The year was 1999. June. Sunday morning. My (MC Till) birthday was just a few days away. Just a few hours away I would head out for a weeklong religious camp. I would not be encouraged to listen to music the entire week so that I could fully engage with the other participants. Essentially telling campers back then not to listen to their Discman would be today’s equivalent of taking away cell phones. It might sound evil, but really it is a spiritual discipline to remove something so intertwined to our daily lives in the attempt to highlight and inspire better person-to-person skills. I was excited about the challenge until….
Upon waking up that morning I was met with an early birthday present (since I would be away from home on my actual birthday that year). I open up the present and it is a CD of “Vol. 2” by Slum Village. I immediately rethink my feelings toward the no-music-challenge for the week. I was holding what would soon become my all time favorite produced Hip-hop alum. And I couldn’t listen to it for a week. It was a practice of discipline like never before!
I did it. I left the CD at home and went off to camp. When I returned I ran straight to my room and began listening. Every beat was my favorite. The emcees, J Dilla, T3, & Baatin were unorthadoxed, but thoroughly enjoyable. Each beat hopped around with thumping baselines, head-cracking snares, and perfect sampling. The emcees didn’t detract, but added to the music providing another layer of vocal instrumentation. I often did not appreciate the lyrical content causing a kind of dissidence that made the listening experience truly human: flawed and beautiful at the same time.
J Dilla was with us from 1974 until his early departure in 2006. Apart from producing “Vol 2” he produced music for my favorite artists: Common, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, Mood, The Roots, D’Angelo, and many more. His music became a constant soundtrack to my life providing me with decades of inspiration.
So I took a few samples Dilla used on his instrumental classic, Donuts, and chopped them up over a Dilla esq drumbeat. I then threw on a bassline that I thought Dilla would appreciate and added some lyrics paying homage to the beat king. I call the song simply “dilla” and just as he never paid attention to convention I didn’t either. The beat comes on. I rap a kind of hook followed by an extended verse and end it it simply saying “dilla” as the beat rides out. No song structure. I made it just as it came. A method I imagine J Dilla utilized often during his amazing career.
Here’s to Dilla: the greatest beat maker this world has ever experienced. Peace to his family, his mom, Ma Dukes, and all those who dearly miss his work and his presence.
Dilla died February 10, 2006 due to a rare disease affecting the blood called TTP (Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purport). May he rest in peace.
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