Remembering James Dewitt Yancey (aka J Dilla, Jay Dee)

James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974-February 10, 2006)

It has been four years since rapper/producer/musician J Dilla released his album Donuts on his birthday, and nearly fours years since he passed away due to complications of the diseases TTP and lupus. But what does this matter? Well, if you're a fan of hip-hop, you're a fan of J Dilla, whether you know it or not. An innovative producer of the highest caliber described as "the producer's producer," he ranks amongst the greatest hip-hop has yet to offer, including Pete Rock, DJ Premier, The Bomb Squad, RZA, Dr. Dre, and Rick Rubin. He produced songs for rappers and r&b singers including: Janet Jackson, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Raphael Saadiq, The Pharcyde, Eryka Badu, and Common, to name a few, and often was left uncredited for his work for reasons unknown to me. He was also a member of the Detroit based rap group Slum Village, both rapping and producing with them, before parting ways to work on his own projects.

If you're someone like me; however, you don't needed to be reminded of Dilla's greatness. You most likely experience a bit of it every day or week as you listen to your music collection. People that normally don't listen to hip-hop have certainly heard bits of his tunes as well since some were used in bumps in Adult Swim. Here's a bump paying tribute to him with snippets from Donuts tracks:

Now, I'd like to explain how I was introduced to Dilla. I started off like most, not knowing of him, but certainly knowing his work. Most likely the first songs I've heard from him were for Busta Rhymes. I've always loved Busta and his emphatic rhymes. From there, I think that Dilla-wise, I listened to some Common tracks from his Electric Circus album.

This album was Common's most experimental release, in part due to Dilla's contributions. They were so unique that I began to wonder, ever so slightly, who created them. I looked at the credits of the CD's liner notes, and saw "Jay Dee" included for many of the tracks. In my ignorance, I thought this was the JD known as Jermaine Dupri, who's an incredibly less skilled rapper/producer (this is why Yancey changed his moniker to J Dilla). I managed to know of Dupri's lack of skill since the guy was pretty mainstream, so I was shocked to "learn" this, but eventually forgot about it. As time went by, I discovered him online and was blown away by how much he was involved in. To say the least, he's one of my favorite music artists out there. He has even had a few posthumous albums released, including last year's Jay Stay Paid, which was pretty amazing. Here are a couple of my favorite tracks off it with fan-made videos:

I'm not sure where to go from here, so I'll end this entry with my favorite song by Dilla, "Nothing Like This" (such a fitting title), from Ruff Draft that has another awesomely creative video:

He's just so "astronomicalnomicalnomical"

P.S. - Here's an article that describes Dilla's life and legacy much better than I have:
http://j-dilla.com/biography/