My little guardian angel

I look terrible but never mind me. This little guy in the pic is why its hard for me to cross that line at times in music into "bad influence land." Troubling enough its also what pushes me toward that line at times. I guess its what pushes me to become stronger and more intense while at the same time reserved...enough. Let the emotions bleed over in my words but not in the sense it mutates my art into something that isn't me. Its funny how many producers I've crossed paths with over the past months that have production that compliments how I feel right now. I'm growing into a new artist right now that's what the whole "i-el" thing is about. If you look up "el" you'll discover it means God in ancient times and thus the name EL-ijah (the english derivative of my name, Ilyas) So the name i-el makes a coded statement for me in many respects. So fickle judgmental hip hop audience bare with me. I'm about to take you on a ride startin' with Beat Thieves vol.2. Honestly, alot of the music that's passing through me these days even surprises me.

I feel music is spiritual and the greatest artists are very open spiritually and are conscious that they aren't creating music as much as they are being a vessel for it. For example, your parents didn't create you as much as they were vessels for you. I feel what limits many artists is having this preconceived idea of how you want and are supposed to sound..when the key is just letting go and seeing what songs want you to bring them into this world. My best songs are the ones I just kind of blackout on. And those are all sitting on the backburner stashed away. Perhaps I'll start puttin' snippets on this blog eventually.

This style of music I've grown accustomed to doing as a member of TM has been a unique and gratifying experience for me because honestly I'm more of a rapper at heart but workin' with Don and Von has made me a better emcee. You'd be amazed at alot of the stuff I've done prior to TM. LOL But as they say...the truth always comes out eventually. I can't hold it in any more! Anyway some of you may have heard "Fire & Brimstone" and as you know I direct videos ...(you can check out my work at www.youtube.com/directorilyas ) anyway Fire & Brimstone will document more in depth this little transition I'm going through in the video...and voila! Here's a snippet..its at a VERY early rough point..it even has word fillers for certain images that aren't in place yet...its a clip of the intro segment before the actual video with song.... so before you push play on the embedded youtube file...know this..being a struggling artist for "keep it real" hip hop fans that only download your shit anyway...is not cool at all...I've got a little guardian angel to take care of...ROLL THAT CLIP!!!