Jansport J has been making a name for himself by releasing quality projects and working with some of the games rising prospects. His contribution too A Month of Donuts is probably the longest we’ve had so far. Breaking down his Dilla fan experience and how the Donut album truly changed his life. A great read that i recommend anyone that shares the same passion for Jay Dee’s music too view.
Thinking of Dilla
I’m not gonna sit here and tell you I’m Dilla’s biggest fan. Not gonna tell you that I have hours of unreleased material and Fantastic Vol. 2 on vinyl, etc. I’m not gonna refer to him as Jay Dee or James as if I knew him. The purpose of this is to simply explain my thoughts about him and how his music has affected me.
The ironic part of it all is that I’ve been a fan of Dilla’s music before I ever knew who he was. A Tribe Called Quest’s “Find My Way” has been my favorite Hip Hop song along with “T.R.O.Y.” since it dropped. Pharcyde’s “Runnin” and Q-Tip’s “Vivrant Thing” & “Breathe & Stop”, or even the countless Common records were also among my childhood favorites growing up. I first became aware of him when Common’s BE album dropped in 2005. BE was one of those classic albums that I remember everything going on when I first got it. I bought it at a Best Buy in SoHo New York, and just played the whole album 3 times in a row as I walked NYC for my first time ever. I rocked a green polo, green puma jacket and an A’s hat. I remember reading over the credits and seeing everything produced by Kanye West except 2 tracks by a dude named “Jay Dee”. I knew there was no way in hell that those were Jermaine Dupri records. I made a mental note and moved on.
Before I go further, let me explain that in High School, I was very much anti-Underground Hip Hop. Jurassic 5 was the only Underground I listened to. The only reason I refused to listen was that I was so turned off by the attitude of the Underground Fan Culture at that time. It seemed like if you didn’t like rappers rhyming “fiber optics” with “vortex”, then it wasn’t for you. That shit was NOT for me.With that said, I missed a lot of Slum Village’s early music when it was released. But back to the story. I had a friend named Emily put me up on Madlib back in late 2005/early 2006. It was through that time I became familiar with him and Dilla’s music on Myspace. Added them as friends and shit. I also connected the dots and realized that Dilla was the same Jay Dee from Common’s album. I researched his catalogue and was amazed at the credits he had.
I knew nothing of Dilla’s illness at that time. I do remember hearing about him releasing an instrumental album called Donuts, which I was excited to hear. This was gonna be the beginning of my Dilla fan experience I presumed. I read an article about his death a day after his passing, and it felt surreal. I had JUST caught on to this guy. I made it a point to go buy that Donuts album at the Tower Records by the West Covina mall on February 13, 2006. I remember it vividly because it was a day before Valentine’s Day.
A lot of people use the phrase “J Dilla changed my life”. For some, I’m sure he has. For others, it might be a cool thing to say. What I can tell you is that the Donuts album changed my life, and continues to do so to this day. I was impressed that he was able to captivate my attention for 45 minutes straight through instrumentals. I was amazed at how he constructed beats. The random wails and hums he’d throw in. How a song might have a drum pattern all throughout the beat but he’d switch it once in the middle in a subtle manner. Dilla was a wizard on that album. I know people will always point to his work with Slum, or Welcome to Detroit, yada yada. Donuts did it for me. That’s his finest work in my eyes…or I should say ears. I study the album all the time and learn something new every time. It never ceases to gives me new ideas for my music. My MoveMeants albums are 20+ tracks solely because I saw that Dilla was able to pull it off, and change my life in the process. To know that Donuts was created mainly from a hospital bed is just a testament to his genius and his work ethic, which is the real gem I’ve learned from Dilla’s music.
Ever since Donuts, I’ve gone back and studied his work. Along with 9th Wonder, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock, Dilla is one of my hugest influences. I’ve been fortunate to work with and meet some of his closest friends and collaborators. From the stories I hear, I really wish I would have had the opportunity to meet the man behind the music.
Dilla is dead. He’s not coming back. He cannot be duplicated. There will not be another, so don’t wait for him. He was 1 of 1. For those who feel indebted to him like I do, the greatest homage we can pay is to be ourselves. Define our own sound. Create our own rules. Because that’s exactly what he did while he was here. That’s exactly what I intend to do, because I owe him that much.
RIP J Dilla. Thank you.
-Sport
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