(Photo from Simon's Web Site)

Simon Illa Is Living Large

The diminutive hip-hop producer adopted Philly as his home after overcoming personal tragedy. Now he's poised to make it big... By Victor Fiorillo

Decked out in Dolce & Gabbana shades, a way-oversized Sean John shirt, and one of his 30 or so pairs of kid-size sneakers, Simon is bobbing his head — he's all head and hands, the only parts of his body that are of relatively normal size and seem to work effectively — to the Latin-spiked hip-hop tunes of Velez, a Tampa boy band that wants to be the Next Big Thing. The members of Velez drove four hours for a one-hour meeting with Simon because they think he's the guy who can get them there. Their tracks consist of lots of electronic beats, three-part vocal harmonies, and lyrics about getting into girls' pants. What Velez needs is direction, tighter songs, and someone to tell them that "The Flute," a not-so-wittily-masked instruction in fellatio, is just plain dumb — all part of a producer's job.

Simon listens intently to the tracks. The stylish clothes look slightly ridiculous on him, and the sunglasses swallow his face, but as he starts interjecting words like "cats" and "joint" (as in "That song's my joint") into his conversation with Velez, you realize it's all just part of the act everyone plays in this particular branch of show business. He knows what he's doing. Illa suggests shortening some of the tunes ("After four minutes, I'm sleepin'") and working with the vocal arrangements, because, he says, they aren't predictable enough for radio. He strokes the band members' egos with lots of compliments, and they return the respect, calling him "sir" a few too many times. Simon's longtime friend Kehinde, a Brooklyn-based rapper who on this trip is serving as driver and guy who makes sure no one gives Simon any shit, tosses in a few criticisms.

The strange thing is, no one in the room appears to be conscious of the fact that the man with the plan is a major hiccup in the genetic code.

FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.phillymag.com/articles/music_simon_illa_is_living_large/