I wouldn’t be right if my first post of the day wasn’t on the late great Dilla. I’m sure there will be plenty more today but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday sir and may your music and your spirit continue to bless us throughout eternity. I never had the honor of meeting Dilla myself but from good friends of mine who did they say that everything you read about him is true, that he was a kind good hearted dude who simply loved music above anything else. The song above is the first song that I realized how genius he truly is. When I first heard him with the Pharcyde I liked his beats, the cleanness of his production impressed me even then, but I was a huge J-Swift fan so it took me a second to warm up to his replacement. When he got with Tribe and The Ummah I liked the work they did together, but once again I felt like Dilla had followed a classic album so whatever they put out would be not up to snuff.
I remember when Analyze brought me the white label of Raise It Up. Doubles to be in fact. I put them on the turntable and from the opening kick and snare I was hooked. Clean and loud like Dr. Dre drums with one of the illest keyboard riff or sample, I wasn’t sure then, that I had ever heard. Turns out it is a sample of Thomas Bangaleter’s Extra Dry. It reminded me of vintage Rza but cleaned up like Chronic 2001. He took what I loved about the Neptunes and made it grimey in a way that Nore spitting over their beats never could. I was an instant stan, going back to hear the Slum Village albums and pretty much anything he ever did. I listened to old Tribe and Pharcyde with a new appreciation. When he passed I knew that we had lost our generation’s Quincy Jones, or even more apt Shuggie Otis. Like Shuggie Dilla is a genius that is unrecognized amongst those outside of the circle we call Hip-Hop. You can’t bring his name up to people not versed in production or Hip-Hop and expect a reaction, which is really a crying shame. Hopefully this post and many others like it today and in the future will continue to bring more light to Dilla’s music, and with the continued release of new and old music I’m sure that his legacy will only continue to grow and prosper. Traveling Mercies Mr. Yancey.
Bonus: After the break the original sample to Raise It Up. Listen to that and tell me Dilla isn’t genius. Top it off that’s nowhere near his most complicated flip. Probably one of the easiest, but also one of the funkiest.
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