AN INTERVIEW WITH J DILLA'S MOTHER MAUREEN YANCEY About Dilla's legacy and her current estrangement with the executors of his estate. BY JEFF WEISS LA Weekly June 24, 2008
Author: A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece discussing the difficulties J Dilla's estate has had in enforcing copyright law and paying off the six-figure IRS debt left behind. In the aftermath of the story's publication, I had the chance to speak with his mother, Ms. Maureen Yancey about Dilla's legacy and her current estrangement with the executors of his estate.
LA Weekly:In the original article, some comments from Dilla's estate's executors made you take pause. What were they and what sort of problems have you had with the estate? Maureen Yancey: I understand the side [estate executor] Arty Erk's coming from and what he's trying to do. However, there has been no communication between them and the family in a year. The only time I hear a peep is if there are some propositions between attorney's going to court. That's the only time I'm made aware of things.
It's ridiculous. I still have contacts with all of Dilla's friends and people in the hip-hop community. We still talk, we still keep in touch, we've became friends. They check in on me and I've had the opportunity to direct them to the estate thinking they'd be able to help do projects. But most of the time, none of their inquiries have been addressed. There's no one that has made it accessible to them to contribute and get work done. I've stopped sending people there. They haven't been forthright, I was told they didn't appreciate the help, that we weren't supposed to use Dilla's name or license. By the time, I understood what was happening and learned about the legal ramifications, I took down the website for the Foundation that we'd created as to be in compliance with state laws. I figured in the coming year, they'd reevaluate their decision, but it never happened.
One of the things Dilla wanted me to do with his legacy was to use it to help others, people with illness, kids who were musically gifted but had little hope due to poverty. I wanted to use my contacts to help people and out and it was squashed because we weren't in compliance with the state and there was nothing we could do about it. I'm Dilla's mother and I can't use Dilla's name or likeness, but I know that I still can honor him by doing his work.
What were your intended goals for the Foundation? I wanted to set it up to help others but also to be a nucleus for the fans who wanted to do tributes and honor Dilla. It would be a place for artists to be able to show their support. When the estate chose not to communicate with us, they sold themselves short. The A-list artists stay in contact with me directly and they're basically cutting off the quality talents that made themselves closest to Dilla. Anyone with a knowledge about his work would know this, but those in charge haven't a clue to Dilla's worth, They haven't a clue as to who he was as a man or what his relationship was with his fans and his peers. It's a community, those artists coming out of the underground. You can see this when you travel around the world and see how large his fan base really was. People are still discovering the extent of Dilla's influence.
He has a young audience just coming into the community who he's had a major influence on. Then there's the issue of the jazz community. Dilla grew up with jazz. That was his lullaby and the connection is far greater than the estate realizes. It's more than just notes. There's so much that can be done and the estate hasn't got a clue. It's such a waste of time. But I'm not closing the door on them yet. Dilla worked alongside with me and I was a big part of my son's past. I moved to LA to take care of him, I worked for him from day one, that's why the communication with his peers and me has been so great.
What do you hope happens with the estate? At the end of the day, we want our voices to be heard. We want the community to work with me and the estate. We want everyone to work together. It's been the estate's choice to not communicate with us and it jeopardizes the future quality of his projects. They make the decisions for him without the proper musical knowledge. Their depth of musical knowledge just isn't enough.
How did this entire mess come about? Why did Dilla pick these people if they didn't know anything about music? He definitely wouldn't have chosen any of them if he knew better. The thing is, Dilla got along with mostly everyone, but if he knew about certain people who have collaborated with the estate he'd been spinning in his grave. They might as well have gotten someone off the street to oversee things. They know the words but they don't know what they mean.
Arty Erk was never his business manager as he portrays himself. During Dilla's lifetime, he was strictly an accountant. Now they constantly threaten to sue at the drop of a dime, I don't want to risk my health so I try not to worry about these things too much but it's upsetting.
It all happened because of our lack of knowledge. Dilla was the first person in our family to even have a will, he was the first to even have anything to designate, the only one of us that had an estate. I'm talking about grandparents and great-grandparents back all the way down. Usually, all we've left behind is bills. I didn't know how what to do, so we ended up sitting on the paperwork for months. We put it off. As his mother and best friend, I didn't want to interfere or ask questions. I felt it wasn't my place. I was so sure that he'd pull out of it. I never had a clue that he'd pass. He'd always tell me, 'mom I'm going to go home,' so that's what I thought would happen. If I'd know he was going to pass, I'd have certainly had someone look at the paperwork. It's just we never thought he'd need it. He ended up with Arty Erk because he had handled his finances, but still, he never had knowledge that it would end up this way.
And what about Micheline Levine, his attorney? Dilla had been with her for most of his career, since he'd been with the Ummah. Whaen Dilla started to make it, he interviewed with several attorney's and he felt the most comfortable with Scott Felcher, who employed Micheline. Dilla was big on going with the people he felt the most comfortable with.
I called her a little while back to let her know that Arty wasn't being fair with me and that he'd made a few comments that I felt were racist. We'd had a relationship in the past and whenever she'd had a disagreement with Dilla, I'd smooth it over. Dilla had a lot of respect for his elders but he brought her to tears a few times and refused to say that he was sorry, but I'd help bridge the gap. Yet she didn't seem to care when I expressed my displeasure with the situation.
What specific comments did you find racist? When Dilla got sick, I'd been having health problems of my own, but since I had to take care of Dilla, I ended up neglecting my own health. I was feeling really ill and had very little activity in my lungs. I needed needed medication and I had bills. Not bills that would take a lifetime to settle but bills nonetheless.
At one point, Arty told me to call him back and in the meantime, he'd try to see what he could do. I waited and never got the return call. Still in the same poor shape, I called him and he said that he couldn't do anything and asked me, 'well, what did you expect to happen? Were you expecting a big windfall of money?' I said, 'no, but you did tell me to call back and otherwise I wouldn't have done that.'
At one point in the conversation, he told to me consider going to social services or getting state aid. My gut told me if I had not been a black mother, he wouldn't have said those words. But that wasn't the first time. In the past, he'd made comments about Dilla buying rims. He called me up one time to chastise me for Dilla having a lack of funds and told me that he wouldn't be in this predicament had he not spent money on rims for his truck. But Dilla made the money, he worked for it and he wanted to spend it on what he wanted to spend it on. Erk doesn't know much about the community and how important it is what they see you in and how you dress, how you look in public.
I never told Dilla about that conversation but I wish I had. He would've fired him right there. At the end of my last conversation with Erk, I told him that he didn't have to ever worry about me calling him again in this lifetime. That was over a year ago and I called Micheline about five minutes later to let her know what he'd said and how I felt about it. I only talked to her once after that, about the guy we chose from Stones Throw to work on Dilla's remaining catalog.
Ultimately, they don't want anyone who knows the business to deal with Dilla's stuff. They'd rather do it themselves and close themselves off from the community.
So what's the status of Dilla's kids at the moment? They're doing fine. Both of the mother's are drawing social security and his daughters are living with them. Dilla wanted them to be taken care of and they are.
You've mentioned how close of a relationship you have with Dilla's artist friends? Who do you still keep in touch with? Everyone calls me. Busta calls regularly. Erykah, Common, The Roots. All the top name artists used to come over during Christmas and New Year's and at various points during the year, so we came to be a family. It's a beautiful relationship that's never faltered, even the artists out in LA. Madlib is a perfect example. Before they'd met face to face, Dilla and him already had a great relationship. The thing is, Dilla didn't want to work with just anyone. There were times he'd gotten offers that would involve big money and he would be like 'I'm not feeling them,' and tell me that he knew better. I'd be sick about it, because it would be at times when he really needed the financial resources, but it wasn't about that, it was about quality. I mean he's still receiving awards and dedications worldwide to this day.
So what do the artist's themselves think of the tumultuous relationship you've had with the estate? I can't name one of them who's happy about it. None of them want to see me having to grovel for money for medication. I've always been a businesswoman but I had to give it up to take care of Dilla.
What was your profession? I ran a day care, I had always done that in a building at ConantGardens. I'd always taken care of myself and never depended on Dilla.
What about the relationship with Stones Throw? You see a lot of mean-spirited comments and rumors in chat rooms that they've been less than upright in business matters regarding Dilla. Stones Throw has always been wonderful. When I came to LA to take care of Dilla, his medical bills were sky-high but the people from the label were there every day. The only time they didn't come was when I would call them and tell them to come a day later, because Dilla was too sick for visitors. They took care of the finances, they gave him advances for music that had barely been discussed. They've been great.
Dilla didn't have health insurance for his last two years, so every time he went in and out of the hospital, he would rack up massive bills, sometimes up to a quarter of a million dollars. But they would always try to give us help, even if they didn't have it. I know people say mean things about them but they just aren't true. They're totally honest and they loved Dilla, they stuck by him to the very end.
Why do you think the estate has been so brusque in dealing with you and the artist community? I think it's simply a control issue. They don't want to worry about ma dukes saying anything. They don't have the time to be bothered, Time will tell. They've definitely done things that are unnerving, that's for sure.
What would you have liked to have seen happen? I would've liked to be in harmony with them and for there to have been less bigotry, I would've liked to have seen activity. If you do work, people find out about it. Dilla wasn't about controversy, he would've liked things to have been peaceful. Dilla was about love in many formats and for his estate to have done the exact opposite is not having any respect for him or who he was.
Has it been difficult for you to be one of the main people in charge of protecting your son's legacy? It's been a joy. Even in bad times when people want to slander me, people know the truth, everyone in the community knows. I was there at the beginning and people know that I loved and gave everything to my son. There was nothing I wouldn't have done for Dilla. If it takes 10 years for them to get over this merry-go-ground, it's going to be okay because Dilla wanted to help people who suffered.
Being in Detroit, it's overwhelming the talent that these kids have here. But there's no art appreciation, there's no type of outlet at all. We have very few recreations here. When you come to my home it looks like Beirut. We need these talented and responsible children to see a spark to see the possibility.
What do you think about the current renaissance of Detroit hip-hop, with Black Milk, Elzhi, Phat Kat and others starting to break nationally and who pay such an obvious tribute to your son's music? I think it was a wake up call for them. They were all so close. Phat Kat would come here every day and would just be hanging around outside. The inspiration has gotten stronger for them. They know they're not promised anything,
Dilla knew when he was going to leave. He talked about different things for me to do when he was gone, but I didn't want to hear that. But he knew that he only had a certain amount of time left that he was blessed with. My greatest bit of advice is to tell artists to get a living will and to name for your executor someone who loves you through thick and thin. Don't take things for granted. I know Dilla's not the first one to get bad advice. It happens a lot in this industry but I hadn't a clue about it. This stuff just wasn't on my mind. All I want to do now is get the foundation up and running because that's what Dilla really wanted.
Is there any bit of your son's music that you hold most dear to you? I know all of his music but Donuts means the most, because I was there. We had our schedules in the hospital and we'd rotate it around dialysis. It was hard because we'd have to do stuff in the wee hours of the night, with stacks of crates littering the room. We worked double-time and the doctor's were worried but they ultimately knew that it was necessary to keep his spirits up. It was wonderful to be a part of and it's special to me. I didn't even understand the way he arranged things at first. I hadn't given thought to the arrangement, with the "last song of the night.' He knew his time was winding down and that album was his way of letting you know. It's like being taken along for a ride. Dilla would always say, 'are you ready for a ride,' and that was what he felt with that album.
Any other favorites? I liked "Fuck the Police," a lot because Dilla had so much trouble with the police and it tormented him. He was all about being clean and crisp when he left home, his car was always immaculate and the police always assumed that he was dealing drugs or something. I remember the night the inspiration for the occurred. They were in the basement making music and they went to the gas station four doors from my home to get food. On their way there, the cops tried to tear them up, We ran down to the gas station and the cops were already stripping the car apart, trying to disassemble it. Dilla was furious. He hadn't done anything wrong. He hasn't driving a Caddy truck or a Lexus, he was just in a Ford Ranger that my husband had bought it for him because he worked at Ford. It was Dilla's first real car, before he'd made any money on his own and now the cops were belittling him. It hurt him so bad. I told him not to get so upset and that he should put his anger to good use and write a song about it. They didn't get much work done that night but it was business as usual the next day.
When did you first sense how musically gifted Dilla was? At two months old, he could do perfect harmony, it was incredible. My husband would play jazz to put him to sleep every night and I was going to school for night classes and we thought it would sooth him. Meanwhile, he'd been harmonizing along with the basslines in perfect pitch. It was amazing, we'd tape it and play it for other musicians. We were a very musical family, my husband was always training people to sing.
At two and three years old, he'd start to go to the record shop every Friday and they would play all the new records for him. He'd buy a few and then go to the park and spin records. He was only 2 and a half. Now ironically, it's an area where they have an artist haven.
What would you like people to remember about your son? I'd like them to remember what his music was about. It was very simple: it's about love. Sometimes it was negative, sometimes it was positive. I didn't appreciate that until he had passed. Dilla loved people, he loved doing what he did, and he loved those he worked with.
So with all this in mind, what are you plans for the future? I'm planning on founding the J Dilla foundation in his honor. I suppose I'll just do it with my own name, God gave me one too. The artists will be informed that this is what Ma Dukes is doing in honor of him. No one can stop me from doing it and the work will still be the same. I just want his fans to know how much we appreciate him and love and cherish all the support.
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. READ MORE
With all of the events happening around the world to celebrate the life and music of J Dilla, a few people who knew and worked with him have been interviewed to talk about Dilla and the new Ruff Draft release.
"Musician and producer James Yancey, better known as J Dilla and Jay Dee, was honored as artist of the year, with his mother and hip-hop superstars like Common and Pharrell contributing thoughts in a video montage." - Billboard
Jay Dee/J Dilla, the acclaimed hip-hop producer who died last February due to complications from lupus, nabbed the artist of the year award, as well as record producer of the year. Dilla released the album Donuts just prior to his death, and the posthumous The Shining hit stores several months later. - MP3.com
"Grammys? What Grammys? On Saturday night, February 10, the 2007 PLUG Awards were announced at a star-studded event at Irving Plaza in New York City. J Dilla was named Artist of the Year and Record Producer of the Year." - Pitchforkmedia.com
J Dilla's rarely heard masterpiece "Ruff Draft" officially re-released as a deluxe 2-CD set with bonus vocal tracks, interludes and instrumentals on Stones Throw Records.
"Before we get this started, let me explain it. It's Ruff Draft. For my real niggaz only. DJs that play that real live shit. You wanna bounce in your whip with that real live shit. Sound like it's straight from the ma'fuckin' cassette! Ruff Draft... Let's do it."
... Thus begins Ruff Draft. These self-produced tracks make up one of the late J Dilla's least known works. Released on vinyl only in February 2003 by Dilla's own newly-formed Mummy Records and distributed by the German label Groove Attack, this sought-after release remains elusive and virtually unknown to the casual Dilla fan.
In retrospect, Ruff Draft proved to mark a turning point in Dilla's career. He spent the '90s making a name for himself as an all-around, top-notch hip-hop producer. First arriving on the scene with his own group Slum Village in his native Detroit, Dilla would establish himself throughout the decade on classic tracks for A Tribe Called Quest, Common, The Pharcyde and De La Soul, eventually branching out to work with a variety of heavy-hitters in hip-hop and R&B, from Busta Rhymes and The Roots to D'Angelo and Erykah Badu.
In contrast to the often understated, mellow vibes and minimal, crisp drumbeats he brought to the boards for those groups, Ruff Draft revealed - to those who heard it the first time around - a whole new side to Dilla's musical genius. Freewheeling, in-your-face synthesizers, blend perfectly with an uncharacteristically sample-heavy approach that was as bangin' as it was experimental. And, as he indicated in the intro to the album (quoted above), it's supposed to bump in your car like an old cassette - one of those well-loved ones that get played over and over and over.
This album marked a geographical change for Dilla, as well as a musical one. 2003 would be the year he transplanted to sunny Southern California. At the same time as he was completing Ruff Draft, Dilla was crafting the beats that would become his contribution to the Jaylib album, Champion Sound (Stones Throw, 2003) - his collaboration with the L.A.-based Madlib. The two iconic visionaries had been influencing each other from halfway across the country; now, they were collaborating on wax - each rhyming over the other's beats. Dilla's stylistic unpredictability and technical rawness announced first by Ruff Draft became undeniable with his work on Champion Sound, as he and Madlib joined forces to champion all things "ruff."
Dilla would spend his last few years in Los Angeles. As his health gradually declined, his pace of music making never did. His beats became, if anything, more urgent - the product of a visceral need to create, as if he knew he had only so much time left. His first and only solo LP on Stones Throw, the 31-track instrumental suite Donuts (2006) plays out like a vinyl fanatic skipping through radio stations on the dial in his perfect universe. With a fresh style from one beat to the next, Dilla conceived this cut-and-paste masterpiece mostly from his hospital bed with nothing more than his sampler, a portable record player and whatever vinyl his friends brought through. Coming full circle from his slick productions of the '90s, Dilla was now practicing hip-hop at its most essential: bringing out the soul in any style, from any source, with the most fundamental tools.
Dilla's final album, The Shining (BBE, 2006), hints at the future music that might have come had his health not declined so severely. The sound is thick, with robust soul samples at the forefront, the culmination of the bombastic latter phase of his career. Stones Throw Records now presents the reissue of Ruff Draft as a crucial milestone in the evolution of one of hip-hop's greatest producers.
Track List: DISC 1 01 Intro 02 Let's Take It Back 03 Reckless Driving 04 Nothing Like This 05 The $ 06 Interlude 07 Make'em NV 08 Interlude 09 Crushin' (Yeeeeaah!) 10 Shouts 11 Intro (Alt) * 12 Wild * 13 Take Notice feat. Guilty Simpson * 14 Shouts (Alt) * DISC 2 01 Let's Take It Back (Instrumental)* 02 Reckless Driving (Instrumental)* 03 Nothing Like This (Instrumental)* 04 The $ (Instrumental)* 05 Make'em NV (Instrumental)* 06 Crushin' (Instrumental)* 07 Intro-Alt (Instrumental)* 08 Wild (Instrumental)* 09 Take Notice (Instrumental)* 10 Shouts-Alt (Instrumental)*
*previously unreleased
Ruff Draft will be released on 2/CD and 2/LP. The audio is taken from the original master tapes.
The Stories Behind Some of the Late J Dilla's Great Productions
The Stories Behind Some of the Late J Dilla's Great Productions
FADER, NOV. 2006 | Interviews by Egon, Eric Drucker, Edwin Houghton
Think twice, youngbloods, precocious hoodrats, beatbox prodigies. Somewhere in the fine print of the job description for "Revolutionary Black Genius" is a clause that reads, "Must die young." Producer and rapper J Dilla departure from terra firma earlier this year at the age of 32 is proof that there's no escaping the curse, and his killer-Lupus-related blood disease-is enough to make you believe in conspiracy theories of cosmic proportions. If you make music, it's almost enough to make you want to give it up altogether, except Dilla was so damn good at what he did, he probably made you want to give up even when he was still living. The discography of J Dilla (born James Yancey) is brief in time, but prolific in output and wide in scope. Since he passed, there's been a flood of testimonials to his brilliance and his untouchable status as your favorite producers favorite producer, but if those eulogies have enshrined Dilla as a minor deity to beat makers and 12-inch connoisseurs, then no doubt he's the type of god who is properly worshipped with drums, not hymns of praise. So take these firsthand accounts from the various divas, rappers, soul cats and family members whose collective minds he blew when making music not as props for props sake, but as story problems for your MPC, object lessons in how to do it right .... And get back to work.
"Lightworks" J Dilla Donuts (Stones Throw, 2006) on iTunes
I knew he was working on a series of beat CDs before he came to Los Angeles. Donuts was a special project that he hadn't named yet. This was the tail end of his "Dill Withers" phase, while he was living in Clinton Township, Michigan. You see, musically he went into different phases. He'd start on a project, go back, go buy more records and then go back to working on the project again. I saw it because I was at his house every day, all day. I would go there for breakfast, go back to Detroit to check on the daycare business I was running, and then back to his house for lunch and dinner. He was on a special diet and he was a funny eater anyway. He had to take 15 different medications, we would split them up between meals, and every other day we would binge on a brownie sundae from Big Boys. That was his treat. I didn't know about the actual album Donuts until I came to Los Angeles to stay indefinitely. I got a glimpse of the music during one of the hospital stays, around his 31st birthday, when [friend and producer] House Shoes came out from Detroit to visit him. I would sneak in and listen to the work in progress while he was in dialysis. He got furious when he found out I was listening to his music! He didn't want me to listen to anything until it was a finished product. He was working in the hospital. He tried to go over each beat and make sure that it was something different and make sure that there was nothing that he wanted to change . "Lightworks," oh yes, that was something! That's one of the special ones. It was so different. It blended classical music (way out there classical), commercial and underground at the same time. MAUREEN YANCEY (J Dilla's mother)
"Nag Champa" Common Like Water for Chocolate (MCA, 2000) on iTunes
When I was working on Like Water for Chocolate I would go to Detroit like two to three times a month. When we would go to Jay Dee's basement we would always burn nag champa incense, that's where I got that title from. I was listening to Slum Village a lot, so I was influenced by them. With "Nag Champa," which was either the first or the second song for Like Water for Chocolate, we had it for a long time with no chorus. We kept trying but there wasn't nothing good coming out. I took T3 and them to the studio to work with me on the chorus; T3 started chanting something, he didn't finish, but he had a little idea. Jay Dee heard and started really singing it and got it together. Jay had an incredible voice-he actually was going to do a singing album. We used to talk about that when he would stay in LA. COMMON
"Didn't Cha Know" Erykah Badu Mama's Gun (Motown, 2000) on iTunes
I went to Detroit to work with this cat that I heard a few tracks from that drove me crazy. Common took me over there, we went down to the basement, Common left and Dilla and I sat and talked. He had records wall-to-wall like it was a public library and he goes, 'OK, I want you to look for a record." I'm leaking through these organized, tightly packed crates, and I just pulled out one record and the artist was Tarika Blue. I liked that name. I put on the first track ["Dreamflower"] and I fell in love with the song and I kept playing it over and over again and I said, "I want this." He showed me how to loop a small part of the bassline, he was very generous in teaching you and letting you be hands on. Then I left the room and when I came back he had looped some drums to a small sample of the song and I started to write to it. I came up with the Ooooh, heeeey melody. I wrote for a few days and then the song came to be. My songs sound different from everyone else's Dilla songs. The sound is a little bit more bass heavy and the frequencies are definitely different than most of the songs he does, because it's his world. But when he allowed me to come into his world, it became another kind of world. I think he allowed everybody that kind of space and that kind of freedom because he was so super creative that he would go onto something else while we learned the first part. ERYKAH BADU
"Champion Sound" Jaylib Champion Sound (Stones Throw, 2003) on iTunes
"Champion Sound" was one of my favorite cuts, it stood out amongst all of the other joints in the first batch of Jaylib songs he sent to me. I didn't think he would pick that beat, it was one of the dirtiest tracks on the beat CDs I sent to him. But that fit perfect. That track is running, like rolling in your car. His lyrics made that shit even harder. And the concept ... What! What! Someone else could have rapped over it, but it wouldn't have been the same. I remember when we would perform that song, the crowd would get super hype. I wouldn't even say his lyrics, I would just do 'em with steps. I'd just be watching him. Too hype. Flowing with my steps, Thelonious style. That's one of my favorite albums People are sleeping, but they're going to catch up. It's one of my favorites I ever recorded. MADLIB
"Runnin" The Pharcyde Labcabincalifomia (Delicious Vinyl, 1996) on iTunes
We were looking for Q-Tip to do some tracks for us. He couldn't do what needed to be done, but he said, "You can check my boy," end we were like, "Okay who is it?" He was like, "Jay Dee." We didn't even believe Jay Dee existed. Q-Tip's name is Jonathan Davis, we thought it was Q-Tip pretending that was his little spin-off name. Q-Tip brought a bunch of beets over, we heard "Runnin" end "Drop," it was some incredible shit. Jay Dee came to Los Angeles end he had his SP1200 end he would just flip these beets like nobody's business. This kid couldn't fuck up e beet. I gave him one of Vince Guiraldi's Snoopy loops like, "I always wanted to do something with this," end he flipped this song celled "Splattitorium" end I was like, "Of course." Fat Lip end I fought physically over the way Jay Dee originally programmed "Runnin'." Fat Lip went in end reprogrammed every straight beet because Fat Up was all about having the beets a certain way. I fought for it to be the way that it was because I was a stickler about people's creative input-that's whet we hired him for. If I didn't stop that end physically tight this guy for t, "Runnin'" mould have been e different song all together on a spiritual level. SLIM KID TRE
"Love" J Dilla ft Pharoahe Monch The Shining (BBE, 2006) on iTunes
His label reached out to me about being pert of the [Shining) project. He was in the middle of his illness so we didn't meet in person, but we bed met before in California. I usually do all my recording face to face-I'd been to Detroit e bunch of times to work with my men Denaun Porter, but never to work with Dilla. We did it all through exchanging files over the Internet. They sent over some beets end I chose that one. It was soulful end had the feel that let me rep end sing over it and take it in that direction. I don't think he gets enough credit for how much he effected the sound of neo-soul end R&B end music in general so much as he does for hip-hop. PHAROAHE MONCH
Photos from the "Won't Do" video shoot: Common, Will.i.am, Talib Kweli
Stills from the "Won't Do" video shoot
Pics include Common, Will.I.Am, Black Thought, Frank N Dank, John Yancey, BoBo Yancey & the whole crew(Mazik Saevitz, director, and Fruition LV stylists).
Think twice, youngbloods, precocious hoodrats, beatbox prodigies. Somewhere in the fine print of the job description for "Revolutionary Black Genius" is a clause that reads, "Must die young." Producer and rapper J Dilla departure from terra firma earlier this year at the age of 32 is proof that there's no escaping the curse, and his killer-Lupus-related blood disease-is enough to make you believe in conspiracy theories of cosmic proportions. If you make music, it's almost enough to make you want to give it up altogether, except Dilla was so damn good at what he did, he probably made you want to give up even when he was still living. The discography of J Dilla (born James Yancey) is brief in time, but prolific in output and wide in scope. Since he passed, there's been a flood of testimonials to his brilliance and his untouchable status as your favorite producers favorite producer, but if those eulogies have enshrined Dilla as a minor deity to beat makers and 12-inch connoisseurs, then no doubt he's the type of god who is properly worshipped with drums, not hymns of praise. So take these firsthand accounts from the various divas, rappers, soul cats and family members whose collective minds he blew when making music not as props for props sake, but as story problems for your MPC, object lessons in how to do it right .... And get back to work.
"Lightworks" J Dilla 
"Nag Champa" Common 
"Didn't Cha Know" Erykah Badu 
"Champion Sound" Jaylib 
"Runnin" The Pharcyde 
"Love" J Dilla ft Pharoahe Monch
