Dilla Time Highlights
Mar 19
March 19th, 55838
Listening To: Man-Made Rhythms Man: “Funky Drummer” by James Brown Drums played by Clyde Stubblefield Man Emulates Machine: “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson Drums played by Ndugu Chancler, to a machine metronome Man Engages Machine: “Lady Cab Driver” by Prince Drums played by Prince and by the LM-1
loc. 1449-1456
Listening To: Machine Rhythms Machine: “Blue Monday” by New Order Drums on a rigid machine clock Machine Emulates Man: “Is It Live” by Run-DMC Drums using a “swing” function Machine Engages Man: “I Know You Got Soul” by Eric B. and Rakim Drums from a sample, looped every four bars The question became: What to do with all this power? Rick Rubin had already envisioned recorded hip-hop as collage art, and more specifically a collision of sonic elements, even before the advent of the sampler/sequencer. Marley Marl was arguably the first to employ the sampling drum machine in service to that end. From there onward, two different styles began to coalesce. Public Enemy and their production crew, the Bomb Squad, took a cue from Rick Rubin, the man who signed them to
loc. 1506-1518
Listening To: Machine Rhythms Machine: “Blue Monday” by New Order Drums on a rigid machine clock Machine Emulates Man: “Is It Live” by Run-DMC Drums using a “swing” function Machine Engages Man: “I Know You Got Soul” by Eric B. and Rakim Drums from a sample, looped every four bars
loc. 1506-1513
Slum Village released their first album. They called it Fan-Tas-Tic.
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In “I Don’t Know,” T3 came up
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The song that resulted, “Got ’Til It’s Gone,” built around a vocal sample of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” was a conscious re-creation of Jay Dee’s groove, particularly the lagging bass line.
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But when it came time to spend money on his own drum machine, he bought an Akai MPC3000, the update to Roger Linn’s signature series.
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song called “Four”—penned and recorded by Prince under his jazz alias, Madhouse—
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Listening To: Questlove’s Techniques “Mother’s Son” Technique The Model: “Mother’s Son” by Curtis Mayfield (start at 1:28) Questlove: “Greatdayndamornin’/Booty” by D’Angelo Rushed Snare Technique The Model: “Go Ladies” by Slum Village Questlove: “The Root” by D’Angelo
loc. 2732-2739
And what that composition would become, once Common heard it and wrote his lyrics, was the song “Dooinit.”
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vibrating song after the incense smoke that drifted between them, “Nag Champa.”
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when James really wanted to do it, he’d bring you something like “Thelonius”: a perfect song,
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Of all the tracks that came out of the sessions at Electric Lady, this was the only one that D’Angelo, Questlove, Poyser, and Jay Dee worked on together. Yet these four began to see themselves as a unit.
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Q-Tip’s first solo album, Amplified, each of them credited to “Jay Dee & Q-Tip for the Ummah”—
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Okayplayer became the central web portal for the Roots, Common, D’Angelo, Talib Kweli, and many other neo-soul and hip-hop artists.
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The groove, which James would then chop and arrange with a chorus sung by D’Angelo, became the Slum Village song “Tell Me.”
loc. 3260-3261
The Vibe “Soulquarians” shoot was the first time that these ten people had all been in the same room at the same time.
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Jay Dee, the producer, had been associated with politically conscious, high-minded, bohemian hip-hop. James, the person, was quite the other thing, aligned more with the material obsessions of mainstream, commercial rap—bling, cars, big booty women.
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He’d been listening to the progressive rock band Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. He asked himself: What would my version of that album sound like?
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She and Derek Dudley paired Common with the Neptunes, who had now become the go-to hitmakers of hip-hop.
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Phonte discovered—as did Jay Dee and the great musicians before him stretching all the way back to Louis Armstrong—that delay communicated “cool.” I’ll get there when I get there. I’ll see you when I see you. It’ll be worth the wait.
loc. 4252-4254
Wolf joined an exclusive club of two people, just he and Erykah Badu, who dared to demand more from James and got it.
loc. 4520-4521
The “Oblighetto Remix” by J Dilla was vindication for Eli Wolf,
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Dwele to contribute vocals; they named it “Dime Piece.” The other was a completely finished song, “Won’t Do,”
loc. 5701-5702
The name was a double entendre, referring to the sweet feelings and protectiveness that Dilla’s friends had developed for Maureen, and to the collection of pieces made for her benefit: Suite for Ma Dukes.
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Fucking around is the whole point. Glasper imagined John Coltrane returning to the earthly plane decades after his death, walking into a jazz club to witness a bunch of musicians, all playing like John Coltrane, and saying: I did all my work and died for this?
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The result was an album, released in 2012, Black Radio,
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