We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ian Hill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ian, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I realized that high school was teaching me to become a worker more than a human, was the first time that I knew I needed to pursue more creative endeavors.

My mother had HIV. She moved us to Pennsylvania when I was 12. She understood the rising cost of living where I was born. So, we packed up everything—our entire life—and moved to Pittsburgh where it was cheaper, and where she could get into better studies and treatments that were better for her condition. I was angry, sad, and confused. But growing tensions and poverty in Chicago left my mom with few choices. Her health and well-being couldn’t be guaranteed there, or anywhere as we’d soon find out.

It was in 8th grade that I decided I was done with school. I was emancipated so that I could get a day job and help my mother with the bills because by that point, she was fully disabled. It was also one of the only options I had to avoid being locked in juvenile facilities due to truancy from taking care of my mom. I was held at gunpoint in my bedroom by real cops who barged into my home to take me to school.

The lengths the state will go to oppress poor people are absurd. So, leaving that institution was my only hope of not becoming a statistic when I would have inevitably hurt an officer for being in my home with weapons drawn—again, over truancy because my mom couldn’t afford a caretaker.

A few years after I was emancipated, I joined a creative arts school, Oakbridge Academy of Arts (now closed for being unaccredited). It didn’t help much and was really just a money grab. During that time, my mother passed away. She died of heart and kidney failure from the meds she was prescribed to counteract the HIV. She died a lab rat for UPMC. Her last words after I resuscitated her were, “I love you.”

I was 17—no family, no money—and now I had to be the adult the world was forcing me to be. I had to go to work the next day. So, I immediately began selling anything I could get my hands on, which just so happened to be a lot of drugs.

Fast forward to me at 27 years old. My life had finally caught up with me. I was convicted of a felony for possession with intent. I was given a plea deal due to it being my first offense. I was in college at the time, taking all my classes online. Once I was sentenced, they pulled all the scholarships I had earned and all of my grants, leaving me with nothing but a nice PC to play with and thousands in debt. I was sentenced to two years of house arrest and other penalties. Luckily, I had downloaded a cracked version of Fruity Loops. Over the next two years, I sat in solitude, learning everything I could about making music, digital art, and anything else I could occupy my time with.

I would like to say I chose to become an artist. I’d like to say I chose to do what I’m doing now. But, for the most part, I’m a product of my circumstances and my undying need to prove others wrong. I’m an artist because I have an ever-present urge to do exactly what others don’t want me to do in regard to my own life. The world wanted me to become a career criminal like so many before me, to fall through the cracks and lose my humanity as a Mexican in an incredibly racist part of America, where holding guns to kids to get them to go to school is normal. So yeah, every day is a decision to be an artist. There hasn’t been a point in time where I didn’t choose that, even when the world decided otherwise.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I bring the creativity. That’s what I do. I’ve been freelancing for so long that there isn’t any one thing I don’t dabble in. If it’s 1’s and 0’s, I can make it happen, and when it isn’t, I still deliver. lol

I’ve built custom video games
Handmade sculptures for galleries in Pittsburgh
Developed augmented reality art for shows
Filmed videos and video series for hundreds of artists
Written treatments for commercials and short films
Technical directed live broadcasts

But anything creative and digital is my bread and butter.

From music recording/producing/mastering to live 3D experiences, I can do it. And I’ve learned to do so on my own because I’ll never be beholden to a debt collector for knowledge again. So, what I can do is all self-taught.

I got into the arts scene in Pittsburgh by attending a TON of events, winning production competitions, and so much more. When I recorded my first CD in my bedroom, I had to find a way to get it into people’s hands who had never heard of me. So, I made a cardboard sign that read “Will work for fans” and passed out CDs to people at intersections in and around Pittsburgh. I’m sure I weirded people out, lol, but it paid off. After a while, people started coming back around to tell me how cool some of the music was, or how terrible it was. lol. Either way, they came back. That’s when I knew something was clicking—that it’s possible to make a name for yourself regardless of the circumstances.

I’m most proud of my ability to produce things that haven’t been done or seen before. I don’t ingest much pop culture, so you’ll see very little of it reflected in my art compared to others who rely on current events to push their art. Nothing is created in a vacuum, but there is something to be said about what you allow to influence you. Knowing when to shut it off or when to disregard things is just as important as knowing when to pay attention.

If there’s one thing I’d like people to know about my brand, it’s that there is no limit to how creative things can be. However, there is a limit to the budget. lol. So dreamers MUST come correct. Otherwise, my creativity will mostly be spent trying to find you the resources to pull off your vision or project, rather than trying to make it the better/cooler project you came to me for. lol

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

trash. I actually made an entire video game based around NFT’s

But here’s the thing. nobody is trading NFT’s for the value of the art. They trade them for the value of the coin they’re tied to.

After launching a coin tied to my video game, the project got rug pulled by almost every single buyer. This was because the 2mil+ valuation we reached wasn’t built because people liked games. It’s because they saw a coin that would do well and they could get rich from.

So, NFT’s aren’t for artists, they’re for investors. If that’s your thing, then so be it. But, NFTs weren’t built for artists, They were built for capitalists.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

That you shouldn’t pirate software.

If you are an artist, or want to become one, you’re gonna be left at the will of those willing to give you the tools and knowledge.

I wouldn’t have learned how to do ANYTHING if i had to pay for even a fraction of the software I’ve used in my early career. Copying software (which is what digital piracy is by definition, you cant steal 1’s and 0’s lol) is how I learned almost everything i Know. I applaud Tyler the Creator and others like him that aren’t afraid to be creative by any means necessary.

you remember Those old commercials “you wouldn’t steal a car would you?”. well, they fail to recognize that when software is pirated, it isn’t stolen from the person it’s pirated from. lol. It’s more akin to bootlegging. And, when you come from the mud like me, that’s just part of the culture.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.krackills.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krac_kills/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ian.p.hill.3/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-hill-18025350/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Krac_kills
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/krackills
• Other: Art protfolio:

  https://photos.app.goo.gl/koqBzjWVFiTurjvx8

Image Credits

Ian Hill