Hip-hop MC and producer Jay Dee (also known as J Dilla), a founding member of the Detroit rap outfit Slum Village, died Friday morning of kidney failure at his home in Los Angeles, officials at his record label said Friday evening.
Born James Yancey, he was a nationally influential producer and a champion of Detroit’s urban music scene. When hip-hop was largely being dominated by the East and West coasts, he put a distinct Detroit sound on many national acts.
He celebrated his 32nd birthday Tuesday with a new album release, “Donuts.”
“Jay Dee was the man with the beats,” said Mark Hicks, who has been on the Detroit hip-hop scene since the early 1990s and is a former manager of the group D12. Hicks got the word that Jay Dee died from Detroit rapper Proof, who sent him a message via his Blackberry.
“I remember when he was selling beats back in ’95, ’96 for like 100 or 200 bucks,” Hicks said. Beats are the instrumental tracks that form the backbone of hip-hop music.
“Everybody went to him. He was selective. Even back then, you could see him being a producer in the long run just on how he made the music He took the artists and said, ‘This is how you should lyrically say this.’ He was a prodigy.” If you saw him in the studio, it was like he was the man.”
Guided by an encyclopedic ear and a jazz musician’s touch, he molded a signature style that blended hip-hop street bounce with a progressive flair. Live instruments were digitally processed into strange new tones, and vintage soul samples mixed with obscure rock records, with his own warm synthesizer lines layered on top.
“He invented the sound of Detroit hip-hop,” said Waverly Alford, the Detroit rapper known as King Gordy. “He was Detroit hip-hop.”
Jay Dee worked with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo and Janet Jackson. Even so, he retained a distinct underground attitude.
He recorded in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York.
In a statement, Peter Adarkwah, founder of BBE Records, said he was deeply saddened to learn of his death. “Jay was one of my favorite hip-hop producers of all time. His passion for music was a rare thing amongst people in the music industry. His music and presence will be sorely missed for many years to come.”
BBE was to release Jay Dee’s “The Shining” a follow-up to 2001’s “Welcome To Detroit” in June of this year.
“It’s a hell of a loss,” said Wayne Washington, who raps under the name Wayneeack X. “He was talented with a capital T. His sound was hard, but there was feeling behind it. It had your head knocking, but it made you think too.”
Jay Dee rarely gave interviews, preferring to stay out of the spotlight. The music community knew, however, that he had health problems. Last year in an interview with the hip-hop magazine XXL, he denied reports that he had been in a coma, but said he spent two months in a hospital’s ICU “with all types of tubes.”
He told the magazine, “I went overseas for two weeks and was eating all this crazy … food. As soon as I got back, I had the flu or something, and I had to check myself into the hospital.” He said the doctors discovered that, “I had a ruptured kidney and was malnourished from not eating the right kind of food. It was real simple, but it ended with me being in the hospital.”
Always the producer, he had a friend bring him a sound system and some vinyl so he could make beats in the hospital.
Denaun Porter, a sought-after producer in his own right, has said that Jay Dee influenced him to pursue his career. Like others who would go on to become members of Detroit’s hip-hop elite, Porter was hanging out in the mid-1990s at the Hip Hop Shop. The clothing store on Detroit’s west side hosted open mic shows and became an epicenter of the city’s emerging hip-hop scene.
Porter said it wasn’t until 1996 that he got serious about making music for a living. That’s when he saw Jay Dee come to the shop in a money green Jaguar. “I never knew anybody that wasn’t a drug dealer drive a car like that,” Porter said. “I liked that life a little more.”
Jay Dee Dee’s musical production came from humble beginnings. He started humbly, making beats on a tape deck. In 1992, Amp Fiddler taught him how to work an MPC-60, an electronic drum machine commonly used in R&B and hip-hop music.
Around 1988, Jay Dee formed Slum Village with Baatin and T3, friends from Pershing High School. Even though he left the group after their first national album, (“Fantastic Vol. 2,” released in 2000), they remained friends and he even produced later tracks for Slum Village.
The group now consists of rappers Elzhi and T3. Both are out of the country, and couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“Slum Village, man, they were doing their thing,’’ said Terry Scott of Tonya’s Music, a mom-and-pop shop on Detroit’s east side. “He was a pretty hot producer here in Detroit, the first big thing to come out of Detroit as far as producers.
“He was very young. I met him a couple of times. He came in the shop. For a brother like that to die at a young age, that’s sad. This is a loss to Detroit.”
Brian (B.Kyle) Atkins, a longtime documentarian of the hip-hop group the Roots, reported on the Stones Throw Records Web site that a memorial service will be Tuesday in Los Angeles. A Detroit service may be scheduled later.
technorati tags: Jay Dee, J Dilla, Dead, producer, hip hop mc
February 13th, 2006
Backstage after Wednesday’s Grammys, Kanye West was all hug and kisses, smiles and high-fives.
It’s expected behavior for that scene, but not from the man who just lost Album of the Year after loudly declaring, “If I don’t win Album of the Year, I’m gonna really have a problem with that”.
So what happened?
Well, his show-stealing performance, for one.
“I would have been more disappointed if I didn’t have a good performance and I had won Album of the Year,” West said. “The performance, that’s what it’s about, the entertainment and people having a good time. I just want to see the black colleges right now. I just want to go onto MySpace right now and see what people are saying.”
West, who did win three golden gramophones (Best Rap Album for Late Registration, Best Rap Solo Performance for “Gold Digger” and Best Rap Song for “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”), also offered an apparently satisfying reason for Album of the Year going to U2’s How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb.
“Um, can we say vote splitting?” he said, referring to the concern he addressed the day nominees were announced: that he and Mariah Carey would split votes between the urban music fans in the Recording Academy.
“But that is my boy, Bono,” he continued. “He has taught me a lot about carrying the fame with grace. And the first thing I thought is, ‘Let’s go back to the studio, let’s go.’ It’s good for me, I’m happy, because I have accomplished so much in the last two years, all the way from running the [G.O.O.D.] label to being the artist that you [go to when you] run out of things to do. So now it’s like, ‘OK, we didn’t get the Album of the Year. Let’s go [try again].’ John Legend, Jon Brion, anyone named John, let’s go.”
Perhaps next time he can use the other two notecards he made for Wednesday in case he returned to the podium. After the first one, which read, “THANK YOU LIST,” he had “PEOPLE I FORGOT” and, for Album of the Year, “I TOLD YOU SO!,” he revealed backstage.
West, who crashed MTV News’ interview with John Legend, said it was actually Legend’s win for Best New Artist that he was most excited about. And between his and Legend’s other wins, both their performances and the “Touch the Sky” video debuting earlier that day, the smiles and high-fives were easily justified.
“If you mix the entertainment level of ‘The New Workout Plan’ [video] with the art level of like the black-and-white ‘Heard ‘Em Say’ video, that’s what you get with ‘Touch the Sky,’ ” he boasted of the clip.
As for Legend, his Grammy wins also made him anxious to return to the studio.
“This has inspired me,” he said. “I want to top this last album. I want to do better. I’m inspired, I’m ready to write. I’ve been on the road for a long time, I’m ready to get back into the studio.”
And like they have for his mentor, the Grammy wins are working magic for his ego.
“I am more famous now,” he said. “And that means more money
technorati tags: Kanye West, Grammys, awards, the grammy awards
February 12th, 2006
Winners at Wednesday’s 48th Annual Grammy Awards:
Album of the Year: “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” U2.
Record of the Year: “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Green Day.
New Artist: John Legend
Male R&B Vocal Performance: “Ordinary People,” John Legend.
Pop Vocal Album: “Breakaway,” Kelly Clarkson.
Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Numb/Encore,” Jay-Z featuring Linkin Park.
Song of the Year: “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own,” U2.
Female Pop Vocal Performance: “Since U Been Gone,” Kelly Clarkson.
Country Album: “Lonely Runs Both Ways,” Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Rap Album: “Late Registration,” Kanye West.
Rock Album: “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” U2.
Rap Solo Performance: “Gold Digger,” Kanye West.
Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: “Don’t Phunk With My Heart,” The Black Eyed Peas.
Rap Song: “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” D. Harris and Kanye West.
Solo Rock Vocal Performance: “Devils & Dust,” Bruce Springsteen.
Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal: “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own,” U2.
Hard Rock Performance: “B.Y.O.B.,” System of a Down.
Metal Performance: “Before I Forget,” Slipknot.
Rock Instrumental Performance: “69 Freedom Special,” Les Paul and Friends.
Rock Song: “City of Blinding Lights, U2, (U2).
Alternative Music Album: “Get Behind Me Satan,” The White Stripes.
Female R&B Vocal Performance: “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey.
R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: “So Amazing,” Beyonce and Stevie Wonder.
Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: “A House Is Not a Home,” Aretha Franklin.
Urban/Alternative Performance: “Welcome to Jamrock,” Damian Marley.
R&B Song: “We Belong Together,” J. Austin, M. Carey, J. Dupri & M. Seal, (D. Bristol, K. Edmonds, S. Johnson, P. Moten, S. Sully & B. Womack, (Mariah Carey).
R&B Album: “Get Lifted,” John Legend.
Contemporary R&B Album: “The Emancipation of Mimi,” Mariah Carey.
Male Pop Vocal Performance: “From the Bottom of My Heart,” Stevie Wonder.
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal: “This Love,” Maroon 5.
Pop Collaboration With Vocals: “Feel Good Inc.,” Gorillaz Featuring De La Soul.
Pop Instrumental Performance: “Caravan,” Les Paul.
Pop Instrumental Album: “At This Time,” Burt Bacharach.
Traditional Pop Vocal Album: “The Art of Romance,” Tony Bennett.
Female Country Vocal Performance: “The Connection,” Emmylou Harris.
Male Country Vocal Performance: “You’ll Think of Me,” Keith Urban.
Country Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal: “Restless,” Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Country Collaboration With Vocals: “Like We Never Loved at All,” Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
Country Instrumental Performance: “Unionhouse Branch,” Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Country Song: “Bless the Broken Road,” Bobby Boyd, Jeff Hanna and Marcus Hummon, (Rascal Flatts).
Latin Pop Album: “Escucha,” Laura Pausini.
Latin Rock/Alternative Album: “Fijacion Oral Vol. 1,” Shakira.
Traditional Tropical Latin Album: “Bebo De Cuba,” Bebo Valdes.
Salsa/Merengue Album: “Son Del Alma,” Willy Chirino.
Mexican/Mexican-American Album: “Mexico En La Piel,” Luis Miguel.
Tejano Album: “Chicanisimo,” Little Joe Y La Familia.
Engineered Album, Classical: “Mendelssohn: The Complete String Quartets,” Da-Hong Seetoo, engineer (Emerson String Quartet).
Producer of the Year, Classical: Tim Handley.
Classical Album: “Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” Leonard Slatkin, conductor (Christine Brewer and Joan Morris, University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra).
Orchestral Performance: “Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13,” Mariss Jansons, conductor (Sergei Aleksashkin, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus).
Opera Recording: “Verdi: Falstaff,” Sir Colin Davis, conductor (London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra).
Choral Performance: “Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” Leonard Slatkin, conductor (Christine Brewer, Measha Brueggergosman, Ilana Davidson, Nmon Ford, Linda Hohenfeld, Joan Morris, Carmen Pelton, Marietta Simpson and Thomas Young, Michigan State University Children’s Choir, University of Michigan Chamber Choir, University of Michigan Orpheus Singers, University of Michigan University Choir and University Musical Society Choral Union, University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra).
Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra): “Beethoven: Piano Cons. Nos. 2 & 3,” Claudio Abbado, conductor; Martha Argerich (Mahler Chamber Orchestra).
Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra): “Scriabin, Medtner, Stravinsky,” Evgeny Kissin.
Chamber Music Performance: “Mendelssohn: The Complete String Quartets,” Emerson String Quartet.
Small Ensemble Performance: “Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre, Derive 1 & 2,” Pierre Boulez, conductor, Hilary Summers, Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Classical Vocal Performance: “Bach: Cantatas,” Thomas Quasthoff (Rainer Kussmaul, Members of the RIAS Chamber Choir, Berlin Baroque Soloists).
Classical Contemporary Composition: “Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” William Bolcom (Leonard Slatkin).
Classical Crossover Album: “4 plus Four,” Turtle Island String Quartet and Ying Quartet.
Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: “Ray,” Ray Charles.
Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: “Ray,” Craig Armstrong, composer.
Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: “Believe,” Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri, songwriters, from “The Polar Express.”
Instrumental Composition: “Into the Light,” Billy Childs, composer.
Instrumental Arrangement: “The Incredits,” Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Various Artists).
Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s): “What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life?” Billy Childs, Gil Goldstein and Heitor Pereira, arrangers (Chris Botti and Sting).
Traditional Blues Album: “80,” B.B. King and Friends.
Traditional Folk Album: “Fiddler’s Green,” Tim O’Brien.
Contemporary Folk Album: “Fair & Square,” John Prine.
Native American Music Album: “Sacred Ground A Tribute to Mother Earth,” Various Artists.
Hawaiian Music Album: “Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Vol. 1,” Various Artists.
Reggae Album: “Welcome to Jamrock,” Damian Marley.
Traditional World Music Album: “In the Heart of the Moon,” Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate.
Contemporary World Music Album: “Eletracustico,” Gilberto Gil.
Polka Album: “Shake, Rattle and Polka!” Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra.
Musical Album for Children: “Songs From the Neighborhood The Music of Mister Rogers,” Various Artists.
Spoken Word Album for Children: “Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long,” Various Artists.
Spoken Word Album: “Dreams From My Father,” Sen. Barack Obama.
Comedy Album: “Never Scared,” Chris Rock.
Musical Show Album: “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”
Gospel Performance: “Pray,” CeCe Winans.
Rock Gospel Song: “Be Blessed,” Yolanda Adams, James Harris III, Terry Lewis and James Q. Wright, (Yolanda Adams).
Rock Gospel Album: “Until My Heart Caves In,” Audio Adrenaline.
Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album: “Lifesong,” Casting Crowns.
Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Album: “Rock of Ages … Hymns & Faith,” Amy Grant.
Contemporary Soul Gospel Album: “Purified,” CeCe Winans.
Gospel Choir or Gospel Chorus: “One Voice,” Gladys Knight, choir director.
New Age Album: “Silver Solstice,” Paul Winter Consort.
Jazz Vocal Album: “Good Night, and Good Luck,” Dianne Reeves.
Jazz Instrumental Solo: “Why Was I Born?” Sonny Rollins.
Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group: “Beyond the Sound Barrier,” Wayne Shorter Quartet.
Contemporary Jazz Album: “The Way Up,” Pat Metheny Group.
Large Jazz Ensemble Album: “Overtime,” Dave Holland Big Band.
Latin Jazz Album: “Listen Here!” Eddie Palmieri.
Traditional Soul Gospel Album: “Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs,” Donnie McClurkin.
Dance Recording: “Galvanize,” The Chemical Brothers featuring Q-Tip.
Electronic/Dance Album: “Push the Button,” The Chemical Brothers.
Bluegrass Album: “The Company We Keep,” The Del McCoury Band.
Contemporary Blues Album: “Cost of Living,” Delbert McClinton.
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Steve Lillywhite.
Short Form Music Video: “Control,” Missy Elliott Featuring Ciara and Fat Man Scoop.
Best Long Form Music Video: “No Direction Home” (Bob Dylan).
Recording Package: “The Forgotten Arm,” Aimee Mann and Gail Marowitz, art directors (Aimee Mann).
Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package: “The Legend,” Ian Cuttler, art director (Johnny Cash).
Album Notes: “The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax,” John Szwed, album notes writer (Jelly Roll Morton).
Historical Album: “The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax,” Jeffrey Greenberg and Anna Lomax Wood, compilation producers (Jelly Roll Morton).
Engineered Album, Non-Classical: “Back Home,” Alan Douglas and Mick Guzauski, engineers (Eric Clapton).
Remixed Recording, Non-Classical: “Superfly (Louie Vega EOL Mix),” Louie Vega, remixer (Curtis Mayfield).
Surround Sound Album: “Brothers in Arms 20th Anniversary Edition,” Chuck Ainlay, Bob Ludwig, Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits).
technorati tags: Awards, Grammys, 48th annual, winners, music awards
February 9th, 2006
Hip-hop star Missy Elliott is to play the lead role in a film chronicling her life, Universal Pictures has announced. The film, which is untitled and in the development phase, will be produced by actor Robert De Niro through his company Tribeca Films.
