The Boy Illinois Interview

boy-illinoisBTN: Is it easier for people to understand your angle outside of Chicago than it is for people inside the city to understand it.

TBI: Dawg it is so much easier outside of Chicago. Especially on the West Coast. The West Coast was very receptive to me. I started to notice the difference between the crowds who only came out to see Lupe Fiasco and the crowds who came to see a good show. The shows where the people came to see a good performance; I rocked. Sometimes I have had people coming up to me after the show apologizing because they were unfamiliar with my music. They will say things like your shit is bangin and I appreciate that. Here in Chicago it is a syndrome we have and I notice the same thing in New York. Chicago and New York are very similar in the way the crowd receives you. They will be like I don’t know you, your shit is banging; but I’m not going to show you I like it. I have performed many times in Chicago and the crowd haven’t done anything; and then afterwards five or six people will approach me and say it’s dope. And I be like I just saw you in the crowd and you weren’t doing nothing.

BTN: It sounds like they can’t deny the real.

TBI: The last time we went on tour with Lupe Fiasco, it was like a 10-0 run. Then after the 10-0 run; we took a time out. Instead the other team taking a time out. We broke our own momentum, and it is really about the momentum and the constant of people seeing you. Nowadays it really don’t matter about the music if you know the person. I got to like you as a person. If I continuously keep seeing you as a person, that means I will keep knowing more and more about you. So it’s about the consistency of putting you out there. And it doesn’t even have to come in the form of music. It could be a GQ spread. It could be a interview or you doing something in the community. If muthafuckers keep seeing you; they will be like yeah that nigga be out here. A nigga can say that haven’t listen to one song, but he keep seeing you to the point where he like let me check this nigga out.

BTN: That shit is deep.

TBI: It is real deep process; it is a psychological thing that you got to understand. Like I mention the first time we went out and had a 10-0 run and we took a time out. This time when we went on tour; we went on a 12-0 run, but we not taking a time out. We gon keep going.

BTN: Basically you just summed up the process of creating a brand for yourself. Do you dislike the process of doing that, after you have done the work of putting out good music?

TBI: I enjoy the whole process of everything. The brand where you see this afro centric or Afro-European look I got; I didn’t have two years ago. So I rather come in with the way I look now than the way I look two years ago. Timing is everything for me and when it’s supposed to come; you prepare for it. When the student is ready; the teacher will appear. I’m a big believer in that. So when I’m ready and prepared; that’s when that real transition comes and I’m really prepared for that. But it’s getting there; it took a longer process because I do what I do and I am the way I am. But it’s still going to end up with the same results; just took a longer time to get there.

BTN: Does this new re-introduction of  The Boy Illinois have a final destination? Or are you just going with the flow?

TBI: Of course you have some type of plan and for me that’s like just being a “Global Ambassador” of us. For me, I really want to connect with different brothers from different places. And I want to make them understand each other. To the point we on the same page. Even though your language is different and we got different customs; it’s still the same shit. We just got different names for things. I tell people all the time, every hood is the same. We just got different population and different slang. The people have the same personalities, the same environment; it’s just a different place. That’s my whole goal; just to merge everybody together. Just so we can have an understanding, and once we have that understanding, we can do anything. That’s why people have differences because they don’t have that basic foundation of understanding.

BTN: What direction can we expect the music to be going?

TBI: “Afro-trap” That’s pretty much where it’s going to go. Same type of BPM as trap music, but using real drums. Congo’s and things of that nature; instead of 808’s. It’s just the perfect marriage of the hood and a more traditional image and sound. Like I said I didn’t have this two years ago. I feel like that sound and that image is the best representation of me.

BTN: Most people don’t analyze that..

TBI: It’s trial, error and watching other people do stuff. I’m really big on watching people doing stuff. I’m on the blogs all the time. I look at everybody and see what’s working and check people’s comments. I’m know some of it is fugazi, but I do it anyway. What’s working, what’s going to do this and what’s going to do that. I analyze everything. People comments everything. So now we back from tour, we dropping two new songs and a video. The video is for a joint called “Back Again” with my homie from DC. We shot while we was on tour in DC, in front of Ben Chili’s Bowl. Then we have the “Ruling Class” joint of f of Dusable, which is the remake of “If I Ruled the World.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *