The inaugural posting finds me sifting through the madness however I can, as well as mine and roomate Nick's record collections, and writing about some unbelieveable beats bestowed upon us by the late, great James Dewitt Yancey, more commonly known as J Dilla in the world of beats and rhymes. I had not really heard Dilla nor his beats until my roomate, Nick, turned me on to some of the things he had in his humungoid book of CD's over a year ago. I immediately ripped Ruff Draft as well as Donuts onto my iPod. while I haven't gotten a chance to listen to Draft as much as I'd like to, I've been rocking Donuts A LOT lately. Nick also has Donuts on vinyl too, which is always a great spin.
To call these pieces of music "beats" is an understatement...these are works of art. There's so much depth and layering it's almost as if he's playing live instruments and recording as if this weren't a hip hop record.
Every producer/MC is influenced, usually by the school of thought that came before them, but In my humble opinion Dilla was a trendsetter; He did things no one had ever done and nobody has really done since. If you had to compare his style to anyone, Pete Rock would probably be the most sensible means to an end, however, Pete Rock was more on the level of peer than mentor to J, although J may have seen it differently. He ended up working w/ De La Soul, Common, Busta Rhymes, Janet Jackson, and countless others. He did the best beat the kids in De La ever rhymed behind in "Stakes Is High". The Pharcyde's "Runnin" is also another Dilla beat...and it's second to none. It's also rumored that he had done work uncredited early in the 90's as well...supposedly the beat for A Tribe Called Quest's "We got the Jazz" is a Dilla cut. I can't say that it's true but it wouldn't at all surprise me as it was; the drums and the horn on the beat have a multi-track feel that works beautifully w/ the flows of Tip and Fife.
J had a touch for not only rhythm but composition and he knew how to taylor make beats for any rapper/singer he worked with. J also had moderate success w/ his own group, Slum Village, before breaking off to pursue a solo career.
As fate would have it Jay would succumb to an ultra-rare blood disease called TTP in 2006. Supposedly, while in the hospital, he had stacks upon stacks of records along with an MPC drum machine bedside, at all times. He was working on music upon his death, and much of his solo material was released after he passed. During a television appearance in 2004, producer/rapper Pharrell declared that Jay Dee (Dilla) was his favorite producer. As much as I don't care for Pharrell's production, I'm glad he can give props to J and possibly hip more people to his body of work; supposedly the audience on BET's 106 & and Park had no idea who Dilla was. It's a shame that no one in Detroit really knows who he is and he never really touched the mainstream...had he lived the sky would've been the limit and I'm sure the the results would have been not only aurally satisfying but uncompromising in every way.
-Marv.
Biblio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:dbfpxqtgldse~T1
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment