacker collars with flat brims and clean kicks reflects the cool balance their music strikes. Two, the strength of the group comes from their differences: the way the siblings team up equates to something greater than the individual as Brennan, the younger, utilizes a ferocious, outspoken demeanor when rapping and an open way of speaking while Blake, the elder, keeps it completely lowkey, calculatedly sharing thoughts while taking on the role of the guru behind the turntables. Together they’re the pleasant meld of sound and style, the rare Rap duo that balances personality and thoughtfulness in a way that hearkens back previous kings of Atlanta — say for instance, OutKast.


SHK: YOU GUYS STARTED AS A PROFESSIONAL DUO RELATIVELY RECENTLY, RIGHT?

BRENNAN: We started producing music in 2008, and I got into rapping in 2012. We put a project out — our first mixtape, ILLANTA — in February [2013] and it started doing well. Then we recently put the Scion EP out.

THIS IS ALL VERY SUDDEN, IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME IN NYC, WHAT’S IT LIKE?

BRENNAN: We haven’t even been to Manhattan, yet. We’re here to play the Scion show and shoot a music video with Abazar, a dude from Vice.

WHAT’S YOUR RECORD MAKING PROCESS LIKE?

BLAKE: For the most part, I might have an idea and he’ll come in and add to it, or vice versa. I might make a whole beat. He might make a whole beat. It really varies.
BRENNAN: …But then when we get into the studio, into the recording process, we’ll go and tweak things together. We just make everything from scratch.

DID YOU GUYS GROW UP LISTENING TO HIP HOP?

BRENNAN: Definitely. I grew up on Kanye West, College Dropout was huge, Outkast…
BEING THAT YOU’RE ATLANTIANS, I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOUR FAVORITE OUTKAST RECORD IS.
BRENNAN: Probably ATLiens. BLAKE: My favorite song is probably “B.O.B. (Bombs over Baghdad).” It’s real fast-paced. It’s dope. BRENNAN: I like “A Day in the Life of Andre Benjamin,” off Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. He’s on some introspective, storyteller type shit. I like that, where it’s just “storyteller.” - SHK MAGAZINE

ILLClinton, the rising Hip Hop duo out of North Atlanta, have a new six-song EP with Scion AV called Scion AV Presents: The ILL Experiment. Brothers Brennan and Blake have been building a name for themselves on the underground hip-hop community this year, primarily with their ILLANTA mixtape, and The ILL Experiment is sure to bring them even more attention. Related: Scion AV Presents Harry Fraud High Tide EP - Scion AV

ATLien rap duo ILLClinton is ready to make an impact. Talented emcee Brennan James and nostalgia-inclined producer Blake Belair have consistently combined a shared appreciation for impressive rhymes and jazzy backdrops to craft an accessible, familiar sound that nevertheless belongs to them. Together, they form a successful hip-hop group in the making.

Belair’s sweet samples and stacked horns underneath Brennan’s genuinely delivered, complexly constructed public service announcement make the outfit’s newest release, “The People”, a solid entry point for the web surfing passerby.

“Unification of the people is what our world’s been needin’ / Crime and violence play like sad violins in the theater”

Stream “The People” below. - Potholes In My Blog

Hip-hop duo Brennan and Blake, known to the rap world as ILLClinton, have dropped the innovative and sense-provoking visuals for track "New Alexandria," which features the brothers upon a mesh of bold and psychedelic graphics and imagery directed at the hand of skate legend Sal Barbier. A first closeup look at the duo since their debut mixtape ILLANTA was dropped in February, the track features a slick rap-flow on a minimalist instrumental, that amps up cohesively as the chorus drops throughout the tune. The artistically dark and rap-heavy track is one of six featured on the brothers' fresh new EP, ILL Experiment, which also dropped today via Scion for free download. Check out the visual artistry for "New Alexandria" above and check out the album in full below. - Hypetrak

After a brief hiatus, Atlanta’s producer & rapper duo, ILLClinton is back on the scene with their fiery new track, “TRILLfluential”.
Following up from their EP with Scion AV, the rapper and producer pair grew tremendously in terms of sound, audience and content, receiving continuous praise from the media for bringing the true “southern renaissance” sound back in today’s Hip-Hop culture.
Now iTunes, you can stream this original produced track accompanied with heavy hitting, unorthodox lyricism, below.
The evolution of the ILL is now here. - The Source Magazine