Producer's Corner: The
ILLFONICS
Production team ILLFONICS’ biggest hit may be the Jim Jones single “Na Na Na,” but don’t get it twisted: they don’t need A-list artists to get their hustle on.
The Bronx duo of Matt Friedman and Jed Cappelli have landed placements not only with emcees like The Clipse and LL Cool J, but also on television shows and video games such as Entourage, NBA 07 and Everybody Hates Chris. In this segment of Producer’s Corner, the duo talks about their multifaceted grind, and working with legends and newcomers alike,
HipHopDX: How long had you two been doing music before you teamed up as a group? How did you guys get together as a crew?
Matt Friedman: I think we’ve both been doing music for most of our lives. I started playing instruments in probably the third grade and never stopped.
Jed Cappelli: Yeah, I started playing guitar when I was about 10, playing in a band. Then learned more instruments as the years went on.
Matt Friedman: As far as working together, we met in the Music Technology program at New York University. We were friends for a couple of years and then decided to start making music together.
Jed Cappelli: At the time it was more like experimental electronic music, but with Hip Hop style drums.
DX: What does each of you bring to the group? Do you each have certain things you handle when working together, like different roles that you have in the studio?
Matt Friedman: We both play guitar, bass, keys and program drums. And we're both engineers so we both know the technical side of production.
Jed Cappelli: Yeah, depending on the situation we bring different things to the table, like matt will program some drums and get a chord progression going then I'll hear that and a melody will pop into my head so then we'll lay that down.
Matt Friedman: It really depends. We do joints completely independently of one another sometimes, while other times we'll create the beat together from the ground up.
DX: How did the Jim Jones single happen?
Matt Friedman: We snuck it in at the last second. Our manager, Toshi [Kondo], is cool with Jim’s publicist and had gone through Jim’s studio a few times. He got cool with Jim’s A&R Chris and Chris loved that beat.
Jed Cappelli: He said that Jim was resting in the other room so Chris played it on loop for like an hour until Jim came in and he was fucking with it.
Matt Friedman: The rest happened real quick. That was like Saturday maybe, then on Sunday we went through while they finished the hook. Went straight to mix from there and then by Thursday it was on the radio.
Jed Cappelli: The crazy part was that the album was done, but he really wanted it on there, so we were lucky it happened at all.
DX: What was it like working with LL Cool J? Did you get to work with him in the studio?
Jed Cappelli: Working with LL was surreal for me man. He had already written and recorded "Come Party with Me," with Fat Joe [click to read] and Sheek Louch [click to read], and we were invited to the mix by his engineer. L was there and he asked us if we had anymore joints so we played him tracks and one really caught his ear, which became "American Girl." Right on the spot he started freestylin' to it, throwing around concepts and he came up with the title right then and there on the spot.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, LL is a legend. I mean, his first album was the first full-length album ever released by Def Jam so working with him in the studio, writing and recording to our music was crazy.
DX: You've got material coming up with Kid Cudi and Mickey Factz. Is there anything that specifically makes you guys happy to work with other up and comers, as opposed to veterans that are already established?
Matt Friedman: Yeah, I mean both are cool, but it definitely is exciting to work with the new up and coming artists. We've been able to build a relationship with Mickey [click to read] for a while, recorded a few tracks together. He's definitely really talented. With Cudi, we've been fans of his since before the first mixtape and he just recorded a track called “Intergalactic Love” and tweeted about it being on the album so we're keeping our fingers crossed that that goes through.
DX: You guys have pretty interesting placement, in the sense that you've got beats on albums that weren't critically successful (Clipse's Re-Up Gang album, LL Cool J's Exit 13). But you've still been able to create a buzz for yourselves based off of those placements. What do you think that says about you guys' material?
Jed Cappelli: I think we got the biggest buzz from the Jim Jones placement really, cause it was a single. But, for us right now it’s still about getting our music and our name out there. There are so many factors that contribute to the success of a song or an album. It's beyond any one person's control. We're just trying to work with as many artists that we respect as possible and see how it comes together.
DX: You're also getting a lot of beats on TV and video games - Entourage, Rob & Big, Everybody Hates Chris, and NBA 07. Do you guys ever make beats specifically for those situations, or are they just beats that you had already made that end up perfect for those situations?
Matt Friedman: Both, depending on the situation.
Jed Cappelli: We’ll send out a lot of our catalogue to the music supervisors we know so that they can license the stuff as is, and then if they need something specific they’ll tell us what they need and ask us to have a go at it.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, Everybody Hates Chris and NBA 07 were both jobs where we made the music specifically for that, but Rob & Big, CSI, and Entourage just licensed tracks we already had done.
DX: It seems like your movie and video game placements are even more significant than your musical placements, almost. Do you guys like having low key bank like that, or would you prefer more publicity?
Matt Friedman: Well, with publicity usually comes more placements; more work, so we would definitely prefer more of that but for us it’s about doing what we love and being able to make a living at it not being famous.
DX: As far as music goes, a lot of producers get future work based off of artists hearing your work for others. How does that work with video games and TV? Do you get put on the same way?
Jed Cappelli: Hmmm, it hasn’t really worked like that for us with the game and TV work.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, that’s really our manager and us reaching out and making relationships with different music supervisors. Then sometimes they’ll come back and hit us up about projects, or really we gotta go and check in with them.
DX: What are some other artists and shows or video games you'd like to see your work in?
Jed Cappelli: I'd love to work with Ghostface [click to read] or Nas right now. As far as newer artists go Charles Hamilton [click to read], Santigold.
Matt Friedman: Estelle, Drake, Jeezy, Weezy and Yeezy.
The Bronx duo of Matt Friedman and Jed Cappelli have landed placements not only with emcees like The Clipse and LL Cool J, but also on television shows and video games such as Entourage, NBA 07 and Everybody Hates Chris. In this segment of Producer’s Corner, the duo talks about their multifaceted grind, and working with legends and newcomers alike,
HipHopDX: How long had you two been doing music before you teamed up as a group? How did you guys get together as a crew?
Matt Friedman: I think we’ve both been doing music for most of our lives. I started playing instruments in probably the third grade and never stopped.
Jed Cappelli: Yeah, I started playing guitar when I was about 10, playing in a band. Then learned more instruments as the years went on.
Matt Friedman: As far as working together, we met in the Music Technology program at New York University. We were friends for a couple of years and then decided to start making music together.
Jed Cappelli: At the time it was more like experimental electronic music, but with Hip Hop style drums.
DX: What does each of you bring to the group? Do you each have certain things you handle when working together, like different roles that you have in the studio?
Matt Friedman: We both play guitar, bass, keys and program drums. And we're both engineers so we both know the technical side of production.
Jed Cappelli: Yeah, depending on the situation we bring different things to the table, like matt will program some drums and get a chord progression going then I'll hear that and a melody will pop into my head so then we'll lay that down.
Matt Friedman: It really depends. We do joints completely independently of one another sometimes, while other times we'll create the beat together from the ground up.
DX: How did the Jim Jones single happen?
Matt Friedman: We snuck it in at the last second. Our manager, Toshi [Kondo], is cool with Jim’s publicist and had gone through Jim’s studio a few times. He got cool with Jim’s A&R Chris and Chris loved that beat.
Jed Cappelli: He said that Jim was resting in the other room so Chris played it on loop for like an hour until Jim came in and he was fucking with it.
Matt Friedman: The rest happened real quick. That was like Saturday maybe, then on Sunday we went through while they finished the hook. Went straight to mix from there and then by Thursday it was on the radio.
Jed Cappelli: The crazy part was that the album was done, but he really wanted it on there, so we were lucky it happened at all.
DX: What was it like working with LL Cool J? Did you get to work with him in the studio?
Jed Cappelli: Working with LL was surreal for me man. He had already written and recorded "Come Party with Me," with Fat Joe [click to read] and Sheek Louch [click to read], and we were invited to the mix by his engineer. L was there and he asked us if we had anymore joints so we played him tracks and one really caught his ear, which became "American Girl." Right on the spot he started freestylin' to it, throwing around concepts and he came up with the title right then and there on the spot.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, LL is a legend. I mean, his first album was the first full-length album ever released by Def Jam so working with him in the studio, writing and recording to our music was crazy.
DX: You've got material coming up with Kid Cudi and Mickey Factz. Is there anything that specifically makes you guys happy to work with other up and comers, as opposed to veterans that are already established?
Matt Friedman: Yeah, I mean both are cool, but it definitely is exciting to work with the new up and coming artists. We've been able to build a relationship with Mickey [click to read] for a while, recorded a few tracks together. He's definitely really talented. With Cudi, we've been fans of his since before the first mixtape and he just recorded a track called “Intergalactic Love” and tweeted about it being on the album so we're keeping our fingers crossed that that goes through.
DX: You guys have pretty interesting placement, in the sense that you've got beats on albums that weren't critically successful (Clipse's Re-Up Gang album, LL Cool J's Exit 13). But you've still been able to create a buzz for yourselves based off of those placements. What do you think that says about you guys' material?
Jed Cappelli: I think we got the biggest buzz from the Jim Jones placement really, cause it was a single. But, for us right now it’s still about getting our music and our name out there. There are so many factors that contribute to the success of a song or an album. It's beyond any one person's control. We're just trying to work with as many artists that we respect as possible and see how it comes together.
DX: You're also getting a lot of beats on TV and video games - Entourage, Rob & Big, Everybody Hates Chris, and NBA 07. Do you guys ever make beats specifically for those situations, or are they just beats that you had already made that end up perfect for those situations?
Matt Friedman: Both, depending on the situation.
Jed Cappelli: We’ll send out a lot of our catalogue to the music supervisors we know so that they can license the stuff as is, and then if they need something specific they’ll tell us what they need and ask us to have a go at it.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, Everybody Hates Chris and NBA 07 were both jobs where we made the music specifically for that, but Rob & Big, CSI, and Entourage just licensed tracks we already had done.
DX: It seems like your movie and video game placements are even more significant than your musical placements, almost. Do you guys like having low key bank like that, or would you prefer more publicity?
Matt Friedman: Well, with publicity usually comes more placements; more work, so we would definitely prefer more of that but for us it’s about doing what we love and being able to make a living at it not being famous.
DX: As far as music goes, a lot of producers get future work based off of artists hearing your work for others. How does that work with video games and TV? Do you get put on the same way?
Jed Cappelli: Hmmm, it hasn’t really worked like that for us with the game and TV work.
Matt Friedman: Yeah, that’s really our manager and us reaching out and making relationships with different music supervisors. Then sometimes they’ll come back and hit us up about projects, or really we gotta go and check in with them.
DX: What are some other artists and shows or video games you'd like to see your work in?
Jed Cappelli: I'd love to work with Ghostface [click to read] or Nas right now. As far as newer artists go Charles Hamilton [click to read], Santigold.
Matt Friedman: Estelle, Drake, Jeezy, Weezy and Yeezy.
