ILLFONICS is Matt Friedman (left) and Jed Cappelli.
After this week’s in-depth interviews with RATATAT and Emile, our behind-the-scenes series on Kid Cudi’sMan On The Moon: The End Of Day continues with today’s Q&A subject: Matt Friedman, one-half of ILLFONICS, and the man who produced the ’shrooming anthem “Enter Galactic.”
As ILLFONICS, Friedman and partner Jed Cappelli have churned out beats for notables like Jim Jones (”Na Na Nana Na Na”) and the Re-Up Gang (”My Life’s the Shit”). On Cudi’s debut, Friedman is responsible for the album’s outlier—”Enter Galactic” is clearly the LP’s most uptempo, dance-friendly track. Read on as he talks about how he came to work with Cudi, why “Enter Galactic” almost didn’t make the album, and future projects…
Yesterday we presented our interview with Ratatat, who produced “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Alive” on Kid Cudi’sMan On The Moon: The End Of Day album. Today, we turn our focus to Emile, who is not only Cudi’s co-manager but the person who racked up the most production credits on the LP.
The man sometimes referred to as “The Urban Gentleman” has previously worked with Raekwon (”Ice Water”) and Obie Trice (”Wanna Know”), but it’s with Cudi’s project that Emile is truly making a name for himself. After producing the majority of the A Kid Named Cudi mixtape with Plain Pat, Emile shifted his focus to work on Cudi’s studio album. (The trio have since started their own indie label, Dream On.) On Man On The Moon, Emile’s touch is apparent from start to finish—he produced “In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem),”“Soundtrack 2 My Life,”Solo Dolo (Nightmare),” and “CuDi Zone.” In this exclusive interview, Emile breaks down how each track came to fruition, and also talks about the first night he met Cudi…
Last week, Complex cover starKid Cudi moved an impressive 104K units of his debut album Man on The Moon: The End of Day—but more than just sales, Cudi’s record has been generating a lot of discussion with its unique sound. While most people are familiar with Scott Mescudi (click here for our in-depth cover interview if not), those who’ve listened to the album have been asking about Ratatat, who produced two records for the album, including the standout third single “Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare)”.
The Brooklyn-based instrumental duo has gained a big following in the electro/indie rock world over the last five years with their eclectic albums on XL Recordings (in fact, their 2006 album Classics ended up on Complex’s 100 Best Albums of the 2000s list), but this marks their first exposure as producers within the hip-hop scene. In this interview, we talked to one-half of the group, Evan Mast, about how the Cudi collabos came about and what it was like to work on the album. Read on to learn more about Ratatat, yeahhh….
Now that the smoke has (mostly) cleared from the Kanye and Lil Mama embarrassments at the VMAs, maybe it’s time to talk about the positives from the evening. After a fairly quiet summer, Wale jumped back in the spotlight as the house performer at the MTV awards show. A few days later, he was named as the opening act for Jay-Z’s upcoming Blueprint 3 tour. With the recent release of his second official single (“World Tour,” featuring Jazmine Sullivan), it’s already been a great September for the D.C. native.
As he preps for the Hova tour and readies his debut album (Attention Deficit, due November 3), Wale’s busier than ever…but not too busy to chat with Complex about his MTV gig, his live band, and touring with Jay. Read on for the interview and to listen to “World Tour”…
Without so much as breathing on the mic, the man known as “Ty Ty” (a.k.a. Tyran Smith) has become a household name in hip-hop. How? By being the best buddy of Jay-Z, of course. But the role Ty Ty plays as Hov’s real right-hand man (sorry, Bleek) isn’t without its downsides. You know, he might have to mace a child abuser and take a charge. Or he might end up (allegedly) taking a beatdown on behalf of the big homie (but live to Twitter about it!). See, this shit ain’t all courtside seats and weekends in St. Barts.
But aside from the obvious perks, undying loyalty to hip-hop’s biggest icon has another advantage—no, not an imdb page, but immortality in rap lyrics. Yep, Jay has been shouting out Ty Ty since Reasonable Doubt all the way up to The Blueprint 3, which leaked yesterday (you might have heard?). So we combed through Hov’s discography to uncover the top 8 lyrical references to Ty Ty. Best Friends Forever!….
Killer Mike has some A-town artists he can’t wait to tell you about.
Atlanta is many things to many people. Musically, the A has given us everything from iggety-underaged rappers with their clothes worn backwards to hard-ass trap music, mindless stripper jams, and all kinds of experimental shit in between. On Killer Mike’s latest project, the double-disc album Underground Atlanta, that releases today, the Grand Hustle rapper brings artists from all sub-genres together to showcase the full range of talent in his hometown. Complex caught up with the big homie to get his thoughts on 10 new and emerging Atlanta artists that you should be up on. Most of them are on his album, so cop that and see what the hell he’s talking about!
Jay-Z has bodied many a trend in his time—X5s, throwbacks, Diesel jeans, etc.—but he’s on a veritable murder spree with Blueprint 3. Having already dismissed Auto-Tune on “D.O.A.,” Jigga is taking aim at a host of other trends on “Off That,” the just-leaked Timbaland-produced song featuring Drake. But does Jay-Z still hold the weight to sway the masses? Read on to listen to the song and vote on whether you think Jay can kill each trend—yes, he can? Or, no, he can’t…
After Kid Cudiperformed at Seattle’s Summer Jam, our friends at the rapper’s #1 fansite Datnewcudi.com got a moment to speak to him about the Complex cover story. In the video interview Cudi expresses why he felt the need to be so honest in our cover story, and also gives fans a background on his history with Complex before he landed the cover. Props to DatNewCudi for getting this interview up literally the day after we leaked the cover. That’s how you internet, people. Be sure to check out the links below if you missed them yesterday…
So many hip-hop magazines have folded in recent years that it’s hardly a surprise when we hear another one has closed up shop. But when urban powerhouse VIBE shut down operations last month, the news was too big to ignore. Since most of us here at Complex Media got our respective starts at various rap publications, we got to reminiscing about the good ol’ days when you could walk into a newsstand and be greeted by shelf after shelf of hip-hop magazines. Though each presented its own unique perspective, the constant was that they were all created out of a shared passion for the culture. Sounds cheesy, but some of you have no idea about the blood, sweat, and tears that go into making a print magazine. Truly a labor of love.
Thus inspired, we dug—and we mean dug—deep into the archives to unearth, document, and rate every dead rap magazine ever created. Yeah, we had to rate them, but in the end, everybody associated with these publications deserves an “A” for effort. Yep, even you, Benzino…
Compared to basketball, football, and baseball (and golf…and soccer…and NASCAR), ice hockey doesn’t get that much love in rap lyrics—you know: it’s cold, there’s crazy white people with masks and sticks, etc. etc. (word to Nat X). That’s why it always catches our attention when an MC drops a hockey reference in a verse. Most recently, it was the homie Mibbs from Pac Div (on “Knuckleheadz” from the group’s new Complex-co-signed mixtape) who got icey with it: “It get colder than a polar, or Ovechkin with the puck.”
The Ovie reference got us thinking about our favorite hip-hop hockey moments of the past. (Ed. note: Sorry Kardi, Saukrates, Maestro Fresh Wes, et. al.—we excluded all Canadian rappers. Y’all supposed to be talking about hockey!) So then, get your puck on and enjoy rap’s greatest lyrical nods to hockey. Skate, skate, skate, skate!
