Dilla Week – Songs you need to love

At first I wanted to write a super nerdy breakdown of Fantastic Vol. 2 what I believe to be the only classic made in the last 10 years. But that piece would have taken me three days and I am on the road without that much time. And that should be a book unto itself. So instead I am going to run down a brief list of my favorite and what I believe to be the most important Dilla songs in his catalogue.

1. “I Don’t Know”, Slum Village, Fantastic Vol.2, Goodvibe
I could not think of a better record to start off a classic album (“Conant Gardens’ is like an extended intro).
I am not sure how or even if he cleared all these James Brown samples. I tend to think there is no way. It would have cost far more than Barack or Goodvibe (remember them) could have afforded.
The word play is classic SV and the vocal arrangement is a prime example of the trio’s MC skills. There are no Rakim’s but here you see their ability to weave their vocals into the track, not on top of it.

2. “Fuck Da Police” 12-inch, Up Above
“Don’t say damn, just say whoaaaaaaa.” Was never sure what larger project this was a part of or was it a one-off for Up Above, an American front for a Japanese label. It is also not clear when this was recorded but it is clearly a post Slum Village track. Here you begin to see a side of Jay Dee that would mark his solo work. More outspoken, more vulgar, more engaged. As much of a team player that he was, he clearly enjoyed being a solo artist and a one man band. The Fred Wesley sample on here is just beautiful. The best part is the span from about 1:40 to 1:55 where the vocals disappear for no apparent reason. Classic Slum Village/Dilla minimalism/Scat/Fuck you.

3. “Pause” Frank-N-Dank, Welcome 2 Detroit, BBE
Another post SV song that let us all know that a solo Dilla was gonna be a problem. Frank N Dank were like a more ignorant Slum Village (as if The S were some sort of Ivy League intellectuals but still…). While Jay Dee felt he was competing with Baatin and T3 he was clearly the Svengali with Frank N Dank. They seemed to be more like Dilla in terms of strip clubs, holding heat and braggadocio. And with the joint he gave them one of his best tracks. To Frank and Dank’s credit they rode the beat perfectly. This was released on Rawkus then incorporated into the BBE record. Without a doubt the best song on ‘Welcome To Detroit.’

4. Pharcyde, “Drop”, Labcabincalifornia Delicious Vinyl
Dilla had just joined the Ummah and was only known to an inner circle including Delicious Vinyl head Michael Ross. The Pharcyde had dismissed J-Swift as their main producer and on their wonderful second album “Labcabincalifornia” they featured a young Jay Dee. This is a great example of early Jay Dee. This is before he truly embraced the minimalist approach. This and “Runnin” were still simple compositions but had a more polished tone. More reminiscent of the Q-Tip solo work than the Soulquarian or Common production.

5. “Vivrant Thing”, Q-Tip, Amplified, Motown
This song horrified may A Tribe Called Quest fans with its playboy tone and Hype Williams video. On the other hand this song re-introduced Q-Tip to a whole new generation. To first generation Tribe fans the Boho rapper from Queens gave birth to the fur coat wearing stud from Queens. This is on the list because it is one of the talents that Dilla had that many of his contemporaries did not – the ability to make a hit record. Whether you value it or not it is a skill. His ability to make a classic or underground hit record was undeniable. But unlike many contemporaries Dilla was able to straddle the line. Make crossover hits while never losing integrity. “Vivrant Thing” was a Q-Tip song. It was not Q-Tip selling his soul. Insiders will also tell you that the promiscuous, iced out dude in the video was the Q-Tip they knew and the dashiki wearing hippie had died years ago. Dilla dressed him up and showed him to us.

We will return to this but other other notable Dilla tracks (not already mentioned during Dilla week):

“Stake Is High” De La Soul
“Get A Hold” ATCQ
“McNasty Filth” Jaylib
“The Look Of Love” J-88
“Make ‘Em NV” Ruff Draft
“Come Get It” Welcome 2 Detroit

Go Deeper and cop Your J Dilla music and gear here

Dilla Week – the every day Hip-Hop star

What was it about this man that we all loved so much? Everyone has their own interpretation and I encourage you all to comment and add your personal stories. As we try to be more academic here on the Bodega I want to break down his appeal from a more comprehensive perspective. Put our marketing and branding hat for a bit.

When De La and Tribe were at their peak there was always the lingering question of why Tribe was more popular than De La in terms of sales and overall popularity. My answer was always simple: Phife. Phife added a blue collar, every day man sensibility to Tribe that De La never had. Q-Tip was the ethereal energy, the Abstract Poet Incognito, Ali was the quiet pillar of strength. But Phife was like you and me. He didn’t have the natural talent and magnetism like Q-Tip. He didn’t have the looks to make women swoon. Was a little overweight like most of us. And he talked about the simple things in life, “eat drink, shit, bone.” De La, on the other hand were so complex that you got the feeling that they didn’t know what they were saying sometimes. But their cerebral nature was their appeal. There was always a sense that De La was just smarter than you. As a fan you spent your days enjoying the music for sure but also trying to decipher their hidden code. That’s why I say Wu Tang was essentially a harder version of De La, but that is another tale.

Jay Dee took that every day Phife sensibility and combined it with absolute creative genius. Whereas Phife could not really survive without Tip and Ali around him, Jay Dee did not need the same support system. He had that bizarre combination of arrogance and humility that Chicago MC’s Lupe, Common and Kanye have ridden all the way to the bank. Maybe it’s a Midwest thing, but again that is another tale.

When comparing Jay Dee to lyricists in his space like Kweli, Black Thought or even his replacement in Slum Village Elzhi, Dilla gets a B or a B-, on a good day. But what he brought was not complex metaphors and similes but astounding simplicity. When analyzing both his beats and his rhymes Dilla had the unique ability to get right to the point in his works. No complex rhyme structure:

“Y’all stick to freestyling cause y’all ain’t no writers
Trying to be some, (players) and can’t play the game
See ya, sound the same, and ya claim to be something you ain’t
And won’t be without SV y’all need to be smacked
Open hands and beat by these (players)”
Slum Village, Fantastic Vol.2, “Players””

We loved him because he could effortlessly speak from his heart. He gave us inspiration that if we could just quiet ourselves we could do the same.

The same simplicity came through in his beats. There were no pre-programmed drum loops and samples like today’s ringtone rap. On the other side of the spectrum there was no Bomb Squad like orchestration. Just drums, bass and a few samples. When he did get complex like on “Stake Is High’ one of his best works, it wasn’t layer upon layer. It was two samples chopped in ways that seem incomprehensible when hear the originals “Swahililand” by Ahmad Jamal and “Mind Power” by James Brown.

I also think the fact that Dilla never tempered his honesty lead to his success. As my man Dougie Crack once said he had gangsta lyrics over conscious beats. His subject matter never strayed too far from his cars, jewelry, the strip club, and his skills.

“No joke when it comes to the flow
It’s nasty, couldn’t touch it with a 100 foot pole
I stay hustlin Joe; I’m Errol Flynn
And out in Berlin counting bundles of Cho
You gotta love it dawg, you can’t beat it
Get your bitch, she all on Jay Dee dick
Cause that’s what’s up
My niggaz keep it ghe-tto with the plastic cups”
J Dilla, Ruff Draft, “Let’s Take It Back’

All content that conscious rappers are supposed to detest. Yet he produced hit after hit for these supposed ‘conscious’ rappers (Common, The Roots, etc.) How? Dilla took the pretentiousness out of the conscious label. Most rappers who you consider ‘conscious’ are flawed just like you. Both of us want to invest in real estate but after we take that trip to Miami. Dilla wore that contradiction on his sleeve. So although he talked about keeping guns in the stash box a bourgie college educated dude could feel him. Even though he talked about going to strip club and paying for sex the Ladies still Love Dilla.

Dilla was us. That’s why we love and loved him. Artists like him don’t come around too often.

Coming up in Dilla Week: Dilla’s diverse Collaborations, drama with his estate and more.

Go Deeper and cop Your J Dilla music and gear here

Dilla – The collabos

One thing is for sure. Our man J Dilla was not lazy. He was one of the most prolific producers in the business. And outside of a few duds his consistency was only matched by a DJ Premier or Dr. Dre. Although his work was valued by a particular slice of the Hip-Hop world his discography was/is extremely impressive. Common, Madlib, Eykah Badu, Janet Jackson, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Steve Spacek, The Pharcyde, Pharoahe Monch, D’Angelo, Slum Village, Busta Rhymes, Ghostface, Guru, The Roots and more.

What we are going to discuss today is some of Dilla’s most notable collaborations.

Common:
In between leaving Relativity and signing to MCA Common released a single on Rawkus “1999” b/w “Like They Used To Say.” “1999.” It was produced Hi Tek (and featured an ‘uncleared’ sample from a record we released on Seven Heads by The Unspoken Heard, but that is another tale). I remember speaking with Jarret Meyer, president of the label who was telling me how when Hi Tek and Common met the Cincinnati producer and Chicago MC immediately formed a kinship based on their Midwestern roots. He attributed this geographical bond to the funky fresh vibe of the record. I think the Detroit born Dilla also had this bond with the bald headed MC from the city of wind. Outside of Slum Village, Dilla’s best work was with Common and vice versa (well after NO ID and Doug Infinite – I think Common’s best records were produced by them but that is…).

On his 4th album, “Like Water For Chocolate” Common left his Chicago producers and settled into his new sound. “Like Water…” was the book end of Common’s best work which started with “Resurrection” and “One Day It Will All Make Sense.” It was on “Like Water…” that Common first worked with Dilla. Although the collective, Soulquarians, were credited with a lot of the production work it is Dilla’s sound that permeates the record. “Nag Champa” may be my favorite Common record of all time. The flow, the beat and vibe are very Fantastic Vol. 2-esque. And of course there is Common’s first legit hit, “The Light” which was a Dilla Dog production. That song turned moved Common up the industry food chain in a clear way.
“Heat”, and “Time Travellin’” are the Chicago to Detroit connection at its best. Common gave Dilla the elite MC that Baatin and T3 could never be. That is taking nothing away from the original Slum Village lineup. Common at his best has not been able to put together an end-to-end masterpiece like Vol. 2. But Common as an MC was able to match Dilla’s excellence as a composer/producer. Just as I wish Primo and Jay Z would lock themselves up in D&D for a month and do an album I wish Dilla was able to cure Common’s creative wanderlust and do the same.

Madlib
The second great Dilla collaboration was his work with Madlib. In the eccentric LA producer Dilla found a brother. Their album “Champion Sound” as Jaylib – unfiltered genius. Although it has its low points and I wish they had strayed the formula of not rhyming on their own tracks the album is brilliant. Where Dilla’s work with Common was more sophisticated and polished, with Madlib Dilla got raw.
“I don’t be around the way
Like I used to I don’t have time these days
I keeping busy making power moves
I don’t fuck wit them coward dudes
I keeps it bouncing
When the P.I’s wanna wish for death, I’m C. Bronson”

“Champion Sound” and the Madlib/MF Doom album “Madvillainy” were he highlights of indie Hip-Hop’s brief collaborative stage where we saw team up albums from 9th Wonder and a whole host of players, Marley Marl and KRS ONE and others. The pairing of Dilla and Madlib seemed like it was hatched during a marketing meeting at first until a song here and a song there began to leak. I remember at the Winter Music Conference in 2003 when the original “Champion Sound” was being prepped for release. After hearing “The Official” any thoughts of a contrived album went out the window. This pairing was the truth and the fruition of a long, somewhat unkown relationship between the two MC’s/Producers.

The album was straightforward in its premise. Dilla would rhyme over Madlib beats and vice versa. Given creative freedom while simultaneously maintaining a static form of creative control gave us a new side of Dilla. In Slum Village he had to share the mic. With the Ummah he was strictly behind the boards. With “Champion Sound” and other solo work including “Ruff Draft” and “Welcome To Detroit” you got to hear not the progressive neo-Native Tongue side, but the young brother from Detroit with swollen pickets side. He added diversity and even a dissenting voice to what was being labeled underground. Dilla showed that underground MC’s did not have to conform to one mold. As he said on Make Em NV from the Ruff Draft EP,
“If I get the urge to splurge or bling I do it
It’s nobody’s concern, they ain’t got a thing to do with this…
These backpackers wanna confuse it
Cause Niggaz is icey ain’t got nothin to do with the music
So hater mind your biz and get your own.”

Word.

I encourage you all to listen not only to Dilla’s work with Slum Village, Common, Busta Rhymes but also the solo and collaborative work. You will hear the sounds of a true genius.

Dilla Videos

Nah, wasn’t me

what’s up with the three screw?

get out the way

Tone coulda told ya that clone shit is over