Polyphonic, also known as Polyphonic the Verbose, is an American musician and record producer. He was born Will Freyman and grew up in Champaign,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. His father persuaded him to take classical

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

lessons as a child. In middle and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, he learned to play

jazz trombone The trombone is a musical instrument from the brass instrument family. Trombone's first premiere in jazz was with Dixieland jazz as a supporting role within the Dixie Group. This role later grew into the spotlight as players such as J.J. Johnson and ...

. He attended college at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

before moving to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, then to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, then back to San Francisco, and finally moving to the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

neighborhood of Wicker Park. He subsequently met rapper

Serengeti The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti ...

at a party, and the two soon began collaborating. This resulted in the album '' Don't Give Up'', which was released on the Audio 8 Recordings label in 2007. Polyphonic and Serengeti then briefly parted ways, with Polyphonic working with Ben Lamar on the Juba Dance project, before being signed to

Anticon Anticon (often styled as anticon.) is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1998 by seven musicians and manager Baillie Parker. It is now collectively owned among six musicians, co-founder Parker, and man ...

by Doseone. Serengeti and Polyphonic then released their second album together, ''

Terradactyl ''Terradactyl'' is the second collaborative studio album by American musicians Serengeti and Polyphonic. It was released on Anticon in 2009. Critical reception Marisa Brown of AllMusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "an impressiv ...

'', on Anticon in 2009.

Discography

Solo

*''Abstract Data Ark'' ( Love Minus Zero, 2006)

With Juba Dance

*''Orange'' (Audio 8, 2007)

With Serengeti

*'' Don't Give Up'' (Audio 8, 2007) *''

'' (

, 2009)

As producer

*''Locket in a Well'' by Wick (Audio 8, 2006) *''Race Trading'' by Serengeti (Audio 8, 2006)

References

Living people American hip hop record producers People from Champaign, Illinois University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Record producers from Illinois Anticon artists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-record-producer-stub