Oakland's Ill Mondo Release Second Album "De Novo": These Guys Have SWAG For Days...Better! Ill Mondo Even Makes ELP Sound Ill...EVEN BETTER! This Post Is TOO Funky For This Blog!!...Better STILL! Don't Get Caught With Your Party Pants Down Around Your Ankles...Unless That's The Look You're Going For, In Which Case, Ill Mondo Will Help Get Them There!!!

The Men of Ill Mondo, Johnny Igaz & Jeff Smothers

"What Duvet Said's..." army of interns are charged with two things: 1. Keep their ears to the ground to continue to bring to you, Dear Readers, the best and most interesting music that's out there 2. Maintain Bob Duvet's impressive and growing collection of dioramas depicting Dicksonian era London slums. Well, KUDOS INTERNS! They have outdone themselves with their latest discovery, Ill Mondo! Now, get back to sweeping those tiny chimneys!

Ill Mondo is an Oakland, CA based production team comprised of Jeff Smothers and Johnny Igaz. The two have been creating some incredible music over the last couple of years with a string of releases ranging from "Chopped & Screwed"- inspired mixtapes, an amazing collaboration with hip-hop MC Neal Rames (featuring Prince Po, Sean Price, Percee P, and others) and their latest release De Novo.

De Novo marks a departure from the more hip-hop influence of their previous releases without losing any of the SWAG. The album features over twenty-five collaborators and runs a gamut of influences with a decided psychedelic, Latin-driven rock bent, that drifts into jazz - all delivered with a retro-funk sheen. Ill Mondo are a true example of "the devil being in the details" with pristine production skills and a knack for finding the perfect combination of musicians to employ to the all-original material on De Novo. If that isn't enough all their releases are available on Circle Into A Square Records for FREE!!  "What Duvet Said...About Music" host, Robert "Bob" Duvet, recently sat down with Ill Mondo for his latest music podcast, with Jeff and Johnny not only talking about music production, influences, and what they have been listening to but also helped curate the playlist. Ill Mondo also has been delving into the visual medium with two excellent videos for two cuts off their album De Novo, which can be seen below!

Just push play for "What Duvet Said...About Music" Issue 34 “The Ill World Of Ill Mondo: Robert ‘Bob’ Duvet has a conversation with Oakland, CA powerhouse production Team Ill Mondo! That’s right, Ill Mondo’s Jeff Smothers & Johnny Igaz talk about their latest release “De Novo”, working with Neal Rames, Percee P, Sean Price, & Prince Po, “Chopped & Screwed” mixtapes & Emerson, Lake & Palmer? They also help curate what is sure to be the winner of next year’s BEST MUSIC PODCAST VMA!!  BELIEVE IT!!”

No Future? Or, Just A REALLY, REALLY Odd One: Odd Future Bloody And Then Refuse To Bow At SXSW…

The Future of Hip Hop is Odd Future

Here at “Duvet” we may have stumbled onto a vaguely scientific and useful application of Twitter that goes beyond marketing and self-fucking. Unable to attend this year’s music industry flatulatory exercise in self-promotion – an industry that has grown to include bloggers like myself – Austin, TX’s SXSW but still wanting to remain “in the loop” from the comfort of my couch in view of the NCAA basketball tourney, I turned to Twitter.

Finally someone gives it to the blogosphere straight

This excruciating exercise involved following a carefully “curated” – the most overused word in this early/new millennium - list of musicians, blogs, record labels, and PR professionals against a control group of friends or “civilians” as I chose to think of them. Enlisted or conscripted, each contributing from this annual war of hype and perspective with their “Tweets”. Free of the emotional contagion and binge drinking I tried to divine who was truly making an impact at “South By”. After wading through hundreds of inanities delivered in “140 characters or less” – complete with links to pictures of the back of heads pointed at a form on some faraway and hastily erected stage or sonically overloaded video of hundreds of people engaged in similar acts of citizen journalism meets cinema verite – one name emerged unanimous: Odd Future.

The Los Angeles hip hop collective known as OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), or shortened to Odd Future, went into SXSW with plenty of “buzz”. They emerged worthy of the hype and deserving of the, “we don’t give a FUCK” aesthetic the ten member, not-underground-for-long contingent has cultivated. A hard group for many to easily classify, but here goes: Think the hardcore in your “faceness” of N.W.A., meshed with the shock and awe of Kool Keith’s Dr. Octogon era “porncore”, bent against some of the best punk rock posturing since Johnny Rotten, all to the minimal grime and dubstep backing pioneered by producers like Dizzee Rascal or Burial. Rapper/Producer Tyler the Creator leads this Wu-ist crew with the intensity of another hard-to-define kindred hip hop splinter sect, South Africa’s Die Antwoord. Like Die Antwoord the beats are raw and the lyrics rawer, celebrating a macabre, often-fantastical teenage experience.

Formed in 2007, members of Odd Future range in age from 17-23. The group’s profile is sure to rise after news-making, bone-breaking performances at SXSW, Tyler the Creator and Hodgy Beats backed by the Roots on Jimmy Fallon and all of Odd Future taking the stage at mtvU’s Woodie Awards (all performances can be seen below). All of the bands releases to date can be downloaded for free from their site, oddfuture.com. What truly makes Odd Future, well, odd is a visual appeal that conjures skateboards as readily as gats. Not your mother’s rap music, this is something else entirely. In fact rumor has it that member Earl Sweatshirt (age 16 at the time) was sent off to boarding school/boot camp after his mother heard some of his disturbing lyrical content. It will be interesting to see how the notoriously polarizing act handles the wave of critical and popular attention gathering on the horizon. Will they continue to put splinters in ears or splinter entirely; they certainly have potential to be the “Return of the Wu” Redux. 

If You Only Saw One Act At Treasure Island This Weekend...It Should Have Been Die Antwoord

Strike a MUTHAFUCKIN pose!

South Africa's Die Antwoord made their US debut at this year's Coachella Festival and was by all accounts a polarizing and eye-opening experience.  Several months later the Hip-Hop trio were causing jaws to drop at the Treasure Island Music Festival on Saturday.  It's hard to know how seriously to take Die Antwoord but judging by their performance I would say VERY seriously.  Band leader Nija definitely has the flow of Eminem and the conviction of N.W.A.  His rhymes are as outrageous as they are confusing.  His foil, Cape Town's version of a "hood rat", is the pre-pubescent looking Yo-Landi Vi$$er.  She matches Nija's moxy spitting verses with a tone that can only be described as child-like.

Yo-Landi Vi$$er in action...

 Her performance in a half-shirt and gold lames skin-tight pants was downright NASTY!  It was so disturbing to my buddy that he felt guilty watching it and I suggested maybe a shower was in order when he got home.  The beats are supplied by DJ Hi-Tek and are as inventive as any DJ's in the game.  The strike a balance between minimal and otherworldly.  The South African "culture" the proudly boast presenting was certainly not the one FIFA wanted highlighted in this year's World Cup.  It will be interesting to see if Die Antwoord has staying power or if they will be relegated to a curious side-show on the 2010 music landscape.  Below are some vids to give you a better idea of what all the fuss is about.