TiVO “Pillz”

2013 is off to a busy start for the members iLL-Literacy — Drzzl’s off spelunking in China, Dahlak’s touring the country, we *cough* attempted 30 days of poetry…

And now, heading into summer, we’re excited to share the first episode of a new web series featuring our very own Nico Cary (and long time friends and collaborators Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs). The show is called Banger Bros — and as you would expect, there’s music, interpretive turf dancing, allusions to Harry Potter, and lightweight creeper eyes.

As you are the people we love, we’d love for you to be the first to check it out!!

Banger Bros is a satirical web series following Kassius (Rafa), Ross Goldman (Diggs) and TiVO (Nico) — a group of songwriter/producers who move to LA in search of a wider audience for their original sound, BroPop. As TheBros navigate a new city, and a tremulous 1-year publishing deal with Warner/Chappell, the series will offer a behind the scenes look at writing a hit pop song in the age of Twitter and Facebook.

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For years we’ve been experimenting with creative and constructive ways to critically engage pop culture without being too heavy-handed or cynical. We’ve been attempting to unpack what it means to exist in digital space at a cultural moment when output for musicians is encouraged more than content. Putting our minds together the last few months, our best solution was found in the genre of satire, and at the intersection of all that we love to do — music, acting, and production. The result was a web series that both plays with form, and teases out an analysis of fame in the context of platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Thank you for all of your support.
So much love,

Team iLL-Literacy

dahLak Spiritrials

spiritrials is what happens when too many Saturday nights are blended seamlessly into Sunday morning. It’s for that time of the night when sobriety sets back in but the promise of salvation is still so far…“a dark gospel blue.” Read More

Beginning at the onset of “the high”, the climax, dahLak descends into the dark backlash of hip-hop’s monotonic grand narrative: greed and lust, hedonism and materialism. Through the mess, through the muck and the mire, profound glory and residues of hope find their way back into the heart of the poet.

Are we still talking about a hip-hop album? Yes. But think “hip-hop album” in the sense of art rather than a collection of disposable mp3’s. The hip-hop industry is too fast. So is the music. So is the life in the music. But as life teaches us, as Spirit x Trials teaches us, “live fast and die young”. spiritrials is for sustainability. In music and in life.

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