📚 J Dilla Biography : The Life & Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm 📚 | (Book Discussion)

[Tommy Gibbs]

Finished it. The drama with the will, the estate, Ma Dukes vs. Joy, Egon, House Shoes...all of that could be a book in itself.
The hidden daughter reveal

I was never a Dilla stan, although I do love Labcabin and LWFC. But after reading this I came away wanting to forget/ignore all the foul behavior (more like what's done is done) and "stick to the music." I appreciate the sample timing breakdown and time stretching the MPC, but I can't put him above Primo, RZA, Dre, or Marley in the GOAT convo.

EXACTLY!!! These guys have MULTIPLE classic albums under their belt. MULTIPLE. Rza from 93-97 could do no wrong. Primo from 92-08, multiple classic album. Marley Marl from 88-93. Dre from 88-93. I fux with Dilla, but he aint got as many classic albums produced as those guys. Seriouslythough, of the classic albums he has carried. I'll give you Fantastic Vol 2, Like Water for Chocolate, and Jaylib. I don't count Donuts cuz it's an instrumental album. Even Large Pro got 3 classics under his belt(technically 4, but the LP was shelved). Putting Dilla over Pete rock is insane as well.

 

[UnQuantized]

LOL before reading the book I had heard stories about him being always strapped If you read between the lines, have watched the right unofficial documentaries, read the right interviews, the people who really knew him always hinted at the fact he was hood dude with natural talent, not just from the hood but an actually borderline foul dude with a short fuse. Talent was incredible though, LOVE the slum village stuff and his remixes.

 

[KingsOfKings]

Rest in peace Dilla

 

[NormanConnors]

when we first heard dilla, we didn't even know he was nationally. Reading the credits for Beats Rhymes and life, we didn't know who Jay Dee was. We initally thought Q tip was still doing the beats. He was heavily influenced by Q tip. You read the book. hahaha> Pharcyde thought Jay Dee was actually Q tip. Dilla is dope, but that type of production didn't begin with him. Pete, Rza, and Tip all pre-date him. he just took what they were doing and added his spin on it. Then he links up with Madlib and takes elements from his style. Nothing is wrong with that.

Maybe not nationally but DEFINITELY in the city. We had the hiphop shop, underground radio shows and considering the D is a small world/6 degrees of separation in regards to who you know, to us Jay Dee was the real Jay Dee.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

Maybe not nationally but DEFINITELY in the city. We had the hiphop shop, underground radio shows and considering the D is a small world/6 degrees of separation in regards to who you know, to us Jay Dee was the real Jay Dee.

You’re from Detroit. I wasn’t living in Detroit in 95 and 96

 

[Guvnor]

I mean dude already has children/probably doesn't want that standardized family/husband/wife type build. Smart way for him to move at this point imo. Com is a nice guy, ran into dude in the hotel lobby on my wedding night. He chopped it up with a breh for a minute. I made sure I gave him flowers too/let him know I've been down since common sense. He could have easily kept it moving like other cats I've ran into.

Spoiler

he was with a nice piece too, but it could have been his publicist or something , i didn't ask any questions

Yeah very smart, he had a hell of a run too. Angela Rye, Erykah Badu, Serena Williams and even Tiffany Haddish is solid. He always got a bad one lol.

Also it's dope you got to chop it with him. Seems really humble like unlike someone like Kanye lol.

 

[KingsOfKings]

Probably one of my fav books

 

[Bugzbunny129]

Man Dilla was really a RZA stan

Im almost positive ive heard that sample on sunz of man album

It’s one of the things people like to forget. Why, I don’t know.

Yea dillas whole ug chop chop style he did early 2000s is him breaking the rza formula

No hate. Cause i cant stand people saying “sounds like rza” to stuff like daringer that sounds NOTHING like rza.

Dillas style is cuban linx meets ghost dog.

Its not even debateable as he purposely studied rza beats to make cuban 2s stuff for rae and the fishscale stuff for ghost. It was the most wu sounding shyt for a reason.

Does this book go into this at all?

I find it funny seeing all the hipsters today give all the props to doom dilla and madlib for stuff rza started. They respect rza but its like they dont understand how influential he really was in realtime like people who were there.

 

[NormanConnors]

I see cats are still trying to their best to talk down on Dilla in here.

Dilla > your fav producer

Deal with it

 

[Bryan Danielson]

I see cats are still trying to their best to talk down on Dilla in here.

Dilla > your fav producer

Deal with it

Fact!!!

Rza for the longest was mine…. Then I discovered JDilla

 

[Majestyx]

Im almost positive ive heard that sample on sunz of man album



Yea dillas whole ug chop chop style he did early 2000s is him breaking the rza formula

No hate. Cause i cant stand people saying “sounds like rza” to stuff like daringer that sounds NOTHING like rza.

Dillas style is cuban linx meets ghost dog.

Its not even debateable as he purposely studied rza beats to make cuban 2s stuff for rae and the fishscale stuff for ghost. It was the most wu sounding shyt for a reason.

Does this book go into this at all?

I find it funny seeing all the hipsters today give all the props to doom dilla and madlib for stuff rza started. They respect rza but its like they dont understand how influential he really was in realtime like people who were there.

The book mentions rza once or twice

I see cats are still trying to their best to talk down on Dilla in here.

Dilla > your fav producer

Deal with it

He in my top 5, and depending on the day top 3

 

[Bugzbunny129]

I see cats are still trying to their best to talk down on Dilla in here.

Dilla > your fav producer

Deal with it

Yea bro saying hes the only producer tj be able to study the goat enough to recreate a style people were chasin for decades is talking down dilla /s

Dilla is a top 5 beat maker

Hes not even a top 10 producer tho stop.

Rza has more classic albums produced front to back from dec 94 to nov 1995 than dilla had his whole career. And picking talent is part of the job.

Its just a fact that is so obvious its unreal noone brings it up. Its not a fault. Hes the only one who really broke it. Everhone from pharell to kanye just to madlib dilla doom tried to do rza.
Its not a knock at all. Its just a fact and testament to how good a beat maker he actually is to be able to recognize what makes up someones style and recreate it. He did it to pete. Learned under tip..

When rza says dilla is the ONLY person to be able to say he made a TRUE rza beat, after 20 years if people trying… and that he would have handed the production duties to him from there, its not a misconception. Thats why busta brought those beats in the first place cause he knew it too.

Just watch the video

 

[Guvnor]

 

[Majestyx]

This was cool. short and concise. surprised they had shoes in it

 

[FunkDoc1112]

FInally copped the book. It's crazy that we never got an Eminem/Dilla collab seeing how small of a world the Detroit hip-hop scene was in the mid-90s and how much they ran in the same circles. The parking garage scene from 8 Mile where the Free World nikkas got on top of the car was based on some real shyt that happened and Dilla was there

And damn, Dilla really was just a hood nikka that liked soulful music Q-Tip had to mix and record all of DIlla's Ummah's shyt cuz he was always no-showing the studio sessions hanging out at the strip clubs Dude just wanted to make beats and look at titties

Also looks like I was wrong about Got TIl It's Gone. Jam & Lewis were just imitating Dilla's style after hearing the Brand New Heavies - Sometimes remix the same way they sharked DJ Quik's style with Go Deep.