Many articles, films, and interviews have been made about Illmind’s extraordinary career producing many albums for several of the top names in Hip-Hop today. This isn’t one of those interviews. In this week’s episode, John digs deep into the early experiences and upbringing that shaped Ramon Ibanga Jr - AKA !llmind - as a musician and planted the seeds of what has become a life’s quest towards community building. After years of social innovation within the Producer Community, we catch up with this 2x GRAMMY Award winning artist just days before he speaks at Gary Vaynerchuck’s VeeCon and just a couple months after the launch of his landmark NFT project: Squad of Knights. MUSICAL MENTIONS 0:00:10 World Music Foundation Podcast 0:00:12John Gardner 0:00:18GRAMMY 0:00:20Multi-Platinum 0:00:21 Producer 0:00:26 !llmind (aka Illmind) 0:00:38 Last Week’s Episode 0:00:48Si Kahn 0:01:07VeeCon 0:01:16NFT 0:01:21 Gary Vaynerchuk 0:01:29 Squad of Knights 0:02:22 BLAP Kit Volume 13 0:02:44 Jay Z 0:02:44Beyoncé 0:02:44Drake 0:02:44Eminem 0:03:00 Hamilton Mixtape 0:03:02 Black Panther: The Album 0:03:17 “You’re Welcome” (from Disney’s Moana) 0:04:19Music Business 0:04:32 NFT 0:04:32 Blockchain Technology 0:05:38 New Jersey 0:06:33 Musician 0:06:34 Guitar 0:06:38 Wedding Band 0:06:36Band 0:06:50 F.A.M.E. (Filipino American Music Entertainment) 0:07:26Instruments 0:07:32 Drums 0:08:00 80s 0:08:0190s 0:08:04 Soul 0:08:05 70s Soul 0:08:06 Funk 0:08:07 Jazz 0:08:15 Hip-Hop 0:08:35 LPs 0:08:36Vinyl 0:08:44 Stereo Systems 0:08:47Cassettes 0:08:52 CDs 0:09:13 Disco 0:09:21 Mambo Number 5 0:09:24Electric Slide 0:09:41Covers 0:09:53 Rhythms 0:09:54Chords 0:09:58Dance Floor Filipino Culture Philippines Karaoke Singing Guitar American Dream America 0:14:36Disco 0:14:36 Classic Rock 0:14:58 Hip-Hop 0:15:06 Producer 0:15:34 J Dilla 0:15:36Beats 0:15:37 Fantastic Volume 2 0:15:38DJ Premier 0:15:40Gangstarr 0:15:42 Mannie Fresh 0:15:46 TR808 0:15:46 Bounce Beats 0:16:17 Beat Machines 0:16:18 MPC 0:16:43Compose 0:16:44Keyboard 0:18:11 Roland 0:18:18Swizz Beatz 0:18:18DMX 0:18:24 DMX’s Second Album 0:18:59Pete Rock 0:18:59 DJ Quik 0:18:59Dr. Dre 0:20:02 undergroundhiphop.com Music Producer Community Forum Producer Beats 0:20:23 SoundCloud 0:20:32Bounce an MP3 Single 0:21:48Akrobatik 0:21:56Remind My Soul 12-Inch Vinyl Single 0:22:11