One of my favorite streaming stations/shows: dublab and Chocolate City on KCRW, have played tribute mixes to Detroit hip-hop producer J Dilla/Jay Dee, who sadly passed away Feb 10, 2006. Hearing the music flow from one song to the next, makes me more aware of J Dilla's musical genius of mixing melody, soul and making my booty shake.
My first taste of Dilla's sound was being introduced to Slum Village by my good friend & flash designer fiend Sean Green aka shamansilicon. We did a long web development intern gig together, and would while away the time with music and the droll of coding. I brought Roni Size, Sean brought Bahamadia. I brought Towa Tei, Sean brought Mary J Blige. I brought Howie B... then Sean brings Slum Village. Damn!!! I am loving this sound -- melodies, heady raps, and the groove. Everything I never knew I wanted. Needless, to say I've been hooked on Slum Village ever since....
Years later, Sean and I keep in touch sporadically, and during one of our conversations, he tells me how much he's feelin' the latest Jaylib album, Champion Sound -- a collab of J Dilla & Madlib (one of my fave producers, I'll save my rave for Madlib in another post). Ah, genius runs in the same circles. Certainly both of these talented musicians create under the Stones Throw Records label.
Goodbye J Dilla. You are gone, but your ability to groove us presses on. Thank you for the wonderful music, inspiration and being a part of great times with friends.
More Jay Dee por vous:
myspace profile
Stones Throw profile
Wikipedia entry
allmusic bio
2 comments:
wussup!? It's the ohtha jdill lova..hehe. Found this post and can positively say that I miss our collabos. so what's new?
-shaman (aka) illicon
hey!! shaman illicon -- love that! same old grind, but still keeping creative and exploring new music. yeah... i miss our collabs too. we should work on something soon. maybe this year?
Post a Comment