Q: “What’s the inspiration and story behind ‘IllumiCorp!’?
A: “I don’t know what the hell happened, but I was churning out beats on a daily basis, and reached a point where I realized that my innovative self was crying out for attention. This shit is an art form and you can’t fall into formula with it.
So the night before I made this beat, I called on the Hip-Hop gods to bless my psyche with the right frame of reference. I had no expectations for a result. The next day I immediately got to work on a beat, I threw down a couple of synths and got a vibe. Then I layered in the drums and I felt this hype, my creative inner self went haywire with excitement, and I was off to the races. I had a rough draft of the beat done on day one, and mixed it down to finalization on a more badass set of speakers at my brother Lil Trig’s house on day 2. I let the beat sit for a few hours, then listened to it on my headphones, I was head bangin like the shit was heavy metal.
I sent the joint through the wire to the partna dem Photon and he immediately wanted the beat, so I let him fill out the concept, and he hit me back with a mad philosophically oriented joint, on some next level conscious shit. Photon’s one of my favorite Hip-Hop masterminds of all time but I was so inspired I couldn’t let him have the whole track to himself. He told me to hop on the track and I spent a few hours in the booth drawing out my response to his verse and then we went back and forth hammering out the concept some more until we reached a point where attempting to perfect it anymore would have caused the song to lose its raw energy.
Its important in my opinion to protect the original concept, this is underground shit, we don’t all that shiny shit to get the point across. We want your whole soul to vibe with us, no surface level shit round here partna.” - jolly
lyrics
Verse 1 (Photon)
I step out the sanctum I’m torn
The corporate security blanket is warm
Getting the cream, then I rise to the top
And the god do not give me real fire ‘less I’m HipHop
Getting the guap, but I topple
The tower I babble dat shit paradoxical
Forehead is optical see thru my optical
solvin the problem I posit unsolvable
operate opin a op that’s inoperable
Q to the M to the mission impossible
- mediocrity or he anomaly ?
Capitalism or pure meritocracy
On my Day job I be - exceeded
Now I moonlight wit the crew - rap genius
Got to adapt to these free nights, weekends
Warrior electrical plans for emceein’
Rather be traveling, ‘petual tour
Financial freedom and he waging wars
minds of the mass that’s classed as obscured
makin six figures, but really I’m poor
Less I’m preaching on these goddamn beats in bar form
Teaching wit this goddamn heat to scorch norms
I am the political animal transformed
thoughts like IllumiCorp’s course, entrepreneur
What the fuq?!
Verse 2
What dafuq photon why you gotta drop dem bombs on my song, 24 bars and I done lost count, here I go again with this god damn sound shit, im a mixing engineer with a passion for rapping on trap beats
left from california ended up south Atlanta gotta tech mentality but speak that country gramma
i dont drink no wine but i sip a grape fanta
mix it with the grey goose gotta nigga fuccin standn up
20 20 vision
I’m what they been missin
It’s mista foocin jollyyyyy
My mind is kinda missin
I’m kinda on a mission
Gettin all the kids on board with the vision
Listen you can’t see the forest for the trees
Bitch I see the forest for the god damn leaves
Jolly the reaper is grim
Its fuckin suicide cus I killed my own beat
Holy shit
independetly sippin hennesy
watchin all the beef unfold
Over thee unknown
Like the beast is home
The beast hommmme
escaped the matrix
Plugged back in cus the cookies
still baking
Oracle flow and I bet you didn’t know
There levels to this shit
And I think I’m on the roof
Mendelevels to this shit like the periodic table
And I’m fuckin unstable
So I try to keep it simple
But these bitches want this villainous shit
Bet yet a lil pure synthetic
From the mind of a chemist
I ain’t really sympathetic and you seem pathetic
I’m radio active
Isodope whoops I meant isotope
I know you wanna light this dro
I’ve said it befo
And I’ll say it once mo
I ain’t from around here
I ain’t from this time scale
I am just a light wave
You are just in my way
I know that you know that I know that you don’t know
Scope on the rope cus it just looks dope
credits
released June 24, 2019
Performed by: Photon, jolly
Songwriting by: J. Harris, P. Matthew
Audio Production by: jolly
Cover art by: jolly
JPEGMAFIA follows November's EP! with this aptly titled release that explores distrust, anguish, and mental health. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 12, 2021
