Cape Town rapper, producer, and sound engineer, illRow, graced us with the opportunity to get more of an inside scoop on himself as an artist and his upcoming debut album titled The Cape Doctor.
The interview: A breakdown of our chat with illRow
The rapper, representing the city of Cape Town, has been heavily involved in the Cape Town music scene dating back to 2012, so we wanted to find out what drew the talented musician into pursuing a career in music.
“Well yo, to answer that I must take it back way before 2012, in primary school where I was into art, I always wanted to be an artist, I was good with the pencil but then I also found out I’m good with the pen,” the rapper started.
“Basically I knew I wanted to create art one day, and happened to find a strong urge and passion to create music by the time I was a teenager,” he continued.
“Art is expression, and music is just one of the many ways I found the easiest for me to express.” he concluded.
With the rapper’s album scheduled to release this weekend, we wanted to get a little more information on what we could expect from the project.
“Expect what you wouldn’t expect from me in general,” he sharply responded.
“I’ve focused on the music more than the bars in this one, but I mean that’s what a musical album is supposed to be, but other than that I got some crazy collaborations, so watch out for that.” said the rapper.
Wanting to dig a little deeper on the album, we wanted to get an idea of how the creative process was behind creating the project.
“It was quite strenuous in terms of time as I started on the creative process, writing and production, in 2018 already.” stated the rapper
“Reason for it being strenuous is due to the fact that I compiled and composed all the beats by myself so therefore my writing relied on the completion and structure of the beats and it’s hard juggling all these things when one needs to hustle and make money.” continued the rapper.
“But, at the end of it all, it was super bliss just to look at all that I’ve created and think to myself, wow I did all of that, well almost all the beats, I literally have one song where someone else made the beat, but that’s a special feature.” he cheekily concluded.
A little well-known fact, illRow is also a talented sound engineer and producer, hence why he creates most of his beats for his music, however, we wanted to know how the rapper felt knowing he had the ability to create his own beats and if there were any other artists he’d like to see hop onto one of his beats.
“It just feels too normal for me to make my own beats, like I don’t feel any type of way, and I think it’s because I went from the instrumental phase into making my own beats since day one and it actually feels significant when someone else produces for me because I’m not used to that at all.” stated the rapper.
“And nah, I’m not that type of producer, I don’t make beats all day so I don’t ever have plans for any particular artist, unless I’m producing a very specific project, then at that moment I would wish for an artist to feature with but then I’ll make it happen.” he concluded.
In our final question, we wanted to know what the rappers’ favourite part of the line of work was as a musician.
“The ability for me to be myself and not conform to anyone’s rules, but then again that’s the best part about being an indie musician.” the rapper concluded.
We believe illRow has a bright future as a talented musician whether it be in the scene of being a rapper or being a creative genius behind the art of producing beats.
The album titled The Cape Doctor is expected to release this coming weekend and we can’t wait to hear what the Cape Town musician has in store for us eager fans.
