Meanings
- uncountableentertainmentA music genre with layered soundscapes, dub and hip-hop influences (including the use of samples), and a progressive approach to beat programming.
1 more example
This describes the sound of what is known as illbient, a genre of electronic music that arose in New York in the mid-1990s. The first illbient compilations were released by the Asphodel label—Crooklyn Dub Consortium Vol. 1 in 1995 and Incursions in Illbient in 1996—and Olive was involved with both projects.
2012, Mark Katz, Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
Origin
Blend of ill + ambient; coinage attributed to DJ Olive (Gregor Asch). See hip-hop slang sense of ill.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
illbient. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illbient
“illbient.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illbient. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “illbient,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illbient.
Source: illbient on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.