February 10, 2006 - Back to Main

Never Be Another

one of a kind

By now, I’m sure all of you have heard about the untimely passing of James “Jay Dee aka J Dilla” Yancey. In all honesty, I thought beatheads like myself were the only ones who would notice - so when I saw it on the front of The Detroit Free Press/News today, I was shocked. Thank you Kelley Carter and Brian McCollum for working so fast on this and getting the word out. As a producer myself, Dilla (along with Primo, Pete Rock, AWOL & Rza) was a HUGE influence on my sound and what I listen to.

I can remember when I first heard “Fantastic” on tape. This cat I know named Plee had gotten a copy of the tape from this other cat named Dante and I listened to it. I have NEVER heard a sound like that - crisp drums that sounded like a real drummer, chopping and loop work that was unlike anything I had heard. I was already hip to his sound at the time from the work he had done for De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Mad Skillz and One Little Indian (via a remix), but his work on that album had SO many innovations to me, I had many sickfits from just being so hype about all that shit. Since then, I have been a fan and always sought out his releases to “learn” from him. See, I always listen to cats’ work and learn from what they do. Most producers would be afraid to admit it, but I don’t give a fuck. All of us imitate at first, THEN we innovate - putting our own twist on what we “learned” from other cats. That’s how it was for me with Dilla’s work.

Being from Detroit as well, it made me proud to know that dude was from here but branched out to see more than the concrete jungle that we call home. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my city - but it’s also important to see other shit in your lifetime so your mind can grow. I think Dilla understood that. I regret that I never got a chance to meet him, but his work will continue to be an inspiration and a guide in what I do. I would like to send condolences to his family and friends. May GOD be with all of you in your time of loss.

OMNi is set to work on a Dilla tribute LP that will be free to download in our store once finished and also debuted on Scrubradio.com. To express what you meant to us is beyond words...but we will try our best. Love you Dilla. L.I.U(Live.In.Us).

Posted by Lunchbox at February 10, 2006 4:08 PM