Lamont Holden
Assistant Clinical Professor
Of Music, Audio, and Recording Technologies
With the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop celebrated in August 2023, we will learn more about the history of the musical genre, including the sociopolitical underpinnings behind the music, and we will look forward to where this art form may take us in the next 50 years. Lamont Holden will provide info on trends in Hip Hop, and engage students of all levels of knowledge in conversation about the future directions this music may take.
Lamont Holden, known in the music production community as TheLetterLBeats, is a music producer, DJ, podcast host, videographer, social media content creator, sound designer, teacher and audio engineer. In 2021 - 2022, Professor Holden helped launch alongside fellow alum Jarrel Young the “Illini Anthem” project that combines hip hop music and culture with new athletic and school spirit traditions at UIUC, helping transform the Marching Illini’s Low Brass Cheer’s blues riff that has been played during Illini Football games for decades by taking the instrumentation and added some Drumline-like snares, following the Atlantic sequencing formula to create the Illini Anthem. Professor Holden earned his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 2004 and an M.A. in Teaching & Education at National Louis University in 2011, and he teaches UI School of Music students to facilitate pathways to the professional music industry by way of his “The Art of Beatmaking,” music business, and songwriting courses.