James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006)

Dilla is one my personal favorite hip hop producer… His influence on the music world is obvious. His raw style and distinct drum programing has made him one of the most loved, respected and mimicked producers of our time.
Dilla has had such a strong impact on me and the way I make music that his name itself has become an adjective in my vocabulary.
“..Dilla that up” will be heard in my lab when the drums don’t have the swagger I want or the raw edge isn’t there.
Coming to the end of 2009 Dilla’s legacy is set in stone with countless “Dillaciples” keeping his memory alive as they take his enormous influence and it let inspire a whole new era of music. Long Live J Dilla…..
“J Dilla was one of the music industry’s most influential hip-hop artists”
-NPR

Interview

DOWNLOAD: eLZhi – The Leftovers (Unmixedtape) | Usershare | Mediafire

eLZhi The Leftovers Unmixedtape • Download | Bandcamp Page

“Like This” prod. by Black Milk

“Colors (Remix)” prod. by DJ Spinna

Download this and bump it immediately, if only for one reason:
eLZhi is an alien. He has chosen to harness his Martian powers
towards making mockeries of other rappers. So pay attention.
Emcees, don’t bite. Just study up.

∆

This isn’t a new song, but I just rediscovered it on my iTunes and I forgot how much I liked Phat Kat. Enjoy!

Who is Vstylez?

I’m from Detroit where people struggle hard to get heard. It’s not like NY or Cali. I’m a hard working dude that grew up in the culture. I’m a HipHop historian who takes my craft seriously. If you’re from Detroit you have to stay on guard at all times. I’ve been shot before and I’m not saying that like its a badge of honor. But I’m saying it to make people aware that we are in trying times and its dangerous, so be careful. I started rhyming  because I needed an outlet to speak after getting shot. I used it as therapy as weird as it sounds.

I understand that you are speaking of trying times and its heartfelt. How do you feel when you are expressing your art? What inspires the vision for the work?

I represent 100 percent for HipHop. People like Royce, Eminem, Elzhi and Ras Kas, they inspire me to write real rhymes. I hear a beat and I lose it. I never let people choose my beats; I pick all my sh*t.  HipHop is alive and well as long as I’m breathing.

So tell me the story of “Clash of the Titans”.

Clash came together after Royce, O.C. (HipHop Legend from D.I.T.C.) and myself did a remix for “First2Rise” which was produced by Moss, who also produced Clash. I said “Moss, send me some beats…I have an idea; I want to do a song with Royce, Elzhi and Phat Kat”. He sent me some beats and not knowing that I could really pull this off because I’m fans of all of these dudes even if they knew me.  I reached out and it happened , my DJ and business partner, HipHop legend in Detroit, MarkDaSpark  plugged me with Pooh. He already had a relationship with  the group, Little Brother. Pooh is forever more family  to me as well as Little Brother family. It happened an I’m glad people are being receptive to it.

The song definitely has a classic HipHip sound. How was it working in the studio with your inspirations accompanying you on this track?

Well Royce and I were in the lab recording together. I went in prepared because when you record with dudes like that you have to be! I went in  and knocked my verse out in one take. Royce was like “You already had your sh*t!” And I’m like, “F*** yeah!” (laughs) So he wrote his verse in 10-15 minutes and my jaw dropped.  I had Elzhi and Kat to come through later to drop theirs.  And from there it was sent to Pooh.  I knew what I had after Pooh’s verse. This is my  Symphony.

Who directed the video and what was the concept behind “Clash of the Titans”?

My dudes, Gerard Atillo and Darren Brown directed it. Darren wrote the treatment.  Boxing was originally in it. I want MMA so we went in that direction because I’m a huge fan and MMA is more popular now.  But its like a deception plot.

Now that the video has been released to the public, what is next for you?  upcoming projects… album? promo tours?

My album is almost done, I still have a couple songs to knockout.  Its called “Masterpiece Theatre: @ Oddz til I’m Even” .  The album features artists O.C.,  Royce da 5′9,  Big Pooh, Elzhi, Phat Kat, Wordsmith, Buff One, Guilty Simpson and Mr.Cheeks.  This is a collective work with production from  Moss,  Big Gov, DJ Dez, Apollo Brown and more. There is a part two of the album with the same title following its release.  I’m also working on a project with Mark Da Spark, its called RSM Recordings ( Rebel Soul Movement LLC.) I do have show dates across the country yearly but I’m not on tour. Definitely working on it.  It’s coming.

Any words for aspiring artists?

Yes, do not be afraid to be who you are. Every rap dude to me has the same story. I’m not knocking the streets but the point I’m making is to be original. You could be a janitor and you rap. It makes no difference. Just follow your heart and do it.

Follow me: @itsmekrucial

Check out: www.Vstylez313.com and twitter.com/Vstylez

This track is ridiculously stupid… In a good way I must say.  Detroit has this Hip-Hop game in a choke hold right about now with upcoming releases from Royce & company.  This track is produced by Toronto’s own MoSS who has a serious track record of his own.  Check it out.

Definitely a great thing to see coverage on Detroit Hip-Hop, it’s my favorite shit out there (no offense Minneapolis), no one is bringing a sound to the Midwest (with the exception of MPLS) like Dietroit. Splash!-Mag caught up with Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Big Tone & DJ Graffiti this year at the Splash! Festival. Big Tone talks about how it’s his first time over in Europe and what that experience is like. Phat Kat talks about his new album that he is finishing up, The Katacombs, and an album called Co-Still that he is working on with Elzhi (that’s what I like to hear).

Guilty grabs the mic and mentions his album with Madlib, says that the Random Axe project is just about done, and that he is also working on his second official release. He delves into the OJ Simpson album and talks a little bit about what you can expect to hear. I had heard something near catastrophic happened on the Random Axe project, and Guilty tells us that Black Milk did indeed lose a lot of the work associated with the album. Sean Price & Guilty Simpson had to re-record their vocals for the album.

There is so much more in this interview that is great, I mean it’s 20 minutes long. Take some notes from one of the best Hip-Hop cities in the country.

Shouts to 2DopeBoyz on the look.

MidnightFix Exclusive

Here are a few behind the scenes pictures of Vstylez’s upcoming video for “Clash of the Titans”, featuring heavyweights Royce Da 5′9″, Elzhi, Phat Kat and Rapper Big Pooh.

Hit the jump for more exclusive pictures.

Phat Kat and Big Pooh’s scenes haven’t been shot yet, but MidnightFix will keep you posted.

Download “Clash of the Titans”
Support and get the song at the iTunes Store

I know I’ve been doing a bunch of music posts lately, but hey… I don’t work in the ‘industry’ anymore so I’m not super current on the fashion game, I can’t afford to re-up my manga collection, and I’m not quite the educated art cat that 85/ is… but I do have the internet, and I definitely download the hell out of my bandwidth. I’ve been a fan of Detroit hip hop for a long, long time.. and I’m not talking about Eminem or ICP. Back in high school it was all about Slum Village for cooling out, and Dwele for (attempted) smooth times with the ladies, all done over those signature J Dilla beats . Lately I’ve been listening to tons of grimy rap again, from UGK to Westside Connection to Killa Cam, but it’s the current Detroit MC’s that have been getting heavy rotation. I especially feel Guilty Simpson’s flow, it’s got that underground feel with a rob-and-steal vibe to it, with just enough mainstream swagger for summer days. I also really enjoy Phat Kat, who’s flow is similar to Simpson’s in many ways, I guess it’s that new-school Detroit hood vibe. Anyway, these two songs bang out, and are good for keeping me in gully mode, riding my bike fast while headknocking.

Guilty Simpson – The Future (ft. M.E.D.)

Phat Kat – Nightmare (ft. Guilty Simpson)

84/

Mehr als drei Jahre ist es mittlerweile schon her, dass Produzent J Dilla an den Folgen der Autoimmunkrankheit Lupus im Alter von nur 32 Jahren verstorben ist. Dennoch scheint die Kette an Hommagen und Tributes längst nicht abzureißen. Mit Jay Stay Paid hat Dillas großes Vorbild Pete Rock eine 28-Titel starke Kollektion unveröffentlichter Dilla-Beats zusammengemixt, die nun posthum als offizielles viertes Album des Soundvirtuosen aus Motown erschienen ist. Jetzt stellt sich natürlich die große Frage, ob James Dewitt Yancey diese Produktionen überhaupt für vollendet hielt und für die Ohren der Öffentlichkeit vorgesehen hatte. Diesen Umstand hat Pete Rock allerdings mit der wohlwollenden Zustimmung von Ma Dukes (Dillas Mutter) und einem geschickten Kunstgriff optimal gelöst. Jay Stay Paid ist nämlich im Stile einer Radioshow arrangiert. Neben dem überwiegenden Teil instrumentaler Klangkörper aus dem dilla’schen Keller, die gerade durch ihre teils ungeschliffenen Ecken und Kanten überzeugen, gibt es nur eine Handvoll gerappter Kontributionen. Diese stammen mit Doom, Phat Kat, Raekwon und Black Thought von The Roots auch alle aus dem direkten Umfeld der Detroiter Beat-Koryphäe und schmiegen sich deshalb passgenau auf den unvergleichlichen Dilla-Sound. Programmdirektor Pete Rock leitet auf seiner einstündigen DillaFM-Show durch einen Querschnitt aus acht Jahren Arbeit an der MPC, die definitiv einiges zu bieten hat. Tatsächlich sind viele der Produktionen unbekannt und nur ein paar wenige auf Dillas raren Beat-Tapes verbreitet. Unter anderem meldet sich neben DJ Premier auch noch J Dillas kleiner Bruder Illa J zu Wort, der sich musikalisch bemüht allmählich in die übergroßen Fußstapfen seines Bruders zu treten. Die hörenswerte Zusammenstellung Jay Stay Paid ist für alle Dilla-Fans obligatorisch, auch alle anderen Rap-Sympathisanten sollten mit dem organisch-erdigen Sounderlebnis zu beglücken sein.

Andreas Margara (26. Juni 2009)

Album: Fan-Tas-Tic, Vol. 1
Year: 1996
Quality: VBR V0

Not much to say but…

In the new video game, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, The Alchemist has an instrumental channel in the games radio feature. Taking it a step further, Al recruited Ohno, Phat Kat, MidaZ the Beast, Royce 59, Sean Price, Medafor, Roc C, Chino XL, Marvwon, Guilty Simpson and Evidence to add their vocals to it.

Download: Chinatown Wars (Gangrene Mix) – Alchemist

In the new video game, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, The Alchemist has an instrumental channel in the games radio feature. Taking it a step further, Al recruited Ohno, Phat Kat, MidaZ the Beast, Royce 59, Sean Price, Medafor, Roc C, Chino XL, Marvwon, Guilty Simpson and Evidence to add their vocals to it.

- via RR & Evidence

DOWNLOAD: Evidence – Chinatown Wars Gangrene Mix | Instrumental

Alchemist feat. OhNo, Phat Kat, MidaZ, Royce Da 5′9″, Sean Price, Medafor, Roc C, Chino XL, MarvWon, Guilty Simpson & Evidence – Chinatown Wars (Gangrene Mix) - Click To Listen

CRAZY!!! Got some spitters on this shit… Alchemist is a genius!

REMIX FEATURING

Evidence , Royce Da 5′9, Sean Price, Ohno, Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Medafor, Chino XL, Marvwon, MidaZ The Beast & Roc C

10MINUTES!!!!!…

DOWNLOAD

I always thought Charles Hamilton could rhyme, even if his fascination with Sonic the Hedgehog was kind of corny and childish.  I just figured that sometimes (in fact, probably more often than not), very clownish people are blessed with above-average skills.  If he were an artist during the ’90s, we probably would never know how wack of a person he is.  But in the present, we know all about him jacking beats from Myspace pages, getting smacked in the mouth by a girl, and now, trying to fuck with J Dilla’s legacy.

Last Friday, he posted the cover to his upcoming album on his blog, and listed the Executive Producers as Charles Hamilton and James Yancey aka J Dilla.  Strange on it’s own, but he included the following explanation in his shoutouts:

I also wanna thank James Yancey for his guidance in putting this album together. Sound wise, I couldn’t be happier. Again, the album was mastered reel-to-reel/digital-to-digital, and I couldn’t have done the entire process without him being a total jerk about me getting that EXTRA vinyl-ish sound. Thanks Dilla.

Nah seriously. He helped master the album.

You’d think somebody would have made a much bigger deal about this if it were true.  Feeling the heat/hate from bloggers, he contacted some of them personally.  In a phone interview with Sweeney from Rappers I Know, he claims to know Ma Dukes, Dilla’s mom, his daughter, and Phat Kat. He was also allegedly present at the Jay $tay Paid mastering sessions.  To top it off, he claimed  that the “proceeds from my album are going towards the J Dilla Music Foundation.”

It turns out that the J Dilla Music Foundation doesn’t exist.  If he were donating the proceeds from his album to Ma Dukes, it would be easier to let this slide, but his album is FREE.  And straight from Twitter, Ma Dukes confirms that Phat Kat and Illa J don’t know who he is:

Detroit “Hip-Hop Ambassador” House Shoes also chimes in and airs this fool out in the following video:

Ether.  Seriously, I learned when I was 5 years old that lying to get out of a lie comes back to bite you in the ass.  Charles Hamilton isn’t a fan or a stan.  He’s just the most delusional and morally corrupt individual in Hip-Hop.  I’m taking a page out of the Rap Radar book and banning this idiot from Zebra is Food.  Peace, sucka.

Structured in a fashion similar to his Ruff Draft or Donuts — segues rounded off with pitch-bent synths, sirens, and drops a la late night radio (with actual on-air bits peppering the album) — Jay Stay Paid is a colorful collection of beats from J Dilla, mostly left untouched to stew in their glorious instrumental origins. In 28 tracks mixed and arranged by Pete Rock (and executive produced by Yancey’s mother), Jay Stay Paid is striking, sample-heavy hip hop, the kind we’ve come to expect from the prolific, long under-appreciated artist.

James “J Dilla/Jay Dee” Yancey passed away three years ago of complications from a blood disease and lupus, an illness in which one’s immune system attacks the body’s healthy tissue. He made an unforgettable mark in both popular and independent music circles, holding down a sometimes uncredited main producer role for a number of acts that readers here are familiar with, while pouring his life’s work into records that a lot of folks haven’t heard, but should (Jaylib, Slum Village, the Donuts LP).

I had planned on interviewing Dilla for Chord Magazine just months before his Donuts saw release in early 2006. Our talk never materialized because he was sick; I regret that the piece I eventually filed with my editor was a tribute. By the time stores got a hold of Donuts, a landmark ode to classic soul dealt in a seamless blend of chopped and enhanced 45s samples (I wrote about it for Orlando Weekly, 2/2/06 issue), J Dilla had just three days to live.

The sentiments expressed with regard to Dilla’s work ethic, talent, and overall demeanor are identical — I spoke with Detroit’s Phat Kat, Guilty Simpson, and Black Milk about the multi-faceted artist for an Orlando Weekly/Detroit Metro Times story in 2007. They’d all professed primarily the same deep admiration for the work that Dilla had done, and for the doors he’d opened for Detroit musicians.

Phat Kat contributed a verse on “Digi Dirt,” one of the shorter Jay Stay Paid tracks. It’s head-spinning: each of the emcee’s adjourning syllables lands in the same vicinity, and Dilla’s tapestry of both taut and swelling string samples don’t help much in slowing down the ride. “Reality TV” features a devastating appearance from the Roots’ Black Thought, who aptly curls his quick wordsmithing around the names of dozens of reality TV programs, perhaps in the vein of GZA’s “Labels,” while one of the more urgent Dilla creations serves as the Philadelphia emcee’s launchpad. It’s the best pairup here, but the wordless moments — although it’s tough to get used to their cutthroat brevity — win by a long shot. This is a delirious record, with sometimes hard, slamming drum breaks and blaring synth snippets when the productions aren’t just slow grooves, animated with a fascinating mesh of carefully nicked pieces from a universe of sources. “Milk Money,” “Expensive Whip,” and “King” differ so strongly in makeup that it’s mind boggling that they came from the same place. For the uninitiated, Jay Stay Paid is a good look at the life of a “master appreciator,” someone who’d basically spent years honing his ability to draw attention to the granular particulars of a record — all of the bright, hidden pieces that too often go criminally unheard. But don’t stop with this one; there’s a whole catalog to discover.

“I don’t really listen to too much music,” Stones Throw emcee MED told me in the run-up to the release of his 2005 Push Comes to Shove LP. “I usually just listen to beat CDs, like Madlib’s, J Dilla’s, Oh No’s, and Kankick’s. [And] of course, Doom and everybody that I’m down with. They’re always my favorites. That’s all I really listen to are people I’m doing stuff with, like Doom, Jay, Madlib, and all them.”

• Visit OkayPlayer to download the Beat Junkies’ megamix of Jay Stay Paid.
• Download a mix of MED tracks at Stones Throw.
• Maureen Yancey recently shared memories of her son with eMusic. Read here.
• Vibe put together a story on Dilla’s legacy for their January issue. Read that one here.
• Read Prefix’s apt tribute piece, featuring remarks from a multitude of Dilla’s friends and admirers.

Marking the 4th Birthday of London’s No.1 Hip-Hop promotion Doctors Orders have an incredible line up of talent from the UK & US via Russia.

Representing Detroit we have Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat & Big Tone all performing live. All are phenomenal lyricists that were put on the map my the beat making genius J-Dilla and have gone on to wow audiences around the world with both thier records and live shows. They are joined in room 1 by the host with the most Spin Doctor.

In Room 2 we have an old favorite of The Doctor’s Orders returning once again in the shape of DJ Vadim. He is joined by the latest name on everyone’s lips, Paul White, who’s debut album “Strange Dreams” is already making waves although only being released this week.

9pm-3am Friday 3rd July 2009 @ Herbal, 10-14 Kingsland Rd, London E2

With a lineup like that, how can I not post this!!! Moss on the production!

DOWNLOAD: V-Stylez feat. Royce Da 5′9″, Rapper Big Pooh, Elzhi & Phat Kat – Clash Of The Titans