I'm not gonna try to say something
in the way that is the first thing that comes to mind.
You know what I mean?
Unless the first thing that comes to mind
is witty, unpredictable talent and natural game.
You know what I mean?
It's like it's got, it has to be dope.
I can't just, it's a cop out, you know
for me to say, you know, "I'm Top Gun like Tom Cruise,"
you know what I'm saying?
So I gotta flip it in a way that's gonna make you think
and that's going to be visual.
That's gonna conjure up a specific imagery.
The initial inspiration came from a track that, you know
Sean C was just scrolling through,
and he had like a bare bones idea
of this "Magnificent" joint. Something about, you know
like the baseline, the use of the, you know
the, "I'm the magnificent," sample,
which is just a classic sample.
You know what I mean?
Really put me in the mind of Special Ed,
the use of UFO
which is also just some classic hip hop shit.
It just, it took me back.
It felt, you know, familiar and nostalgic.
Long days, longer nights, uncertainty, you know?
I know right now we're living in uncertain times,
but those times were uncertain in a different way.
Not knowing where my next meal was coming from.
Having to sometimes choose
between a nickel bag of weed, or, you know what I'm saying,
some... eating that night or whatever.
A lot of time to kill,
just the amount of time that I had on my hands
you know, to sort of think and to sorta, you know
wallow in that space.
Amiri Baraka and Malcolm X are just two of a long list
of revolutionary minds that had a huge impact
on the way I think, the way I feel, and you know,
the way I create.
The fact that I speak about you know,
the journey, like their journey, their evolution
it's never too late to evolve.
It's never too late to change.
You know what I'm saying?
Like before Malcolm X was Malcolm X, he was Detroit Red.
You know what I'm saying?
Before Amiri Baraka was Amiri Baraka
he was Leroy Jones, and before Black Thought
was Black Thought he was, you know,
Tarik Trotter from South Philly.
You know what I'm saying?
So it just speaks to that same sort of evolution.
And I was thinking about
you know how I began as a, you know,
a graffiti writer, a graffiti artist, and, you know
thinking about the first time that I was arrested, you know,
at 12 years old, thinking about beat,
you know having to beat cans of paint or, you know
steal a spray cans of spray paint when I was a young dude.
Not only, you know, con art in the sense of aerosol art,
but also being a con artist.
You know what I mean?
I used to, you know, work a job where I would get paid
on Friday and I would take my check
and cash it and then put my money together
with another dude that worked in the same spot
and we would go out and do like the three card Monte
and you know, all types of little, you know, scams.
Like I was very much a hustler as as a young person.
Sponart is one of my best friends.
We went to high school together.
We went to college together.
He's now my longtime engineer
and that's who was engineering my vocals on that day.
So it speaks to him, you know what I'm saying?
My homie, his name is Spon
but his company is called Sponart.
So yeah, that was all of that.
You know, I mean, just tied in.
I realized just that it's a unique space
that I'm able to occupy.
And I'm always trying to think
of just a dope way to refer to, you know, being black
you know what I mean?
Heavily melanated, you know what I'm saying?
My skin tone, I'm a war machine.
My skin tone is aubergine. Skin the color of carbon.
Sometimes I do the "I'm black likes,"
you know what I mean? "I'm black like this,
I'm black like that," or, "I'm so black that," and yeah,
it's just something that I enjoy because it's a,
it's a challenge to myself
that I'm able to rise to, to try and think
of an analogy for blackness
that has yet to be used.
The law of mathematics speaks to just reality-based
information that has been shown improving.
If there's any law that I'm going to abide by
it's gonna be, I mean, I guess the law of gravity.
I'd rather move in that way then, you know
to make myself small and to dumb down
my magnificence and my brilliance to adhere
to, not only this country, to adhere to really, you know
the world's misappropriation of history.
The world's history of, you know
sort of rewriting the origin
and evolution of Africans
and people who were part of the African diaspora.
Before we decided to say like,
"Yo, what could we call Philly?"
You know, other than Philly or Philadelphia,
that didn't exist.
So it's, it's really claiming ownership to that,
to that jargon, to that slang.
You know what I'm saying?
Which is that's some hip hop shit too.
It's just, it's quintessentially hip hop to
think of an iller name for where it is that you come from,
and what name is iller than Illadel?
The Icarus is a character that appears in Greek mythology.
And my usage is about how I am.
I am the son. You know what I mean?
I am the light.
I am, you know, all seeing and all powerful,
and I am that bright and that wise
that when I shine, you know what I'm saying?
If you, if you get too close to me,
or if you get close to me with the wrong intentions
you might think you fly, but I'll burn your wings off.
44 was definitely a nod to the 44th POTUS.
And the relationship that like... The Roots we were,
we were during the Obama administration,
we were essentially the go-to band
for not only White House events, but, you know,
even before Obama was elected, like we was rocking out
doing concerts while he was still campaigning.
And we were usually supportive in that way and,
you know love it, or hate it, or whatever.
I feel like he was just what he represents
or what he represented for us as a leader
was brilliance, was magnificence, was excellence.
And, you know, that's the note that I
wanted to sorta end on.
We're about to put out streams
of 'Thought Volume Three,' but 'Volume Four' is done.
I got another album called 'Dangerous Thoughts'
with myself and Danger Mouse, that's done.
I got a, you know, it's a bunch of shit.
You know what I mean? Some stuff coming down the pipeline
that I don't even want to speak to yet
but I have, you know, very many bodies of work
each of which sounds and feels distinctively different.