The Word Is Bond has premiered new visuals from Illogic + DJ Criminal this morning. “Flight Plan” is taken from the newly released EP A Change In Mantra (available in CD/Digital Format via links below). Speaking on this release, which is his first in several years Illogic said “A Change In Mantra is really about me trying to find a place of balance in my life. It’s me trying to see what positivity I can offer to the world, to my family, to the listener.”
That eastern philosophy is reflected in the music that producer / turntablist DJ Criminal sourced for the beats on this release. As he revealed “a lot of the samples on these tracks are from records I picked up living abroad, mostly from shops in Japan and Thailand.” The results is an otherworldly, often funky and energetic ride through the consciousness. Illogic, who lets the beats inform his subject matter and lyrics admits that the resulting eight tracks is probably the most autobiographical and straight-forward he’s been on record to date.
This includes “Look But Don’t Touch” the first leak from the project (which previously premiered via Weekly Rap Gods) about his touring days as a young, married man trying to avoid temptation.
Listen to “Look But Don’t Touch” Here
First coming to prominence in the late 90’s Illogic was a product of the fertile underground hip-hop scene in Columbus, OH which also included Blueprint, RJD2, MHZ, Copywrite, Camu Tao and Spitball. Today Illogic and Blueprint also join forces as co-hosts on The Super Duty Tough Work Podcast.
Criminal, who originally hails from Pittsburgh, PA has a career that often takes him to exotic and sometimes dangerous locales around the world. He also reveals one of these locales also held up the release saying “I did a lot of the cuts on the project and the mixing while in Afghanistan. Unfortunately a terrorist attack kept me in lockdown at a location away from my equipment for months at a time and I was stuck in a hotel room working on the cuts but missing the recording cable that would allow me to put it down and get the record done.”
Also newly released is Criminal’s novel Saudi Arabia Undercover (Monsoon Books) about some of his experiences in the middle-east.
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