iLL-Literacy Wants to Make Music With You

(Editor's Note: In an attempt to bridge the gap between Listener and Musician, Bay Area hip-hop crew iLL-Literacy have created "Doyounotsee?", a program that enables musicians from across the globe to truly collaborate on new music. I'll let group member Adriel Drizzletronius (a.k.a. the man who brought us "Why Record Sales Don't Mean Sh*t") explain further.)

When we as iLL-Literacy released the first chapter of our LP "iB4the1" in November, we promised two things: 1) the music would always be free, and 2) we were going to open everyone up to our process. Our reason for this is simple – it's the opposite of what the music industry is doing, and the music industry is doing the opposite of good. But what continues to become increasingly dynamic is the public's desire to engage with artists. From the barrage of audience-participation commercials that have aired as of late, to the rise in musician blogs, it's clear that while selling music might be a lost art, music is not. With more and more people dabbing into music these days, we've been floored by how much talent there is out there. But with all this music and talent, we're more and more isolated. A new talented producer means a new kid locking himself in the basement to make beats all day. A new talented emcee means a new writer locking her focus on her headphones and notepad.

The points that we feel like the music industry is missing is that Listeners just seriously don't want to pay for music anymore, and that they seriously want to be involved with the music process. And not just in the sense of a remix or YouTube cover, but to serve a genuine contribution that clearly demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between the Musician and Listener. We'd opened "Doyoudonotsee?" as our first effort towards creating a tangible platform for that to happen. Like any experiment, we expect successes and shortcomings, but we're committed to developing an arena that we, as well as others, can use as an alternative to the traditional top-down model of music.


Doyoudonotsee?