J-Dilla changed my life… « Upset The Setup

J-Dilla changed my life…

22Feb08

I had the opportunity to be up at the XM Studios last night for the Red Bull Music Academy / XM Subsonic Dilla Day event. The night kicked off with a panel discussion with Pete Rock, Talib Kweli, and Mrs. Maureen Yancey – aka Ma Dukes, J-Dilla’s mother. It was a real inspirational evening. We gathered in the performance studio at XM for a conversation about the music and legacy of the late J-Dilla. The panel was moderated by Subsonic hosts Kyle Murdoc (RBMA 05) and KB. Each of the panelists shared their memories of Dilla, trading stories and their take on his legacy

More inside

Pete Rock talked about Q-Tip putting him on to a Dilla beat tape in the mid 90’s and how they immediately struck up a friendship of mutual admiration, inspiration and respect. Mrs. Yancey chimed in on how Dilla was a huge Pete Rock fan, and how after that first phone conversation with Pete Rock he was so ecstatic. It was interesting to hear a mother’s perspective on her son’s music as she told stories about Dilla as a child with his first turntable dj-ing in the park. Like any mother, she wanted him to have a career to fall back on in case the music didn’t work, and was pushing him to go to aeronautics school. It seemed like this was a constant fight between them, but she finally relented as his career blossomed. She also remarked that he was an extremely private person, and would spend hours upon end in the basement working on music. Talib shared his experience of working with Dilla, visiting Detroit for the first time, and his impressions of Dilla as a humble artist truly focused on his craft. He recounted a story of working with Dilla on his album Quality while the Grammy Awards were on TV. Common, Erykah Badu, and the Roots were all nominated for albums that Dilla worked on and he could care less about the awards as he was so focused on the present moment and his work at the time.

I got the chance to ask Mrs. Yancey about her philanthropic work with the Dilla Foundation to raise awareness about Lupus – the disease that took her son’s life. We also discussed issues of health awareness in hip hop, rising prescription costs, and creating a collective to help insure artists in the hip hop community. It was a really moving moment as she expressed her frustrations with current state of health care in America especially with regard to caring for Dilla in his last days – facing prescriptions with a $4000 co-pay.

Watching Mrs. Yancey talk about her son’s life and legacy was a very emotional experience. At times she was truly overjoyed by the love that the global hip hop community has expressed for her son but you could also tell that she really missed him. The evening really moved me to strive to live a healthier life so that I can continue to share my music with the world.

After the panel discussion, Grap Luva (Pete Rock’s brother) hosted a performance by the live hip hop band The Players. They were rocking J-Dilla beats for a number of MCs to perform tributes and covers. Emoni Fela, Labtekwon, YU, Cy Young, Kaimber, Kev Brown, Alison Carney,Roddy Rod, Flex Mathews, Kokayi, E-Major and others performed.

Enjoy some video from the night…

Flex Mathews: