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...because it's taken so long to sink in. The Doc doesn't know, if it ever will.
Friday, February 10, 2006...
It was a stressful (work)day for The Doc anyway, but seeing the post from Rico(CHE)t (yeah, The Doc is still gonna call him that) anchored in GD that read "R.I.P. Dilla" was a shot through the heart for real. To think, a guy whose music that only, seemingly recently The Doc had really started to dig, was gone -- only a few days after The Doc had picked up his latest CD (which a Best Buy nearby thankfully had stocked).
This site, in particular, was instrumental in being The Doc's introduction to the greater works of Dilla; The Doc had heard his tracks on various Busta Rhymes, ATCQ, Common, and other albums...but looking back, The Doc found out, like many others who have posted here, that a look in the liner notes would reveal J-Dilla was behind a lot of The tracks The Doc instinctively rewound when the tapes came out. On Pharcyde's second album, The Doc knew that Dilla was behind tracks like Runnin' and Drop...but the track he'd always play was the opener, "Bullshit". A look in the liner notes... there's Mr. Yancey. When Busta Rhymes's The Coming was the new hot joint, everyone was geeked over "Everything Remains Raw" and "Woo-Ha!", but the song The Doc always played over and over was "Still Shining". The part where Busta rhymes about "keepin it' movin' like a U-Haul" was rewound over and over...there were times The Doc used to stand out in the parking lot with the crew, doors to the Volvo 242 he inherited from Poppa Claw open, little-4"-door-speakers-that-could blasting this song, at times freestyling over the track. It was that dope. Earlier that summer, it was A Tribe Called Quest's new joint that was rockin' the block. The Doc's favorite joint was always "Wordplay". The following summer, hearing "That Shit" by Tribe on a Funkmaster Flex mixtape, featuring the vocals of the producer added even more flavor in the mix. The Doc remembered thinking, "Oh, so this dude rhymes too?" Dilla had a fan in the Doc, but a question (also poised on HipHopSite) was always in his mind, "what's he doing that Premier and Pete Rock aren't?" Little did The Doc know, it would take a little digging around to find the answer.
Fast forward several years, and The Doc had turned into a lurker on this site, reading the musings of ?uestlove and others raving over this Slum Village group -- so The Doc, resourceful dude he was, got his hands on their albums. Upon hearing Fantastic Vol. 2, The Doc was officially a convert. Even though The Doc wasn't particularly taken by too much of The Love Movement, The Doc was wondering where Jay Dee was hiding all this funk and tracks to move the listener. The MCs outside of Jay Dee weren't all that (Baatin and T3), but The Doc eventually grew to like 'em. This was after Like Water For Chocolate, and The Doc's repeated listening to "Dooinit" (one of his best tracks ever, The Doc might add)...after a few weeks of wearing out the 12" single, imagining how Jay Dee cut up a bassline like he did, donwill tipped The Doc off that it had come from Rick James. To think, an "easy" record like that could be turned on its side and meshed with something completely out of pocket... The Doc was floored. Now, Dilla had moved into the echelon of the elite, with RZA, Premier, and the rest.
As time passed, The Doc collected more of his music, bought albums and 12"s he had produced, and was just like most of the other cats on this site, ridin' from the dude out of the D. Like others here, The Doc wished Dilla would have had the chance to get more exposure. Especially, since Hiphop has been long overdue for an "F-U" to its status quo along the lines of Wu-Tang coming through and kicking the door down in the mid '90s. The sound J Dilla was building was perfect for it. While he was largely known for smoother tones, and what some would term "Midnight Love" beats, Dilla had a whole other side of him, that few got to hear...that rough, dirty sound reminiscent of RZA or DJ Premier circa 1991-92. However, the way he would take records and reassemble them was all Dilla. Sample manipulation wasn't all he brought to the table... Dilla often made sure to put his stamp on his productions by filtering them to the point of unrecognizability, playing his own instruments or basslines over the tracks (which was largely the case on Fantastic Vol. 2)...and at the same time, he wasn't a rare record snob. Dilla would flip "easy" and "overused" records with the same fervor he would the stuff one'd have to really dig to find. He would take the wack and make it dope ("Raise It Up"), and give personal endorsements to his favorite MCs (how many Dilla beats have you heard with Redman, Busta Rhymes, or M.O.P. adlibs?)...if only he could have worked with some of them before he passed.
...and he always seemed to have the listener in mind. How many of y'all were jumping out of your chairs when you heard Jay Dee was gonna link up with Madlib for a LP? Regardless what you thought of the finished product, the fact that it even happened was a great moment in music. Donuts seemed to be at first, a way for Dilla to share his "beat tapes" with the masses, but now, after his death, it seems the assembly of that particular album was deliberate. One of the many ways he intended to say goodbye. "You're gonna need me one day", Dionne Warwick sings through Dilla's manipulation of her voice; the chopping up of a song called "When I Die" (it's the 31st track on Donuts, BTW)...the fact that Dilla had as many tracks as he was aged in years -- it was almost eerie. Because of this, The Doc has to recant his earlier claim that Donuts wasn't for those who wanted to "get to know" Dilla -- it may be the best window into the mind of Dilla commercially available. (Still, when you can, those who haven't heard the Slum Village "Fantastic" albums, should really give them a chance...)
While Dilla's known for being a beatsmith of the highest order, he's just as great as an MC. True to form, he exhibited the same occasional hit-and-miss qualities he did as a producer, but when Dilla was on, he was ON. Of particular note were his verses on Slum Village's "Jealousy" and "Raise It Up", his own "Fuck The Police", "No Games" and "McNasty Filth" from the Jaylib Champion Sound disc, a remix he did for Fourtet, "As Serious As Your Life" (Dilla generally just takes the track over), and "Thelonius" from Common's Like Water For Chocolate. Sometimes, over his own tracks, Dilla was the most suiting MC, putting him a class not unlike The RZA in that regard.
The Doc's sure we (as fans of his music) have our own personal "Dilla" moments -- The Doc mentioned the earlier freestyle sessions at the 242...but The Doc clearly remembers how listening to the Jaylib vs J-Rocc mixtape kept The Doc awake on the snoozefest of a highway, the I-76 turnpike, and how the "Another Batch" beats were the soundtrack to this rather depressing summer (in and outside of spins of Common's Be, to which he contributed). There will be more to come, that's for sure, as deep as Dilla's unsung discography is.
In the end, The Doc's convinced: Hiphop's lost its Hendrix, it's Charlie Parker, or rather, it's Frank Zappa (a title The Doc bestowed upon Madlib for the sheer sometimes-inaccessibility and strange sense of humor he shared, but now, looking at his untimely death, and the way Dilla was regarded...) ....a genius that will never be replicated. This man literally died for his love of the music, ignoring his failing health to perform on stage while emaciated, and making beats in a hospital. The best thing to do now is to enjoy those who are here, who have a similar ethic to Dilla and keep it moving. Yes, I'm mad. Let's move on.
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