2009 like many years before has had its predictions. Some will quit smoking, others drinking (after the last 5th glass of champagne), diet regimens are set plans as of midnight (right after that last piece of gluten new year’s cake) and new ways to grow on any level in the forth coming year is the most important priority.

On December 31st 2008, Dayton, Ohio’s own artistic genius, Ill Poetic, felt the resolution aura nearing him on that stage where he stood next to Ohio’s creme of the crop, Zone and Illogic.

Backtrack to 2000 when Poetic and Zone transplanted to Cincinnati and became new to the city of Reds. They were new to the city but more importantly new to the hustle hip hop created and students in the game of “making it”.
“I remember reading a article in a Cincinnati Citybeat paper of a local group and thinking, that would be it for me, to be on there…2 years later I was on there, but by then this feature became a validation for a 20 year goal I had.”
He depicts me the story as he reminisces on the Junior high school freestyle battles, which turned to hip hop battles, Eminem himself would be intimidated by. The Cd covers he drew at 9 years old are the visions an new Arrested Development album brought upon him. The picture began to become clear to him. He was the unordinary rapper with no connections to Cameron and Jay Z like his peers around him boosted so lustfully about, all he knew to do was to be that dope white kid who knew how to get down and give the power upon the Mic to make it to his dreams.
At this time, he came to personally discover into his “free floating” sound. A mixed pot of Outkast’s Aquamini with hip hop melodies and guitar drums, sprinkled with a lil J Dilla and Kanye influence.
His unique music appeal and charisma is what caught the attention of Producer J. Rawls, one of the contributors to the classic Talib Kwelib and Mos Def, first Black Star album. Another close colleague Wordsworth, had been traveling overseas to Europe for quiet a while and had been planning another round with some of hip hop’s best.
Ill Poetic had dreamt about traveling to the overseas land of hip hop loyalists, dreams become reality in hip hop. They say one mans failure is another mans gain, a booked rapper was unable to commit to the tour and Ill poetic jumped at the opportunity. He wasn’t going to get paid but he was going to be taken care of. This to him was the best business deal he ever heard of.

There he is on an 11 date tour with Diggin In The Crates OC, Pharoahe Monch and many more hip hop greats. 1200 people in attendance and there are 2 dudes in the audience who came from 2 different countries to see who…. The opener for Pharoahe Monch, Ill Poetic.
He found a fulfillment some of us crave for in this lifetime when he was on stage and his soul stepped outside his body, “There I was on my last date with over 1100 people in front of me and I just shaped a picture with my brain, like, This Is It, the walking to work everyday to save up and buy a vinyl, the eating Ramen noodles to buy a beat to make a song to perform it in Europe in front of these 1100 plus people,” He humbly depicts to me as rationalizing this is the peak he had to view to gain that extra push he needed.
He sold all his CD demos within 3 show dates to loyal hip hop connoisseurs, who to this day flood his MySpace page.



As he humbly returned home from Europe the treatment he received was bitter sweet but not for one minute did he let it affect him, he had his eyes on the prize.
“People don’t know how much further there is to go, not even rappers make it out of rapping, 50Cent makes millions of selling water.” He knew Europe opened the door, but the power of the Internet would help him stay afloat.
“Your never gonna do everything you want with the internet, you can be popular online and it means shit in real life, you still gotta go to open mics, print cd’s and do shows, there’s no such thing as demos anymore”.

Maybe this is why good advice always comes from within. His next step was to set off to NYC to sell himself and hustle for contacts. The 10 blocks he walked while lost up and down Broadway was miniscule compared to the recompense he received when he was able to enlist the notarized publicist to many hip hop heads like Jim Jones. “I didn’t get a publicist to be cool, I got one because I need one.”
He needs one because after being lost during one of New York’s ugliest snow days and still making it to The Source offices, just to introduce himself and be informed by the editor, that he has had a copy of his CD for a while and is in his actual CD collection, I agree with him in needing a publicist too.

Ill Poetic can be classified to many as the oddity but if he weren’t would we really remember him? His drive and sense of humor are what ironically set him apart from what we know as regular, but so did Kanye West when he rapped through a wire, so did Diddy when he pranced around in shinny suits and so did Eminem when he was backed up by Dr. Dre. “I rather keep planting seeds cause the more it grows, im trying to live off this, even if is comic strips, anything artistic, Ill be happy.”

So as he’s on that stage and waves farewell to 2008 with all his comrades to his side, he glimpses out and sees a 18 year old kid in the audience who wants to get a article on Cincinnati's Citybeat just because he saw Ohio’s next star, Ill Poetic on there.

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