beatlanta.com
Band Profile: iLLmont
iLLmont is a hip-hop group of artists based out of the Eastside of Atlanta. Voncito, Allen Thomas, Khalil Who, Olde English, Nihilus Nukes, Slimm, Ollie Black, and Brotha IB make up the monster. But this group of eight is balanced and made complete by the soulful voice of Niah Lyrical, who is featured on numerous tracks.
The collective came together in 2011 to create the album, “Bruh The LP”. iLLmont, formed from a mutual love for hip-hop, comes from a culture that strives to make diversely influential street releases. Starting with the singles “Green Slurpee” and “Miscellaneous Info” they saw a fair amount of online buzz and performances throughout the city of Atlanta at venues such as Apache Cafe, 529, Smiths Olde Bar, and the BeAtlanta House as well as getting a ton of airplay on local college raido station 88.5 WRAS, at Georgia State.
They also have various solo releases from members Allen Thomas and Khalil Who, including “I Want A Gun” and “The Could’ve Been King”.
After recording, and doing a video with frequent collaborator “Danny!” on his release “Payback”, they would go on to record and release “20 East Vol. 1” and “Shawty”. Then, after several months of writing, recording and mixing in their home studio, iLLmont has finially released their latest effort, “20 East, The Waffle House Diaries”. 2014 has been a big year for live shows too, doing more shows in the first three months of the year than they did in all of 2013.
Influences range from Outkast to Big Pun, Tech N9ne to Slum Village, 8Ball to MJG. But after a listen to “20 East”, you’ll see that they’re not afraid to step beyond their influences and create something new and inovative. They’ve learned that when they work as a team, all the individuals succeed.
BA: Who are the members of iLLmont?
ILLmont:
Allen Thomas..
Nihilus Nukes..
Voncito..
Khalil..
Olde English..
Brother Ib..
BA: What are your musical influences?
AT: Everything..
NN: Parliament, Nas, Psycho Drama, Jedi Mind Tricks..
BIB – Outkast, Bone Thugs..
BA: Do you guys have special microphones you use at your shows?
NN: the mic with the purple cord..
AT: it is the special one..
BA: Any rituals you do before the shows?
OE – Smoke.
NN – I speak with my personal O.G..
L – I meditate, elevate my mind..
BA: So how do you guys manage a group with so many members?
AT: I think our manager Gary can answer that..
Gary: I am a rapper wrangler.
V: Being real with each other.. Staying very real with each other.
BA: How did iLLmont start?
OE: I started making beats, I have always been making beats.. me and Allen would get together and get musical.. We just decided to get off our ass and get to it.. and our friends around us who were musical as well helped us, because we were all musical..
BA: When is the new album going to be released?
AT: the release is yet to be determined..
BA: Tell us a little bit about the first album.
OE: The first EP, it largely doesn’t exist, but it was nice.. it was about 6 tracks, it was our first piece that was completely rhymes, no instrumentals, it was a challenge to all of the MCs to make something..
NN: if you want the first EP, hit me up, I got that thang..
AE: It is online, illmont.com..
BA: So after this album, what is the next step?
AT: we do have a release following this one, also to be determined, all original.. all going to be house producers..
BA: So are there any Atlanta groups or artists you would recommend to your fans?
IB: I fux with DPL!!
AT: get with it or get left!
IB: Gary Odom, them my guys, Riz Cappelay, Yanni Mo..
NN – Uh, who else.. Rek Champa..
IB – Cipher Kenni.. Yamin Semali and Dustin Teague, Clan Destined!
BA: Ok, you guys want people to come out to your shows, what do you want them to leave with?
NN: My autograph..
OE: I want people to leave like ‘I ain’t never heard southern n*ggas rap like that..’
AT: I want people to feel a change in their DNA..
For more on iLLmont, check out their FaceBook, Twitter and BandCamp..
