[週年] Zo!: My Dilla Memories... R.I.P.
I can remember distinctively the first time that I heard Jay Dee, and
actually KNEW who I was listening to (I owned a some of his music at the time
but never put two and two together). It was The Pharcyde's "Runnin' (Remix)"
back in Late '95/Early '96. I was a senior in high school. My boy Dwight who
was a classmate of mine at the time, hit me up and was telling me about his
trip to the record store that day. Included in the store run was the
maxi-single for "Runnin'". So he told me to check for the remix done by a kat
named Jay Dee whom he had heard was from Detroit which was a big deal...there
wasn't a lot of national exposure coming from the D around 95/96. So I was
like, Bet! I'ma start keeping an eye on him for that reason alone. Things
looked good from the break as I opened up my Labcabincalifornia CD jacket,
read through the credits as I always do. I quickly noticed that under all of
my favorite joints I saw "Produced by Jay Dee" or "J. Yancey". The next thing
I know, here comes Busta's "Woo Haa" remixes, De La's "Stakes Is High" song
and remix, The Ummah. Damn man, this kat was starting to sound real
consistent. So continued to keep my eyes and ears open for him. Beats Rhymes
& Life came out about a month before I went away to school in '96 ("Word
Play", "1nce Again", etc, etc)...
Sometime in '97, while away at school I remember hearing from one of my
people back home that he was in a group called Slum Village...So about a year
later, I was looking on Sandboxautomatic.com and listened to snippets from a
12" by Slum that had "2U4U", "Fantastic", "I Don't Know" and "Players". When
I heard "Players" for the first time, my jaw dropped... wooooooooooow. The
hell is THIS?!!?!! Up to that point, I hadn't heard anything that sounded
like that joint. The claps, the texture of the song, that bassline?! I was
hooked. I was so hooked that I would head up to the school library after
lunch, right before baseball practice, or in between classes STRICLTY to hop
online, go to Sandbox and listen to a 90-second snippet of "Players". So I
finally took the time to order it (I had to use my boy's credit card and pay
him back, being as though I didn't have one of my own at the time lol... But
I DO still have that 12" to this day). When those joints showed up on Slum's
Fantastic Vol. 2 (except for that particular version of "Fantastic"), I was
all in. Then I heard "Climax" for the first time and damn near ran my car off
the road. I was by myself in the car sounding like my boy Corey when he hears
one of his favorite joints... talkin' bout, "OOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" ...at the top
of my lungs.
Fortunately, I was able to meet Dilla back in 2003… It was February 14, and
I was in Barak Studios in Southfield. If I remember correctly, T3 was in
there with Young RJ, Black Milk, Nick Speed, and Que D. And in walks Dilla
and Karreim Riggins. I was just standing there like, 'Oh word??' Here comes
Jay Dee holding a bag of McDonald's with this huge grin on his face. I
believe that at the time he just got over being sick because RJ Rice, kept
saying how healthy he looked. RJ was the one who introduced me to him… and
anyone who knows RJ, y'all know that was an interesting introduction.
"Yeah mayne, this is Zo…he plays keys for Slum! ......This nigga bad mayne!"
– RJ
As I'm standing there giving Dilla a pound and saying 'what up'…I'm thinking
to myself…Damn, this is the kat who did (name your favorite joint here). He
was just a cool and very humble dude…and I'm happy to be able to share this
story.
February 10, 2006 was the same day that I moved out here to the DC Area... It
was an exciting time for me because I felt as though I was moving on to start
building a new foundation on the East Coast. Little did I know, the word
'transition' would reveal itself as having an unfortunate double-meaning...
After being on the road for about 9 hours on pure adrenaline and no sleep
whatsoever (unsafe, I know), my phone started BLOWING UP at about 4:30p with
all types of text messages and calls. I was in the middle of moving boxes and
furniture into my new spot with my uncle, so I couldn't get a break to even
take a look at it. Finally, I just stopped, pulled my phone from its holster
and held it up to check it out because at that point, the call volume was
indicating that something was wrong. So I looked at the phone and saw about 7
or 8 missed calls and 10 new text messages. Wow, I've been gone only 9 or 10
hours since I left home.... Kats must be calling to wish me well on this new
journey, right? Yeah... that's it. Well, I wish that was the case. I checked
the first text message, and it read, "Did you hear Dilla passed?", the
second, "I'm hearing Dilla died, have you heard anything? Tell me it's not
true." I began to think to myself, "This has got to be a rumor... please
don't let this be true." Then one of my boys called…I picked up and I could
just tell. I heard it in his voice when he greeted me. I didn't say "Hello",
"What up?"…nothing..... It was just, "Man, Is it true?" His response...
"Yeah man............ This shit hurts." And he was right... It did hurt. I
didn't know Dilla like that, we never made music together and we never hung
out. I only met the brotha one time... but damn if his passing didn't affect
me as if we came up together. This is why I always say, music is intimate,
emotional, and personal because connecting with a person's music is like
connecting with a part of that person. But all in all, when you create and
record timeless music, to the music fans and listeners…you are never gone.
We all still miss you Dilla and the music has been extremely inspirational.
Here are some of my personal favorite joints that Jay Dee produced. Feel free
to respond with your own favorite Dilla 'moments', songs…whatever. This is a
celebration of life and music…
Rest In Peace …James "Jay Dee/J. Dilla" Yancey
(02.07.1974 – 02.10.2006)
My personal favorites list...
"Me & Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine Remix" D'Angelo (1996)
"Word Play" Tribe (1996)
"Players" Slum Village (1997)
"That Shit" Tribe (1998)
"Don't Nobody Care About Us" Phat Kat (1999)
"Look of Love Pt. 2" Slum Village (1999)
"Look Of Love (J-88 Remix) Slum Village (1999)
"Let's Ride" Q-Tip (1999)
"Climax" Slum Village (2000)
"Nag Champa" Common (2000)
"Fall In Love Remix" Slum Village (2001)
"Without You Remix" Lucy Pearl (2001)
"Fuck The Police" Jay Dee (2001)
"Shake It Down" Jay Dee (2001)
"Take It Back" Jay Dee (2001)
"As Serious As Your Life Gets Remix" Fourtet (2004)
"Move Pt. II" Oh No (2005)
"Won't Do" Jay Dee (2006)
"Nasty Ain't It?" Phat Kat (2007)
"Move" Q-Tip (2009)
來源
http://musicalarchitect.blogspot.com/2010/02/
my-dilla-memories-rip-2774-21006.html
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