If you tuned into a hip-hop radio station, songs like “Tik Tok,” where rapper Ke$ha sings about brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and “how Low” where rapper Ludacris’ rhymes about someone getting low on the dance floor””Fresno State senior Idrees Gill’s music is nothing like that.
“It’s hip-hop that actually has a purpose and meaning about real life situations that we go through on a day-to-day basis,” Gill said.
He considers his genre “Progressive hip-hop,” and his lyrics are about real life situations. His song “Fall Before Rise” was written about his diagnosis with Ulcer Atibe Colipis, a stress-related condition that causes a massive amount of blood loss.
“There were times like I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, but I managed to survive,” Gill said. “The song is about how you feel like everything is going right for you and all of the sudden one thing can just come and change everything. Then you realize that you have to take those kinds of falls in order to rise to the person that you need to become.”
In the sixth grade, Gill discovered his talent for writing poetry, which he later developed into writing different types of rap.
In high school, he started producing beats and made friends who shared the same interest””one of those friends, Juan “Jukebawks” Duarte, is his producer today.
“Idrees’ music is nothing like what you hear on the radio,” Duarte said. “It’s not music telling you to shake your butt or telling you to take shots of tequila. It’s music made with a purpose.”
Gill’s musical influences include rap artists Mos Def, The Roots and Talib Kweli.
“They have a real unique style the way the flow and they way they get their message across is very dynamic,” Gill said.
Gill has been recording and performing music since 2005. He has performed at UC Berkeley, San Jose State, San Francisco State University, UC San Diego, as well as Fresno State.
Gill is working on his debut album titled “Scratch the Surface” that is set to release in May. Gill has been working on his album for three years and covers the span of his college career.
For his album, Gill is working on a project that is incorporating education in the music field called Voice Clips Projects (VCP). The project involves Fresno State professors being recorded about topics pertaining to how individuals work in their own worlds to help people and tying that into their own professional fields. Gill plans to record Fresno State professors and possibly put them on an interlude over dramatic music on his album.
Aside from music, Gill is on the board of directors of MY DEEN, a nonprofit organization.
MY DEEN provides the resources necessary for youth to reach out to the community.
MY DEEN President Sheraz Gill, “Idrees is almost graduating so he works with a lot of youth ages 13-19. He tries to provide a good mentorship role and demonstrate good positive skills to people younger than him,” Sheraz Gill said.
When predicting how far Gill will go in the music industry, Gill said, “Sky’s the limit. Even if it doesn’t lead to anything, at least I can feel accomplished at the end of the day- I did what I wanted to do.”