ON POINT TV: The Frank N Dank interview (video)

 via www.on-point.be

NEW ALBUM FROM THE LATE GREAT J DILLA DUE JUNE 2ND

By now most everyone is familiar with the story of musical legend J Dilla. The quiet, prolific producer collaborated with everyone from Erykah Badu to Common to Janet Jackson to Prince.  Dilla was just beginning to capitalize on his cult status when he sadly passed at age 32 due to Lupus-related complications. Jay Stay Paid is a 25 track collection of unreleased Dilla beats mixed and arranged by Pete Rock. While mostly instrumental, ”J$P“ also offers a few guests vocals from artists that Dilla worked with or admired including Black Thought of The Roots, MF DOOM, and M.O.P. 

Curtailing any notion of jumping on some sort of Dilla bangwagon, Jay Stay Paid was executive produced by Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes) along with the musical supervision of Dilla’s only real musical idol, Pete Rock.  “It wasn’t rushed and it wasn’t haphazard,” explains Ms Yancey. “This album combines what he did in the beginning of his career, what he did in some of our early hospital stays, which was very deep, and some stuff pulled from old floppy disks & DATs. Its mind blowing…this is like the missing links to Dilla’s legacy.”

The format of the album plays like a radio show with Pete Rock as the program director. With regards to Pete’s involvement, Ms. Yancey gets very excited, “Dilla wanted to pattern himself behind Pete. His dream was to become as close as possible to what Pete stood for. Pete meant everything to him. Dilla would have just been flabbergasted! ” Pete’s sentiments were the same toward Dilla, “Dude was amazing. He just kinda came outta nowhere and the more you heard his beats the better they got. He may not be here with us, but it’s all good we’re going to keep his music alive and well.”

In the late 80s, Dilla founded the seminal rap group Slum Village and put Detroit hip-hop on the map, while the 90’s saw him playing a major role in the production team The Ummah with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad doing extensive work on A Tribe Called Quest’s last two albums. 

Jay Stay Paid will be released on June 2nd on Nature Sounds.

via Biz3

The ULTIMATE J Dilla tribute…

DAMN! So sorry i missed this one. Too much! But thanks to SweenyKovar, we have a bit of insight into what went down…

——

Sunday February 22nd was historic.

That night, Cal State LA’s Luckman Theatre was the place every self-respecting hip hop head worldwide envied. ArtDontSleep, Mochilla, Vtech, Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson created a spectacular musical performance by having a 40 piece orchestra play select pieces of music from James Yancey’s vast discography. I honestly can’t quite explain the electricity in the air that night, I just know everyone was awed and honored to witness such a show. 

The night begun with DJ House Shoes playing a set of Dilla classics, originals and select voice messages from Erykah Badu, ?uestlove and J Dilla himself, as well as an unreleased and unleaked Dilla song produced by Shoes. In the interim between Shoes and J Rocc, this Mochilla video played on the giant screen behind the stage.

J Rocc followed with a classic set. J Rocc seems to have every version of every Dilla beat, the full mixes of a good number of heaters and of course a gang of unreleased heat. Still, the biggest spectacle was yet to come. After J Rocc’s set, Common, Ma Dukes and Illa J came onstage to give a brief introduction to the rest of the show. Carlos Nino also appeared to further play host to  Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and The Suite For Ma Dukes Orchestra.

The first of their two 45 minute sets began with the orchestra playing cuts off the Suite for Ma Dukes EP (now available on vinyl and iTunes). To hear cuts like ‘Nag Champa,’ ‘Find A Way’ and ‘Fall in Love’ live in this setting was nothing short of mind blowing, but the real treats were to come. Afterwards, the orchestra began to get deeper into Dilla’s discography. They played a particularly ridiculous rendition of Phat Kat’s ‘Don’t Nobody Care About Us’ and had heads in the audience up in arms with their version of Jaylib’s ‘The Official.’ My personal favorite orchestral rendition was the ominous ‘Take Notice,’ or was it the Dilla beat pauses that Miguel and company pulled of in their rendition of ‘Jealousy’? The intermission came and went. Everyone in the lobby was smiling from ear-to-ear, ecstatic about what had just happened. As people filed back into their seats the curtain was raised once again and Carlos Nino introduced the first of a line of special guests, Karriem Riggins on the drums and Dwele on the mic.

Dwele performed an orchestral version of ‘Angel’ backed up by Amp Fiddler, Bilal and an amazing Portugese singer who’s name escapes me. Afterwards Bilal came onstage to perform an MC-less version of ‘Reminisce,’ followed by an orchestral cover of Stan Getz ‘Saudade Vem Correndo,’ aka the original for the Dilla-produced Pharcyde track ‘Runnin’ that must have given everyone in attendance goosebumps. Then, the closing, ‘Stakes Is High’ with special guests Posdonous of De La Soul and Talib Kweli. Everyone was standing up in their seats, chanting along to the chorus. This was magic.

Once again, a huge thank you goes to everyone involved with this performance. It will be a day that will go down in music history. I am humbled to have been in attendance. 

via CDR

 

Suite For Ma Dukes Session January 2008

The original recording session for the forth coming J Dilla tribute, Suite for Ma Dukes. The band makes a scratch track for the strings and horns which were laid the next day. 

Wurlitzer: Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Rhodes: Brandon Coleman
Percussion: Nikki Campbell
Drums: Gene Coye

J DILLA MADE ME DO IT!

R.I.P James”J Dilla” Yancey, who died on this day, February 10th, 2006.

James Yancey will be forever be known as J Dilla. He was born in Detroit. His music was the most revered sound in hiphop from the mid-nineties until today. He had worked with everyone from Tribe called Quest to Busta Rhymes, De la Soul, Common even Janet Jackson. His two solo albums for BBE records are classics and his Donuts album for Stones Throw is considered genre defining. Donuts, was completed during one of his extended hospital stays. Dilla suffered from Lupus. It was released on February 7, his 32nd birthday. Three days later, while at his Los Angeles home with his mother (MaDukes), he passed away.

It sure is hard to honor a man who had already done so much musically in his life (and there are many online tributes as we speak), but Los Angeles musicians and J Dilla devotees Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood Ferguson have certainly made their tribute count. With the help of ArtDontSleep and Mochilla, the two have produced a four song orchestral EP of music originally produced by James “Jay Dilla” Yancey, building on 2 free downloadble songs that have already done the rounds. The pair will also perform the EP, along with other Dilla compositions, with a 36 piece orchestra at a live concert in Los Angeles on February 22nd at the  Luckman Fine Arts Complex. The EP is already available on  available on iTunes and all proceeds go directly to Ma Dukes. You can make pre-orders for the CD/LP here. 

tracklist

1. Find a Way

2. Antiquity

3. Fall in Love

4. Nag Champa

Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood Ferguson – Nag Champa

 

Time to remember Jay Dee…

J Dilla was born February 7th, 1974, and passed away February 10th, 2006.

J Dilla Changed My Life.

Parra + Stonesthrow = J Dilla/Ma Dukes

 Parra didn’t like what he read in this Vibe article so he got to work. Raise It Up!

Donuts to Dollars: The Battle for J Dilla’s Legacy

via VIBE Magazine

 

THREE YEARS AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH, J DILLA’S BEATS AND REPUTATION LOOM EVER LARGER OVER HIP HOP. BUT FOR HIS MOTHER – WHO NURSED THE VISIONARY PRODUCER THROUGH A CHRONIC ILLNESS AND HAS WATCHED HIS ESTATE LANGUISH IN LIMBO – THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES. BY KELLEY LOUISE CARTER

There’s nothing Maureen Yancey wouldn’t do for her children. But as she sits in the basement studio of her only surviving son’s Los Angeles home, she struggles with the one thing she hasn’t done since her firstborn, James Dewitt Yancey known in hip hop circles as Jay Dee or J Dilla – three years ago of complications from lupus. She just can’t. She didn’t do it when the ambulance arrived at the nearby house Dilla shared with. Common, and she didn’t when they failed to revive him from cardiac arrest. She couldn’t even bring herself to do it when she picked out which baseball cap she’d place by his coffin.

“When he left, I had an awful void,” she says calmly. “I didn’t grieve like you always think you’d grieve. I always had a joy and the strength to help others to get through it. But…” her voice trails off, hands smoothing down her jeans. “I haven’t cried yet.”

Still, the memories came flooding back when she flew from Detroit to visit the city where her son was buried at age 32. “I rejoiced in the fact that he wasn’t sick anymore,” she says, “and that he’d done what he came here to do. I do believe that. His purpose on earth was to come here and give us the music that he had in his heart and soul.”

The equipment that surrounds her is Dilla’s, the same gear he used to create the deceptively simple, unspeakably beautiful music that solidified his reputation as one of hip hop’s greatest. As Busta Rhymes put it in 2007, “He wasn’t just a producer, he was the best producer.”

 

Many of her son’s friends – Common, Busta, Erykah Badu – still call regularly, and keep her son’s music in rotation. Q-Tip’s latest single, “Move” (Universal Motown, 2008), was built around a Dilla beat, and her other son John Yancey, a rapper known as Illa J has released the powerful new album, Yancey Boys (Delicious Vinyl, 2008), which was produced by his big brother.

Meanwhile the 60-year-old woman everybody calls Ma Dukes faces health problems of her own, and financial challenges as well. Although numerous memorials and “benefits” were held in his name, the proceeds didn’t change his family’s life. Dilla left two daughters – Ja’Mya, 7, and Paige, 9 – to provide for, a sizeable IRS bill, and unresolved legal issues surrounding the use of his beats. Ma Dukes says she has never received money from her son’s estate and that her plans to establish a foundation in his name were quashed by the executor of his estate. Somehow, she was not reduced to tears even after Dilla’s attorney informed her that she had no legal right to use her own son’s name or likeness for commercial purposes. Not even to support his family.

IN HIS NATIVE DETROIT, DILLA WAS THE MAN. The soft-spoken beatmaker was a pioneer of the Motor City hip hop landscape that struggled to gain national recognition before Slim Shady put the D on the map in 1999. Though he remains anonymous to the masses, Dilla is considered a demigod by his hardcore fans. His distinctive drum sounds and grimy, organic sound palette revolutionized hip hop production, and echoes of his innovative use of samples can be heard in the work of Just Blaze and Kanye West. “He can do a Primo beat better than Premier. He can do a Dre beat better than Dre, and he can out-rock Pete Rock,” says fellow Detroit producer House Shoes. “But none of them could duplicate a Dilla beat. Much respect to those three. They were pioneers. But that’s the fucking truth.”

Dilla grew up in the Conant Gardens section of Detroit’s Eastside surrounded by music. His dad, Beverly Yancey, played piano and upright bass. “My mom and dad had a jazz a cappella group, and they’d sing in the living room for hours and hours,” says Illa J, 22. “It was really laid-back and nonchalant. While that was happening, my brother would be downstairs in the
basement doing his thing.”

By the mid-1990s, Dilla was getting calls from some of the hottest stars of the day. He produced tracks for The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and Q-Tip, with whom he founded the production collective The Ummah. Yet despite these high-profile projects, Dilla shunned the limelight. His love of music eclipsed any concern for dealing with industry politics. “He wasn’t antisocial,” says Illa J. “He was just quiet. That comes from our dad. A lot of his personality rubbed off on my brother. It was all about the craft for him. He didn’t care about all that other stuff.”

When Tribe’s Beats, Rhymes, and Life (Jive, 1996) was nominated for a Grammy, Tip invited Dilla to the award ceremony. “I was like, ‘Yo, this is a good opportunity for you, you should just go.’ He was like, ‘Hell no, I ain’t going. Fuck that!”‘ recalls Q-Tip, laughing at the memory. “I said, ‘You got nominated for a fucking Grammy. You are going to go.’ He said, ‘I ain’t got nothing to wear!’ But he went. He was so mad and disgruntled and angry about that. He was much happier doing it his way. That’s who he was. He didn’t really want to fuck with none of that. And I don’t blame him.”

DILLA REALIZED SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH HIS HEALTH IN JANUARY OF 2002. He’d just returned from Europe and thought he had a bad flu. Sick to his stomach and complaining of chills, Ma Dukes took him to the emergency room at Bon Secours hospital in suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. His blood platelet count should have been above 150, but it was below 10. Doctors told his mother they were surprised he was still walking around.

He tested positive for lupus, an autoimmune disease that can be fatal. To make matters worse, Detroit doctors diagnosed him with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, aka TTP, a rare disorder that causes blood clots to form in the body’s blood vessels.

Despite his degenerating health, Dilla packed up his stuff and moved out to Los Angeles, where he lived with his friend and frequent collaborator Common. He set up a studio and got to work. But very few knew how bad life was for the soft-spoken prodigy. He poured himself into his work, doing his best to forget his health problems. Ma Dukes says there were several close calls. When she left him alone once, Dilla fell down and bumped his head. Because she refused to leave Dilla’s side during his last days, she and her husband lost their house. She tried to file for bankruptcy to save the family home but didn’t get back to Detroit in time to sign the necessary paperwork. “I wasn’t leaving my son,” she says.”We lost the house. But I wasn’t concerned. It didn’t bother me at all.”

At summer’s end, 2005, Dilla found himself in a hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, the same hospital where The Notorious B.I.G. and Eazy-E died. He’d lost the ability to walk and could barely talk. His own body was killing him, and there was little to be done about it.

Sensing that death was coming, he told his mother he needed his equipment in the hospital with him. Ma Dukes asked his friends from the L.A.-based label Stones Throw Records to lug his turntables, mixer, crates of records, MPC, and computer into his room. When his hands were too swollen, Ma Dukes would massage his stiffened fingers so Dilla could work on the tracks, letting his doctors listen to the beats through his headphones.

Sometimes he’d wake Ma Dukes up in the middle of the night, asking her to help move him from his bed to a reclining chair so he could work a bit more comfortably. His only focus was finishing the album. Donuts was released on Stones Throw on February 7, 2006, his 32nd birthday. Dilla died three days later.

“It was crazy to hear all that soul,” Illa J says of one haunting track called “Don’t Cry.” “I got to be in the right mode to listen to it. It’s emotional for me. I can feel my brother talking to me through the music.”

THREE DAYS AFTER DILLA DIED, HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER, PAIGE, TURNED 6. “That was a low blow,” says her mother, Monica Whitlow. “To have to tell my baby that before her birthday was the worst. We didn’t get to say goodbye.” The 29-year-old, who knew Dilla before his career took off, still lives in Detroit. She emphasizes that their relationship was never about money. “To have him back here, breathing and living, that’s worth more than money any day,” she says. “But it pisses me off, everything that’s going on with this estate. It’s ridiculous ’cause it’s been three years, and my baby has not seen anything from this estate. Nobody has granted James his final wish.”

Although Dilla’s will stipulates that all assets be divided among his mother, his two daughters, and his brother, the executor of the estate is his accountant Arty Erk, and as back-up, there’s his attorney, Micheline Levine and then his mother. Ma Dukes says she grew so frustrated that communications broke down between her and the executor. Erk explains that payments from the estate were delayed because Dilla has an outstanding tax debt in the “healthy six figures.” He says he is negotiating a payment plan with the IRS and that a petition has been filed with the probate court in order to get family allowances paid to Dilla’s children.

The other major issue facing the estate is that so many people are using Dilla’s beats without permission. Dilla would often create beat CDs and hand them out to friends.

“It’s been difficult to police,” Erk admits, adding that he’s at the tail end of litigation with Busta Rhymes. “An album was released by Busta on the Internet called Dillagence without authorization,” Levine explains. “And, of course, we’re now unable to use those tracks and exploit those downloads. Everybody downloaded it for free.” Attempts to reach out to Busta were not returned.

Ma Dukes counters that Busta paid Dilla for those tracks years ago. “He got a raw deal,” she says. “Busta didn’t take anything from anybody.” Ma Dukes says she feels bad that her son’s friend had to go through such rough treatment by his estate.

The same scenario has played out several times since Dilla’s death. The estate has settled “four or five” similar cases, negotiating what they believe is fair market value for the beats. “A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork with things that he did for them,” says Erk, who took out an ad in Billboard magazine in April 2008, notifying people to stop using Dilla’s material. The estate also sent out cease-and-desist letters to various entertainers as well as people throwing events in Dilla’s name-including his own mother, she says. “Her dream was to open a camp where kids with lupus could have normal lives,” says Joy Yoon, an L.A. journalist who interviewed Ma Dukes shortly after her son’s death and later offered to help her raise funds for what was to be called the J Dilla Foundation. “But then she said she was put on hold by the lawyers.”

Ma Dukes insists she will go on with her plans for the foundation, establishing it in her own name. “It’s been over two years, and they’re talking the same crap,” she says. “I don’t have a Ph.D., but I know how to use a phone and talk to somebody and make arrangements. It’s just not an excuse. They have no respect for the fact that I had anything to do with bringing him into this world.”

Meanwhile, she has voiced concerns about Dilla’s will itself, which he signed on September 8, 2005, nearly six months before his death. “I don’t even know if he really knew what he was signing,” she says. “I don’t think he would have signed anything if he’d known it would be like this now.” She has hired an attorney who is also representing her son and Paige’s mother, Monica Whitlow, who says that legal action is “in the works.”

“His estate is fucked up,” Q-Tip says. “I know the lawyers are saying that he had certain tax issues and all that stuff. But you were getting paid to represent him when he was alive, so it shouldn’t be any of that. Ma Dukes ain’t getting nothing, and the kids ain’t getting nothing. It’s a horrible thing.”

During the last year of her son’s life, Maureen Yancey tested positive for lupus. She says she’s not worried about dying and has accepted the fact that she and her husband must now live in a rental property in a neighborhood she describes as “a war-torn zone.” What keeps her up at night is her grand children. “I just want the girls to be taken care of,” she says. “That’s all.”

In response to a petition filed by her mother, Joyleete Hunter, Dilla’s youngest
daughter, Ja’Mya, has begun receiving money from the estate, and Erk says Paige should start receiving payouts sometime in early 2009. “Oh really?” says Whitlow. “That’s new information for me.” She has had few conversations with Erk and says that when she informed him she was working with Ma Dukes’ lawyer, he warned her, “This is going to get ugly.” But she remains undeterred. “I gotta speak up for my baby ’cause I been quiet too long,” she says.”He hasn’t seen ugly. I can show him ugly.”

In the meantime, Ma Dukes says please don’t cry for her. “It’s really rough for everybody out there. But prayers help,” she says with a sigh.”Pray for my strength.”

thanks to RIK

Q-Tip – Move Prod. J Dilla (video by Rik Cordero)

thanks to Moovmnt

Stones Throw Podcast #37 – Gaslamp Killer vs. Heliocentrics + TURN IT UP! J Dilla Box Set

Gaslamp Killer vs. Heliocentrics.mp3

The Heliocentrics myspace

TheGaslampKiller.com

CASSETTE J Dilla Ruff Draft. “…straight from the muthaf#%kn cassette!” Released only with the TURN IT UP box set.
T-SHIRT TURN IT UP! A Little Louder. The now-classic design by Alfred Hawkins. Exclusive colorway
CITATION Reckless Driving Ticket. We ran a bunch of L.A. parking ticket lookalikes and ticketed people outside Ruff Draft listening parties in Spring 2007. There was a few left over, all included in these boxes.
PHOTO J Dilla taken by B+ for the Jaylib album in Detroit, 2003.
THE BOX 15×12x3 inches. Custom designed box with cassette holder. All shipped in a protective mailer.

$39.95 plus shipping click here!

StonesThrow.com

Robert Glasper – J Dillalude (Simon S Extended Edit)

Robert Glasper – J Dillalude (Simon S Extended Edit).mp3

via Wuzz Mag

Madlib finally joins BBE’s Beat Generation

Madlib’s long-anticipated addition to BBE’s Beat Generation series will be released on Rapster/BBE this September 30th. Fitting comfortably into a series whose previous contributors include the late J Dilla, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Pete Rock, Madlib will deliver one of his most straight forward neck snapping hip-hop albums to date. – Stones Throw Records

WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip CD/2LP
1. The New Resident – Beat Konducta
2. Blow The Horns On ‘Em – Guilty Simpson
3. The Plan Pt. 1 – Georgia Anne Muldrow
4. Tension – Beat Konducta
5. Gamble On Ya Boy – Defari
6. The Ox (805) – MED feat. Poke
7. All Virtue – Beat Konducta
8. Blinfold Test #10 (He Don’t Play) – J.Rocc
9. The Thang-Thang – Price Po
10. Heat – Madlib
11. Smoke Break – Beat Konducta
12. The Plan (Reprise) – Beat Konducta
13. Life – Karriem Riggins
14. Parklight – Beat Konducta
15. Yo Yo Affair Pt. 1 & 2 – Frezna
16. I Want It Back – The Professionals (Oh No & Madlib)
17. Disco Dance – Beat Konducta
18. What It Do – Liberation
19. Take That Money – Roc ‘C’ feat. Oh No
20. Drinks Up! – Frank N Dank
21. The Way That I Live – Stacy Epps
22. Ratrace – Murs
23. Go! – Guilty Simpson
24. Stop – Beat Konducta

www.stonesthrow.com/madlib
www.myspace.com/madlib
www.bbemusic.com

thanks to Universoul

Daru Spirit & Soul-Hop Sampler 08′ Hosted and Compiled by Marc Mac (4Hero)

Combine live instruments with raw, soulful hip hop production and you have a distinct sound that is different from that of a beat machine (sampler/mpc) only.

This element is what makes Rusic Music one of the most sought out production companies in underground hip hop. Founded in 1996 by drummer/producer Daru Jones, Rusic takes pride in creating music for unsigned artist thus providing a platform for talent that is yet heard by the masses. Despite its growing popularity Rusic Music has maintained its integrity. Production is only granted to artists who create music that inspire and deliver positive messages.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Daru – Take Your Hand – Dilla ft. Rena.mp3

www.myspace.com/darubeats

Dilla.Ghost.Doom. coming soon…

www.stonesthrow.com/news/dillaghostdoom

Redman & J Dilla – The Saga Continues (DJ Soul remix)

J Dilla “Remember Remix” from unreleased MCA joint

Faster than you can say Jackie Robinson, it seems Dilla’s unreleased MCA album, Pay Jay is doing the rounds online. After posting that Pete Rock/J Dilla/Bilal track last week, I thought I’d follow that up with the remix. Here’s the playlist for the LP as well.

1. Diamonds (Prod. Nottz)
2. We F’ed Up (Feat. Frank-N-Dank) (Prod. Kanye West)
3. Fuck The Police (Prod. J Dilla)
4. Remember (Feat. Bilal) (Prod. Pete Rock)
5. Fight Club (Feat. Nottz & Boogieman) (Prod. Waajeed)
6. Creepin’ On You (Producer Hi-Tek)
7. Trucks (Producer J Dilla)
8. No One Knows (Prod. Supa Dave West)
9. Drive Me Wild (Prod. ?uestlove & Kareem Riggins)
10. Diary (Prod. Bink Dawg)
11. Remember Remix (Feat. Bilal) (Producer Pete Rock).mp3

Pete Rock produced J Dilla featuring Bilal (from unreleased MCA LP)

Thanks to Universoul for this little bit of feel good.

Pete Rock produced J Dilla featuring Bilal (from unreleased MCA LP).mp3

The James Yancey interview (Eindhoven, Netherlands 2003)

The Netherlands video got bumped for some reason, but the audio is still here. Peep the additional Stones Throw J Dilla interviews as well.

Stelfox remembers J Dilla in March issue of The Wire…

Generation Loss

by Dave Stelfox

Hip-hop has a long history of posthumous mythology. From the industry’s mercenary exhumations of Tupac and Biggie, to the grassroots worship of fallen local heroes such as Texas’s DJ Screw and the Bay Area’s Mac Dre, its relationship with mortality flits from the complex to the conflicting, the sincere to the crassly opportunistic. On 10 February 2006, however, its safe to say that the culture lost one of its most formidable talents. After a long battle with the debilitating immune condition lupus, James Dewitt Yancey, also known as Jay Dee or J Dilla, passed away at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 32. Two years on, its now clearer than ever that this young producer achieved something that few musicians ever manage, leaving not only a timeless and innovative back catalogue, but a whole generation inspired by his idiosyncratic and intricately wrought work.

While artists such as Sa-Ra Creative Partners and Flying Lotus continue to carry Dilla’s torch, he was equally revered in life, counting figures such as The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams. Kanye West and Just Blaze among his biggest admirers. Even so, he cut a remarkably low-key figure in the frequently brash and excessive world of contemporary urban music Rather than basking in the limelight, Dilla was always happiest letting his beats do most of the talking. And how they spoke.

Growing up a shy child in a musical household in Detroit. his later involvement with the city’s independent hip-hop scene would shape his life. After rapping and making music on a rudimentary studio set-up, it was thanks to being taken under the wing of local producer Amp Fiddler that Dilla would begin to realise his full potential. By 1993, Dilla and his friend MC Phat Kat had dropped their first wax as the duo 1st Down. In addition to this, he also produced an LP entitled The Album That Time Forgot for 5 Elementz, a group including the late Detroit MC Proof. Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, working under the name of Jay Dee, he continued to concentrate on studio work, steadily rising through the ranks and creating infectious music for instantly recognisable names such as Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots. D’Angelo and Erykah Badu.

Blending forward-looking techniques with a deep knowledge of hip-hop’s past, his aesthetic perfectly suited these distinctive MCs and honeyed neo-soul vocalists. Dilla’s presence was such that even those unfamiliar with his name or the breadth of his oeuvre will know at least some of the work from this period, chiefly a stellar remix of Janet Jackson’s “Got Till It’s Gone,” De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High” and a large proportion of The Pharcyde’s 1995 album Labcabincalifornia, including the classic “Runnin.”

It was, however, as Slum Village, the group formed with childhood friends Baatin and T3 at Pershing High School, that Dilla’s gifts really began to shine. While membership allowed him to step out from behind the mixing boards and command the mic – a facet of his career that would continue to be explored on 2001’s Welcome 2 Detroit and Jaylib’s 2003 Champion Sound albums – it also gave him the creative control and freedom to become the kind of instrumental artist we know him as today.

Of course, others had recognised Dilla’s promise far earlier. As longtime friend DJ House Shoes says: “I got to know him when I was working in a record store in Detroit. I remember hearing his music for the first time in the same way I remember first hearing hip-hop. If there were two big musical moments for me, they’d be discovering hip-hop and then discovering Dilla. He was doing things that no one else was doing, really pushing it to the next level. To this day, I still think that he’s one of the most underrated artists of all time.”

Slum Village’s albums, the underground Fantastic Vol 1 (1997) and the much delayed but eventually commercially released Vol 2 (2000), provided ideal showcases for Dilla’s signature sound: a woozy, smeary and crackly collage of soul and jazz licks underpinned by the lurching, peg-legged rhythms with which he gradually became synonymous. In a time when urban music was steadily undergoing a futuristic reinvention thanks to the increasingly far-flung beats and steely synths employed by the likes of Timbaland and The Neptunes, Dilla’s work was both timely and contradictory. Heavily influenced by the styles of DJ Premier and Pete Rock, the source material was bass-heavy and grainy, as if it had been discovered at the bottom of a dark, dusty cellar. The way these samples were assembled, chopped and spliced together, though, lent a resolutely contemporary gloss. Dilla merged the modern and inventive with a uniquely organic warmth and accessibility.

This approachable character extended into his personal life and his dealings with other artists, too. Even after Dilla had relocated to Los Angeles, he maintained close links with Detroit and took any available opportunity to rep his city. Working with the likes of Frank N Dank, Platinum Pied Pipers and Common (a relationship that reached its peak with the 2000 album Like Water For Chocolate), this friends and family vibe was vital to his vision. A desire to surround himself with like minds was also evident in his membership of the Soulquarians collective -along with Talib Kweli. Common, Mos Def, James Poyser, Erykah Badu, ?uestlove, D’Angelo, Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq and Bilal – and production crew The Ummah, with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of ATribe Called Quest.

Detroit MC Guilty Simpson, whose current album Ode To The Ghetto includes the Dilla produced track “I Must LoveYou,” explains: “Getting involved with me was typical of Dilla. He didn’t care who you were. It didn’t matter how famous you were or if you were just coming up. If he liked what you were doing, he’d do everything he could to help you. He also always did what he could for Detroit and never stopped supporting the city. Now that he’s gone, it’s up to all of us to make sure that his work lives on because, even though he’s an inspiration to thousands of people, no one has come even close to making music like he did.”

As if to prove his hometown credentials, in 2001 Dilla released in both instrumental and vocal versions his solo debut album Welcome 2 Detroit on the UK’s BBE label (this affiliation would also continue in death with 2006’s The Shining, an album that had to be completed by longstanding associate Karriem Riggins). As one might expect, this was a solidly Motor City affair, featuring vocal contributions from Phat Kat, Beej, Frank N Dank, Elzhi and Dilla himself. Unfortunately, little of the MCing matched up to the production. Phat Kat’s turn on “Rico Suave Bossa Nova” is particularly dismal and Dilla’s own verses show him to be less of a lyricist than a behind-the-scenes man at this stage. However, instrumental interludes “Think Twice” and the cheekily titled “BBE (Big Booty Express)” are especially noteworthy; the former a delicious lick-over of Donald Byrd’s track of the same name, highlighting one aspect of Dilla’s sound, and the latter a thumping, kinetic reworking of Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” that, in hindsight, acts as a significant preview of his later work.

Around this period, a solo deal with MCA Records had also come Dilla’s way, leading to his departure from Slum Village. It was at this point that he changed his recording alias from Jay Dee in order to avoid confusion with fellow producer Jermaine Dupri. Breaking with that which had already been seen on Welcome 2 Detroit, Dilla’s plan was to rhyme over instrumentals by others, among them Madlib. Pete Rock and Kanye West. Unfortunately, the whole project went sour when MCA’s personnel changes, and it remains mothballed to this day.

As a reaction to this disappointment. Dilla took a typically contrary step. In 2003. he released the Ruff Draft EP on the German label Mummy/Groove Attack. For someone with designs on establishing themselves in US hip-hop major leagues, this move could be seen as virtual career suicide: wilfully cutting all corporate ties and putting out a limited-run mini album on a European imprint that few people who mattered in the industry would know or even care about. Evidently Dilla didn’t think like that, and saw it instead as an opportunity to confound expectations and deliver the kind of adventurous, uncompromising work that would truly represent who he was.

All recorded in under a week, Ruff Draft did exactly that. In many ways a confrontational record. originally distributed on vinyl only, it combined off- the-cuff spontaneity with a deliberately eclectic and experimental attitude, exploring a new corroded sound equally indebted to Industrial machine music, synthpop – much like the earlier “BBE (Big Booty Express)” – and glitch. As promised in an intro saying, “You wanna bounce in your whip with that real live shit Sounds like it’s coming straight from the motherfuckin’ cassette, y’all,” an intentionally gauzy, lo-fi quality masks much of the music, adding a dense, gritty and brooding quality Implicit in the proclamation is an alternative assertion of what hip-hop really is.

Although most of the original pressings six full tracks are closer to avant garde electronica than contemporary street rap, this is still music made for banging in your ride or kicking beck with your people This broadening outlook and desire to reach out to other musical communities can also be seen in collaborations such as Dilla’s remix of Four Tet’s “As Serious As Your Life” released in the same year as Ruff Draft, and his vocal contribution to Dabrye’s 2004 single “Game Over.” While tracks such as “Make’em NV” make explicit his disillusionment with the larger hip-hop machine and braggadocio reigns supreme in many of the rhymes, there’s still plenty of playfulness to be found, especially in the sublime “Nothing Like This”, featuring nonchalantly sung verses processed to within an inch of their life then dropped over a squalling reversed melodic sample, and the gratuitously lascivious funk of “Crushin’ (Yeeeea!).”

As well as a stylistic turning point, this EP also underscored Dilla’s increasing commitment to independent labels. This much was apparent when he hooked up with Peanut Butter Wolf’s Stones Throw imprint to record Jaylib’s Champion Sound, released in 2003. A collaboration with producer and MC Madlib (Otis Jackson Jr.) on which each raps over tracks by the other, along with contributions by Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson and Percee P, most of this album was realised with both men living thousands of miles apart. Accordingly, Dilla and Madlib worked remotely, sending tracks back and forth to one another, as illustrated in the introductory instrumental “LA to Detroit.” However, the result is far more cohesive than such approaches generally allow. While Dilla’s MCing occasionally falls short of brilliance, it’s much tighter than on Welcome 2 Detroit, and by this point his production was on fire. With Madlib much the more accomplished and versatile rapper, the tracks on which he ides Dilla’s beats are by far the most satisfying, particularly “React” and “Strip Club,” both featuring Jackson’s helium-voiced alter-ego Quasimoto. Jarring, strange and otherworldly, this record shows that despite their essentially contrasting natures, both producers’ styles come from a similar and complementary place. It’s difficult to imagine a better pairing.

“To be around throughout the period when he and Madlib were working on Champion Sound was an incredible experience,” says Stones Throw’s general manager Egon. “Here was this man who had recently come out of the major label system, but you can tell that he really wanted to get away from that and do something different. On that record, you could feel that all the rules had changed. Seeing the way that those two artists influenced each other and the way that they interacted with each other musically was a real inspiration. It was one of those times when you feel truly privileged.”

Throughout this time, Dilla’s health problems were also beginning to take their toll, his punishing working schedule only making matters worse. Soon after Champion Sound was completed he decided to relocate to Los Angeles for the sake of both his own wellbeing and career. Few but those closest to him realised the true extent of his illness until, in a frequently quoted March 2004 interview in Urb magazine, he referenced an earlier collapse from kidney failure.

“I had never been so sick in all my life, he said. had never been in the hospital for nothing. What happened was that the doctor told me that I’d ruptured my kidney from being too busy and being stressed out and not eating right. He told me that if I’d waited another day, I might not have made it There’d be days when I wouldn’t eat at all because I’d be in the basement working all day. Even after being in the hospital so long, I had to fight with the doctors to go home! because being away from music was starting to get to me.”

Sadly, this downward trajectory was to continue, with Dilla performing the bulk of a 2005 European tour confined to a wheelchair. Similarly, his final and by far his best album, Donuts, would largely he constructed in a hospital bed. His mother, Maureen Yancey, taking equipment to her son’s room so he could keep active and continue to do what he loved best. Listening with this in mind lends a deeply visceral and emotive quality to the content of Donuts. Of its 31 tracks, few last much longer than a minute indicating the artist’s failing stamina, and giving a very real sense of a man battling to realise as many ideas as possible before it’s too late. This feeling is only emphasised by the fact that the album begins with the prophetically titled “Donuts (Outro).” Hidden meaning aside, the mood of the music itself is dazzling, fluctuating from the tough and intense “Workinonit” to the kind of scratchy, soul soaked grooves that drove so much of Dilla’s most popular early work. There are also moments of transcendent beauty, including “Waves,” “Don’t Cry” and “Dilla Says Go” that hint at the attainment of inner peace. perhaps even a cautious optimism.

Typically, the building blocks used to construct Donuts are omnivorous, blending the obscure with the commonplace arid giving the album a sense of grounding but also a mysterious, unknowable air. While “Geek Down” hooks itself around a chunky, well-worn loop, “Lightworks” plunders Raymond Scott’s eerie cartoon soundtracks. As such, Donuts may appear schizophrenic and half-finished on first listen, its samples roughly chopped down, its melodies and beats breaking off with not so much as a moment’s notice or jacknifing abruptly into the nest track. However, this is unlikely to be the case Dilla’s perfectionism was always at the very core of his appeal. Given the circumstances surrounding is creation, it’s far more reasonable to assume that this multilayered record is exactly what he had in mind – an astonishing and endearing self-written epitaph. After all, as with their composer’s own life, these songs may be short but they still do extraordinary things.

www.thewire.co.uk

LCP United is the squad

Illord Tha Ques from graphic design house LCP United gives next level music a face with this most excellent pile-on featuring MF Doom, Madlib, Dibiase, Phat Kat, Floyd the Locsmif, Oh No, Percee P, Waajeed, James Brown, Grooveman Spot, Gaslamp Killer, DJ Mitsu The Beats, Guilty Simpson, Count Bass D, Ras.G, Hudson Mohawke, RZA, John Robinson, Jneiro Jarel, Samiyam, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. Where the t-shirts at man?

Respect due…

J Dilla revisited…

Last year, L.A. based producer and and all around great guy Carlos Nino recorded the most heart felt J Dilla tribute in a sweeping orchestral instrumental version of Common’s Nag Champa. With February already upon us, the second anniversary of Jay Dee’s death falling on the 10th and his birthday on the 7th, the Dilla nights, dedications and tributes are already rolling in. We already had our I HEART JAY DEE night here in Montreal last Monday night, and there was another one this past weekend. But for the serious James Dewitt Yancey fan, nobody pays homage quite like Carlos Nino and his people. Check out this take on the Dilla produced Find A Way by A Tribe Called Quest, produced by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and co-produced by Carlos Nino and Benjamin Tierney, and tell me the genius of Jay Dee didn’t inspire this.

Find A Way

Written by (K. Fareed, M. Taylor, A. Shaheed Muhammad,
B. Gilberto, T. Tei, J.Yancey)
Produced by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Co-Produced by Carlos Nino and Benjamin Tierney

Wind, Brass, String and Rhythm Section
Arrangements by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson

Musicians:
Flute and Alto Flute – Katisse Buckingham
Oboe and English Horn – Myka Miller
Bassoon – Tara Speiser
French Horn – Danielle Ondarza
Trombone – Garrett Smith
Harp – Rebekah Raff
Violin and Viola – Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Keyboards – Brandon Coleman
Electric Bass – Edwin Livingston
Percussion – Nikki Campbell
Drums – Gene Coye
Vocals – Meg Todo, Reiko Nakano and Tomoko Suzuki

Recorded by Benjamin Tierney
at Bomb Shelter, Los Angeles, California
Mixed by Benjamin Tierney with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
at Bomb Shelter, Los Angeles, California
Executive Producers: Carlos Nino and Andrew Lojero

www.myspace.com/miguelatwoodferguson

From the vaults: Slum Village

I interviewed SV for a Montreal Mirror cover story back in 2001. J Dilla was no where to be found, but I was still happy to connect with the T3 and Baatin, who’d had me open from the get go.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE  - Detroit’s Slum Village test the confines of the hip hop world

by SCOTT C

Is the Love Movement really over? Fans of Q-Tip, Phife and Ali Shaheed the world over shed a silent tear when the news of A Tribe Called Quest breaking up hit the wire. Followers of their instinctive paths of rhythm felt that there would definitely be a void in the wonderful world of hip hop without them, and wondered who would take their place. Enter Slum Village, Detroit’s ruff-assed diamond and the most likely to succeed to Tribe’s low-end throne. One quick listen to the boys from Detroit can unearth the obvious similarities between Slum Village and A Tribe Called Quest. While deep chords and underwater grooves ride sick drums, the MCs drop bugged-out, free-spirited rhymes that aren’t afraid to have fun with your ear. It’s that simple. Held together by the prominent production talents of Jay Dee (who rhymes on occasion), MCs T3 and Baatin often take a backseat to the beats but still contribute to the unequivocal, liquefied vibe. This is the sound that Jay Dee was able to hone while he was working with ATCQ on Beats Rhymes and Life and The Love Movement, two of the records he’s contributed to as part of the Ummah production crew that he formed with D’Angelo, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed and Raphael Saadiq. After a rocky start, getting dropped by Interscope in 1998, Slum Village has come a long way. The very same record that ended up in Interscope’s delete bin, Fantastic Vol. 1, was bootlegged very strategically by the group, a move that fostered an insane worldwide buzz that eventually led to the release of Fantastic Vol. 2 in late 1999. Hundreds of shows later, the Roots Okay Player Tour under their belt, U.K. love, European love and the all-important Japanese love there too, Slum Village is finally gonna make it to Montreal as part of the Swirl weekend festivities on May 18. The Mirror spoke to T3 over the phone from the Motor City.

Mirror: What’s this I hear about Jay Dee not liking to tour?

T3: I ain’t gonna say he don’t like to tour, but he’s the most likely to stay home if we got to travel anywhere.

M: So it’s safe to say that he’s not coming through–

T3: Yeah, I’d say it was safe (laughs).

M: I got my hands on a copy of Detroit’s Metro Times from March this year, the one with you guys on the cover in the studio. Is the name of your new record really called The Anger ?

T3: (laughs) No! The new record is not called The Anger, and who started that, anyways? It was probably one of us who said it as a joke. The record is called Trinity.

M: I gotcha.

T3: On this album Jay Dee isn’t doing any rappin’ at all. He may do one, but for this time out we’ve added a new mystery member to the Slum.

M: Yo, a mystery member? A real one, or is it just Baatin doing one of his impressions?

T3: Well, Baatin’s still doin’ his thing, but this is a new member altogether. This album is gonna be a little bit different from Fantastic Vol. 2. We got the alternative soul thing going on, as well as some futuristic shit that Jay Dee cooked up. It’s not the same shit.

M: I know when you guys made Fantastic, you made it with what you guys thought was missing in mind. You made music that you wanted to hear yourselves in the hopes that others would take to it.

T3: I think a lot of people are gonna take to this as well. Times change, man, you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. Even when Jay Dee did his solo joint Welcome 2 Detroit, it wasn’t what people are used to hearing from him, and this is different from that. So it’s a whole new sound. We’re trying to create something new and bring a whole new sound to the table.

M: How does it make you feel to know that Fantastic Vol. 2 was supposed to have been released two years prior, but still managed to draw worldwide acclaim?

T3: It’s definitely very satisfying to know that the songs stood up even then, but at the same time, I wonder what would’ve happened to us if they’d been released when they were supposed to.

M: Since I first got turned on to you guys, there’s always been the odd person I get into the argument with about your mic skills. What do you say to people who don’t think Slum Village can rap?

T3: I’ve heard that before, and what I try to explain is that on Vol. 2, we are not trying to be lyricists. We’re trying to be as much a part of the songs and the overall vibe as possible. We wanted to be part of the musical aspect of a feel-good record, and I think we did that. You’ve got lyricists doin’ their thing everywhere else. On the new album, it’s totally different. Lyrics get flipped just to show people that we have many sides to us. We all go through phases. I remember when I was just doing sex raps like 2 Live Crew, and then I went through my L.O.N.S. phase. Too many MCs are afraid to change it up once in a while, but we like to mix it up.

M: Tell me about some of the cats you’ve got comin up in the Slum Village camp. I know Frank ‘n’ Dank are working now, and PhatKat’s record with Jay Dee is about to come out, but who else?

T3: There’s Elzhi, the dude who appears on Jay Dee’s solo joint.

M: Is he the same 16-year-old kid that I saw you guys perform with in Toronto last year?

T3: That’s probably El. He looks 16 but he’s really 22 (laughs)! He’s pretty short on top of that. You also got Dwele, who did that EP with Bahamadia. He’s comin’ with that sound we all love.

M: Does hip hop inspire you?

T3: It’s funny, but it’s not really rap anymore that inspires us to do anything. It used to be, but we’re trying to take it somewhere else. I think in a lot of hip hop these days people are kind of scared to venture out and do different things. I’m listening to a lot of Stereolab, and I’m not afraid to do things differently.

Slum pickins - A guide to Slum Village’s available releases

Slum Village Fantastic Vol. 1 (bootleg)
If you already have a copy of this, count yourself lucky. This CD boot has all the joints that had heads bobbing before the buzz had even started gaining momentum. Raw versions of “I Don’t Know” and “Hold Tight” as well as studio outtakes and the sweetest of Jay Dee’s superb interludes.

Slum Village Fantastic Vol. 2 (Goodvibe/Koch)
All good things come to those who wait. Vol. 2 is the perfect mix of all the dopest songs from Vol. 1 plus a hell of a lot more. Crowd faves “Fall In Love,” “Get Dis Money,” and “Players” make way for “Tell Me” featuring D’Angelo, “2U4U” and the ra-ra “Raise It Up.” Instant classic.

J-88 Best Kept Secret (GrooveAttack)
German based GrooveAttack had been up on Slum Village (aka J-88) for a while, having released the 12-inch single “The Look of Love” for their Superappin’ series. This J-88 EP houses four more songs plus Madlib and I.G. Culture remixes. “The Look of Love Pt. 1″ is the clincher here.

Jay Dee Welcome 2 Detroit (BBE/Fusion III)
J-Dilla busts it wide open when he’s given free reign by U.K. label Barely Breaking Even on this, his first solo album. T3 and Baatin are absent from this project, but Jay Dee’s signature sound is felt throughout, as well as lyrics from Frank ‘n’ Dank, Elzhi, Phat Kat and Beej. Both instrumental and lyrical Jay Dee at his best.

Slum Village - Things You Do (Remix).mp3