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[definitionmusic]

TOLEDO MUDHENS & WALLEYE COMMERCIALS STARRING HUNTORPREY WIN 2 AWARDS FROM AAF TOLEDO

HuntorPrey and team won two awards from The American Advertising Federation of Toledo (AAF Toledo)  for their Toledo Mud Hens and Toledo Walleye commercials that played last year throughout social media and their respective stadiums. Watch both below:

Mudhens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gzYjTwedN8&t=1s

Walleye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOJrc40YIcc&t=1s

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ILL POETIC x BEN GUERRETTE “WITH FLYING COLORS” RECAP

From Ill Po:

“September 25, 2021 was an unforgettable day. After months of planning and rehearsing, Ben Guerrette and I presented “With Flying Colors” to a private crowd of close friends and family. It was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of: merging sounds with color and lights in ways that seemed to swallow everyone in the room alive. We filmed and captured audio of the entire performance to share with you.‘With Flying Colors’ is a 45-minute collaborative performance that merges the audiovisual creative field by turning colors into instruments: a circle of fifths morphed into a circle of lights. Over the holiday break, we’ll be sharing clips of specific songs performed and ultimately the full performance for all of you. In 2022, we go public.

The recap below includes my older material as well as select songs from my most recent project “Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life”, streaming everywhere.”

Video by David Ira

Stream “As Serious As Your Life”: https://smarturl.com/illpoetic-ASAYL-lp

Watch the full 15-minute recap here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lCXCBV3dA

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HUNTORPREY PRESENTS SHORT FILM ON TOLEDO BLACK PANTHER PARTY AT UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO

This Tuesday at the The University of Toledo HuntorPrey will be presenting his short film on the history of the Toledo Chapter of The Black Panthers. Bring your kids out, this is really good!

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ILL POETIC’S “AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE” DEBUTS ON COLUMBUS OHIO’S CD92.9FM

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HUNTORPREY x TOLEDO WALLEYE  | “BACK AT FULL STRENGTH”

Huntorprey returns to welcome the Toledo Walleye to a new hockey season.

[definitionmusic]

ILL POETIC ON ‘BEDROOM BEETHOVENS’ PODCAST

From Ill Po:

Fresh off the road trip with my dad, I got to sit down with Cello at Bedroom Beethovens podcast to have a thoughtful conversation about family, the Ohio hip-hop scene, me and Chris Orrick’s "Instinctive Drowning", the new project, my mom, school, "Breaking Bad" and somehow much more...all with music weaving beautifully between topics.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'm a fan of this podcast, it was awesome to get to participate in an episode.

LINK: https://www.bedroombeethovens.com/pods/ill-poetic

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ILL POETIC & BEN GUERRETTE PRESENT "WITH FLYING COLORS"

‘With Flying Colors’ is a collaborative performance piece between myself and Ben Guerrette that merges the audio/visual creative field by turning colors into instruments: a circle of fifths morphed into a circle of lights. ‘With Flying Colors’ is our attempt to bring synesthesia to life as something the experiencer can reach out and touch. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ For fans of my newest project, WFC takes songs from “As Serious As Your Life” and transitions them even further into living, breathing visual statements. Beyond that, WFC explores a spectrum of genres: from hip-hop. downtempo, ambient, funk, and soul to beat scene and electronic free-jazz with a palette of colors, piano, voice, and synth. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This Saturday, September 25 we'll be presenting our first performance to a small group of friends, collaborators and artists. We hope to then share the footage of this experience with all of you across these social medias. From there, we look forward to (safely) bringing this experience to you in person.

[definitionmusic]

ILL POETIC ‘AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE’ BANDCAMP REVIEW

Read Here:

No two musical careers follow the same trajectory. Some artists make their best music early, while others continually evolve and outdo their earlier work. Ill Poetic falls in the latter camp. The Ohio-bred, San Diego-based rapper/producer has been releasing music for nearly two decades, and this month’s Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life is his magnum opus. An expansive yet cohesive record, Portfolio I is a solemn fusion of hip-hop, jazz, funk, and electronic music full of requiems for his late mother and suites that navigate grief. “Samsara” plays like the former, as Poetic surrounds drums that shift from dragging jazz to quasi-dubstep with muted mantric singing and swirling layers of blue brass. By the end, it almost sounds like Burial is playing Birdland. “Owensvsv (Devin’s Groove)” explores the intersection of L.A.’s beat and jazz scenes, the percussion thumping at irregular time signatures as mournful saxophone and sprightly flute trade space. He pulls back, however, on “Scrape (Brandon’s Theme III),” using negative space to create more gravity; slow, almost trudging drums echo, fade, and circle back over a suite of ethereal keys, soothing flute, and grinding, seemingly crying guitar. Listening to that track, it feels like divine planning that Poetic should reach the height of his musical abilities during some of his greatest emotional lows. Portfolio I exists in the long tradition of great life changes inspiring career-defining art.

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ILL POETIC ‘AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE’ SCRATCHED VINYL REVIEW

Read HERE:

Ill Poetic is an emcee/producer originally from Ohio, but now based in San Diego. He’s been putting out music since the mid ‘00s, and over the years he’s worked with everyone from Illogic to Blitz the Ambassador to Chris Orrick, just to name a few. His last full-length solo album came in 2017, when he released An Idiot’s Guide to Anarchy. Now he’s back with a completely different type of project, an instrumental album called Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life.

Ill Poetic didn’t set out to make an instrumental album like this. He initially sat down to actually make a portfolio to show to other artists so that he could show them his breadth and ability as a producer, composer, engineer, and visual artist. As he began to work on the project, however, the global pandemic happened, along with the passing of his own mother, and suddenly Ill Poetic found himself working through a lot of emotions and as a result he channeled it into his music. The result of all of this is Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life. The title comes from a 1977 book by Val Wilmer about the Black Free Jazz movement, and while this isn’t a free jazz album, Ill Poetic is taking inspiration and casting aside any musical rules about genre and composition and just figuring out what feels right to convey the complex emotional journey he’s been on recently. As a result, we get an album that ranges from hip hop to prog rock to jazz-fusion to R&B to post rock to electronic music to cinematic film scores and everything in between. It’s the kind of album that you really just need to sit with. Put on your headphones, press play, and then just let go as Ill Poetic takes you on this journey and slowly all these different pieces will begin to come together and make sense. It’s the type of anything goes album where one minute you might be digging on some dope rhymes courtesy of a guest appearance by Devin Burgess, and then a few minutes later you might be swept up in a soaring guitar solo. The key to making this all work is that Ill Poetic is incredibly patient and smart with his compositional choices, and while he might take you on some unexpected twists and turns, nothing ever feels out of place because the choices were made very deliberately to fit the greater vision of the album and to convey this emotional journey.

Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life is a complex and challenging instrumental album, but full of great rewards for the listeners willing to spend the time with it. It’s adventurous and daring with its production and composition, but it’s the deeply honest emotional resonance that will have you coming back for repeat listens to discover something new each time through.

Title: Ill Poetic - Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life

Label: Definition Music

Year: 2021

Rating: 9/10

[definitionmusic]

ILL POETIC INTERVIEW WITH DAYTON DAILY NEWS

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ILL COMMUNICATION: ILL POETIC “AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE” SONG CREDITS, LINER NOTES + THANK YOU’S

If you’re reading this, you’ve listened to my new project and you want to find out who these records were made with and made for. First, thanks for caring this much. Liner Notes and Thank You’s are harder and harder to pull off on digital releases. Below you’ll find a mixed bag of musician credits, song lyrics, thank you’s and stories about the each song. So let’s go!

01 Despierta (Brandon’s Theme I)

Originally produced for artist B. Shields. Listen to "Despierta" with accompanying vocals by searching B. Shields "Despierta" on your preferred DSP. I first found inspiration in Miles Davis’s “The Ghetto Walk”, then composed the piece on piano and added electronic drums and other sounds via Ableton Live. The recording process included choosing and securing musicians, plotting and miking recording sessions, creating sheet music for musicians, post-production, mixing and mastering. Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. 

Additional guitar by Nick Costa Additional trumpet by Andy Geib Additional drums by Jake Najor.

02 Samsara

Originally produced for Devin Burgess & Ill Poetic and recorded in 2019 in San Diego City College recording studio.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Additional trumpet, trombone, and flugelhorn by Danny Levin.

03 As Serious As Your Life (ft. MY MYND)

Originally created with Nick "MY MYND" Costa and recorded together at San Diego City College recording studio in 2019.

Produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Co-written by T. Gmeiner & Nick "MY MYND" Costa Vocals and guitar by Nick "MY MYND" Costa Additional vocals by Miro Imani

04 Defeating My Thoughts

Created, mixed and mastered in an Airbnb in Columbus, Ohio in 2021. 1:26 of organized chaos. This isn't for everybody, it might not be for anybody. Free-jazz but beats. I just had to get it out of me. It's yours now. The cover art is a collage of MRIs I had taken of my brain a few months ago. I've had physical tics that run through my face and body for at least the past 15 years or so. I used to be extremely insecure about them but now it just is what it is, if you know me, you've probably noticed. It's one of the first things my wife so elegantly and bluntly pointed out to me on one of our first dates. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Anywho, I felt like they were getting worse this past year and was worried I might have something nefarious going on in my brain. So I laid in a machine for 45 minutes and made beats in my head out of the random noises and apparently this is what my brain looks like when I do that. Turns out my brain is normal (?), and I got a ton of free MRI scans to make some album art out of, so it's a win for all. Thanks California Health Care Services!

Produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design.

05 Otherworlds

Originally produced in the mid-2000s. Revisited in 2016. Keys added in 2020.

Produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design.

06 Byrd (ft. Devin Burgess)

Written and recorded at San Diego City College recording studio in 2019.lyricsSince I love my verse on this so much, here is my verse (verse II): Roses are red Violets are blue as fuck Poetry’s dead I am on cue as fuck Cry me a river of ice Dive in and shiver Freeze all your dreams and dye them all blue Violence is cute as fuck (and) Riots are vogue I write in a mode Of Miles’s mode Words Shadow - long winded breaths That hide in the notes ‘Tween augmented fifths I’m fly as the rhodes This song’s ending with In minor scale Light me a smoke I inhale Entrails of chemtrails across a shattered sky My state of being’s in a place where it don’t matter why What I thought was sacrifice would birth me back to life The redshift of my expansion wholy magnified I’d be ill advised to fill a rhyme with little lines ‘Bout acid trips but here goes: I’m Mwandishi mixed with Syllicibin, Pivot back, blueshifting on a major scale Emerging from a year, wrists intact Where Occam’s razor failed. My stream of conscious stay, Surfin’, wav., Current, Swells At a higher sample rate Burnin’ I re-animate On monochromatic fabric Where I approach the color wheel Like Coltrane’s circle of fifths Kind-of erratic verses that trip But perfectly fit Feel me? I made it brail. Per Iceberg, Bird Revelation, Dave Chappelle. Inattentive in this attention economy Penny pinching these policies Too much tension inside of me Keep a grip on my privacy Do not mention or follow me Tip of the iceberg Dive in, it all sure shimmers inside of me, It’s all in symmetry Apologies, If you ain’t gettin me It’s probably me My poetry’s dead Lie flowers on top of me.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Co-written by T. Gmeiner and D. Burgess Additional vocals by Devin Burgess

07 Cyan (Brandon’s Theme II)

Originally produced for artist B. Shields. Search B. Shields discography on your preferred DSP to hear the full piece.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Additional guitar by Nick Costa

08 Owensvsv (Devin's Groove)

"Owensvsv" is the Cherokee word for "home". This piece was initially a co-production between myself and Devin Burgess. After the flute was added on, this piece transformed into a soundtrack for my mom's transition. It features a Cherokee rendition of The Lord's Prayer, a nod to my mom's deep connection to her Cherokee heritage and the Catholic Church.

Written, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Co-produced by Ill Poetic and Devin Burgess Vocals by Miro Imani Additional flute and saxophone by Jesse Audelo.

“The Lord’s Prayer” in Cherokee - vocalist unknown

09 Lost Words

Originally created in 2003. Revisited between 2015-2020.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Additional piano by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner

10 Scrape (Brandon’s Theme III)

Originally produced for artist B. Shields. Listen to the complete version of this song by searching B. Shields "Lat & Long" on your preferred DSP.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design. Additional guitar by Nick Costa Additional flute by Gabriel Sundy.

11 Om

Created in 2019. I wanted to write something about my mom but couldn't come up with the right words. I added keys one afternoon in 2020 that seemed to get the sentiment across better, a single take at that. It was the first time I could express a feeling successfully on piano, which really meant a lot to me.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Timothy "Ill Poetic" Gmeiner for SoundRzn Design.

All live elements recorded at San Diego City College except where noted.

Additional processing by Roy Silverstein at Rarefied Recordings.

Thank You’s

Thank you to my wife for letting me live in my headphones which I’m sure is great until it’s immediately annoying, but mostly for giving me the space and focus to make this my life, even when she doesn’t get it. Thank you to my son for his great music taste and compelling creative conversations; for being an inspiration and just generally awesome.Thank you to my dad for becoming one of my best friends these past couple years. I created much of this record as my mom was passing away, and so my greatest thanks is for her and hoping I can pass her energy onto you reading this through my music, words, and actions.

Thank you to my team: Micshon Harper, Ryan Beck and Hunter Turner.  I’m not spending money on this record because I don’t want to put my friends in debt. I care that much. Thank you for becoming the group of friends we used to talk about being when we were younger. I love seeing all of you grow in your respective dreams and roles within your family and community.

Thank you to Brandon “B. Shields” Lee for allowing me to further explore the pieces produced for him and present them on this project. Thank you to Nick Costa for his amazing contributions to this record and for his long patience with my slow process for release. Thank you to Devin Burgess for flying out to San Diego to add his touches to this record. Thank you to all the musicians and vocalists who contributed to this record. A big thank you to San Diego City College: Bob Kostlan, Joe Kucera and Mike Espar for the tools, knowledge and studio space to record many of these records. Thank you to my professors at UCSD, specifically King Britt, for some final gems on sound, acoustics and egineering that helped me wrap this project. Thank you to Robert Sanchez for the pictures that defined this project.  And lastly, thank you, who picked this up, listened and read to the end.

[definitionmusic]

ILL POETIC INTERVIEW AT CINCYMUSIC.COM

A fantastic in-depth interview with Ill Poetic and Jared Bowers of CincyMusic.

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ILL POETIC “PORTFOLIO I: AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE” IS OUT TODAY

ill poetic's new project "Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life" is available NOW on all platforms!

This is a production record that spans ethereal hip-hop to jazz-fusion to film score; a portfolio of my work for and with a collection of amazing artists and musicians.

Listen deep, if you dig it, share it, especially with the most amazing musicians, filmmakers and visual artists you know and would like to see him work with.

LINK: https://smarturl.it/illpoetic-ASAYL-lp

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HUNTORPREY OPENS WITH POEM FOR TOLEDO, OH OLYMPIAN OSHAE JONES

From HuntorPrey:

Yesterday I was honored to be able to give my words at the rally for Toledo's Olympian, Oshae Jones. (This young lady won Bronze in boxing) This young lady is an inspiration. We gotta get behind her. So, those who couldn't make this rally, be at the parade Aug. 21st to celebrate. 😊 This is her poem:

OSHAE There's Beauty in the grind But there is also pain in the grind To grind is to wear down but also refine. Make smooth. Difference between statue and stone Metal and sword square and ring Swing and hook. Stretch out from home and bring back the world From glass city to break glass ceilings and bring back the world New york, Tokyo Legacy is not solely about championship but the journey there the amount of travel in between. the gravel scrape to shoe and how sweat reigned supreme Built with those 2 hands. A straight passion High Intensity Years in the dungeon Countless bouts with self doubt won To carry the soul of the city to a new junction. Down the path of Baddest to step foot on canvas and paint pictures with a warrior's dance Scientific. Sweet. Inspiring. Till finally Best in the world by Huntorprey

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"AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE" VIRTUAL LISTENING PARTY MONDAY 8.16

I'm holding a small virtual listening session for "As Serious As Your Life" on Monday Aug 16th at 6pm PST / 9pm EST. Whether you're a friend, supporter, musician, vocalist, producer or artist, I'd love to have you there. This event is free, but spaces are limited. Register for a ticket below:

DATE: Monday August 16, 2021

TIME: 6pm PST / 9pm EST

LOCATION: Zoom (link and passcode sent upon registration)

PRICE: This is a FREE event, however tickets are limited. Secure your ticket by clicking "Register".

LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/x/as-serious-as-your-life-virtual-listening-party-tickets-166105300425

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NEW SINGLE "BYRD" FEATURING DEVIN BURGESS

New single "Byrd" ft. Devin Burgess from my upcoming project "Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life" is out TODAY. "Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life" isn't just about showcasing my production, it's also about working with and sharing some of my favorite artists, musicians and vocalists with you. Devin is an amazing Emcee/Producer from Cincinnati, Ohio, my favorite artist to emerge from that scene in the last 5+ years easy. As an emcee myself I am completely envious of this dude's flow, pockets and the way he can just sink into a track and become an instrument inside of it. Beyond "Byrd", I highly recommend diving into his discography as well. But first, listen to "Byrd" because this is the thing I'm promoting right now.

LISTEN HERE

[definitionmusic]

ILL POETIC ANNOUNCES NEW PROJECT “AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE”

"After a tumultuous two years of compounding health issues, my mom passed away 3 months into the pandemic. Given the unexpected studio-time the pandemic afforded me, I completed this record while losing her. I didn’t plan on this being the record that would capture the emotions and I didn’t plan on the piano being my instrument of choice, but this is where my craft was at and so it was the best way to communicate emotions where words just couldn’t do justice. This album became my way to talk to someone who couldn’t talk back; to speak to her and to myself through means beyond words; to soundtrack her transition. Beyond all, that dynamic is the DNA of much of this record.” On Tuesday August 17, 2021, Timothy “Ill Poetic” Gmeiner will release his first installment of an ongoing production series, “Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life” on Definition Music. Inspired by Val Wilmer’s seminal 1977 book on the black free-jazz movement, “As Serious As Your Life” is an intimate and vulnerable work that funnels the urgency, frustration and freedom of that era toward the chaos of emotions that come with losing a parent during a global pandemic. Unlike prior releases from Ill Po, what makes this record especially unique is in the choice to cover such heavy emotional content with almost no words. “‘As Serious As Your Life’  is  designed to act as a portfolio of my work for and with other artists; to show my breadth as a producer, composer, engineer and visual artist. Along the way it capture much more: a global pandemic and the slow passing of my mom - a painful event experienced by everyone enmeshed with a deeply personal event only truly felt by me.” After over 15 years of boundary-pushing self-released albums, mash-ups, production work, graphic work, entrepreneurship and even curriculum development, Ill Poetic has developed a wide spectrum of creative processes to express a range of thoughtful and honest work. It’s in “As Serious As Your Life” where we see Ill Po use as versatile a palette as ever to articulate these deeper nuances in a record that reflects explorations of hip-hop, jazz, fusion, 70s electronic music and film scores. Every moment of this record defies genre in order to live solely for its purpose. “Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life” will be available on all streaming platforms on Tuesday August 17, 2021.

Stream the first single HERE: https://smarturl.com/illpoetic-ASAYL