In The Quotes: Rare Form, "Donuts Are Forever" J Dilla Tribute Party

Line wrapped around the block mad early. Heads packed inside mad late. All celebrating Hip Hop in all of it’s cross-cultural goodness, sweating it out to James “J Dilla” Yancey’s illimitable hymns.

Standing on Santos Party House’s second floor balcony, gazing over a sea of Dilla devotees, grooving, moving to “So Far To Go” then erupting over the next triumphant anthem booming through the night club...well, it’s damn-near a spiritual experience.

For the past 5 year’s, Rare Form’s “Donuts Are Forever” J Dilla tribute party is one of a few “can’t miss” events in NYC Hip Hop. Luminaries in several of the city’s vibrant scenes come together to pay tribute to the iconic catalog of the under-known icon. Before succumbing to complications from Lupus in 2006, Dilla worked with everyone from Dwele to Q-Tip to Guilty Simpson to Madlib to Eyrkah Badu to Busta Rhymes to Janet Jackson, crafting an uncanny array of progressive, seemingly time-altering tunes that travel straight from the speakers and directly to the soul. Rich Medina and DJ Spinna (along with DJ Parler, Op!, Sam Champ, DJ Chela and DJ Tara) conducted the opus. The rest of us swayed like Avatars, unified in celebration.

It’s difficult to place the right words together to accurately describe the impact Dilla’s music has had on millions worldwide.

It’s difficult to place the right words together to describe the vibe of “Donuts Are Forever”.

It's futile. So we stopped trying.

Instead, BrooklynBodega.com spoke to a few of those in attendance at DAF last Saturday night and asked them to express their thoughts on James “J Dilla” Yancey and “Donuts Are Forever”. The artist. The legacy. The celebration.

The following are their responses, taken individually, chopped like a Jay Dee sample. Happy birthday, Dilla. May you rest in eternal peace.

Von Pea, Emcee, Tanya Morgan, 5 DAFs: “I love “Donuts Are Forever” because, for me, I’ve been coming before the doors open every year. This is like a family reunion. I know most of the cats from this party, if I didn’t know them already. So this is like a reunion for me. One of the many I have every year. I love this shit, yo. For real.”

Dee Phunk, Partner, Rare Form, 5 DAFs: “This is about 3 or 4 months every year out of our lives to plan this out -- picking DJs, figuring out where we want to do it. It’s a big deal. The whole payoff is around midnight/12:30AM when the place is packed, everybody’s rocking to the music. I love it. That’s like the money shot of the whole thing.”

Liz Allen, Photographer, 4 DAFs: “The first show I went to was the second one at Southpaw, the third one was at Public Assembly. Last year was at The Bell House and this year is at Santos. So every year it’s bigger and better. Bigger and better. Dilla’s music touched people from all types of cultures, different parts of the world, different parts of the country. I have people here that I see every year that travel from Connecticut, from DMV [Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia], from everywhere. It doesn’t even matter. And I definitely feel that Dilla’s music touched anybody and everybody -- all over the world.”

Neil MacLean, Six Five Design Group, T-shirt designer, 1 DAF: “I’m honored to be a part of it. I’m happy to be here with these guys. People come from out of town. I’ve been wanting to come. I just moved here from DC. I’ve been wanting to come in the past and friends came up from DC and everywhere. [When designing the T-shirts] I just wanted to get a little of the classic, timelessness of Dilla and the Donuts concept. I finally made it. I know it’s going to be a crazy night. The vibe is good.”

Von Pea, Emcee, Tanya Morgan, 5 DAFs: “No matter what’s going on -- it ain’t no Top 40 shit -- this is for us. Not to sound like it’s a cult or nothing but this is where you come and you know everybody is in love with the music that’s being played. That’s my favorite part, man.

Daru Jones, Drummer, 1 DAF: “This is actually the first time I was able to make it to [“Donuts Are Forever”]. It’s about the energy that he puts into the music. You can definitely feel the love. It’s hard to explain but it’s great energy.

Dana Bartle, Brooklyn Bowl/J Dilla Foundation, 5 DAFs: “I think what makes this event awesome is that it’s sort of grassroots like Dilla would like. A lot of events that I go to, you know, it’s all about the promoter getting credit. Dilla would hate that. That’s not what it’s about. And if you’ve ever spent any time with these guys in Detroit, that’s really what it’s about. Everybody dancing together and having fun.”

J Monopoly, OISD (emcee/producer), 1 DAFs: “It‘s sad to say that [Dilla] never got the props he deserved until after he passed. He’s a universal God, for real. He had more appeal all over the world during his lifetime than he did in the US so it’s crazy. It’s definitely a beautiful thing to see people come together in memory of J Dilla.”

Dee Phunk, Partner, Rare Form, 5 DAFs: “I think it has a lot to do with his music. His music has a certain feeling to it, whether it was Hip Hop, soul, R&B. His music had a feeling to it and I think that a lot of people -- very different people -- all have very similar souls, very similar vibes about them and you’ll see it in people’s faces here tonight. You could tell that they have a certain aesthetic they go for in music. Everybody in here has great taste in music. If you came to [this] party, you know your stuff.”



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Images by Maine.Photog. Follow Maine.Photog on Twitter @AudacityOfStyle

"MORE BEATS" featuring ScienZe, Top $ Raz, and Richdaname

"MORE BEATS" featuring ScienZe, Top $ Raz, and Richdaname. One of the iller Dilla remixes I've heard...



DOWNLOAD HERE

"MORE BEATS" is part of the Ode To Dilla, Jay Dee tribute album. DOWNLOAD IT HERE

While we're on topic, here's a cool interview with ScienZe by Adam Bernard over at Adam's World.

The Quotable Reviews: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...PT. II

“Soldiers in the front. / Let the heat pump!” - “House of Flying Daggers”

From mic to plug, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...PT. II is a masterpiece. 23 tracks. 13 producers. 4 years in the making. The wait was worth it. Lets get that part out of the way.

At 23 tracks in length, OB4CL2 is long. Yet somehow doesn’t feel that way. Its amazingly cohesive, especially considering how many different producers stopped through to drop bombs like Uncle Sam. The primarily crime tale content plays out nearly cinematically. Rae and fam all came spit game tight, vividly depicting all aspects of the drug game - the guns, the grams, the birds, the fiends, the cash, the consequences - all delivered with classic Wu-Tang aggression and vernacular.

OB4CL2 head-bangs in with J. Dilla’s marching drums and subtle sped-up soul sample on “House of Flying Daggers” as Raekwon, Ghost, Deck, and Meth toss the mic back and forth kicking scathing cypher rhymes like its 1995. The vibe turns more soulful on the Pete Rock produced, quintessential Rae crime story “Sonny’s Missing” and continues that way through the nostalgically triumphant “The New Wu.” “Pyrex Vision” finds The Chef “trying to form a rock up and double it” while “Cold Outside” delivers an early image of the dark side of that career path. “Sex, lies, murders, reps / bag the cassettes. / Vets dying on steps. / What’s really taking place in them hoods?”

The Eric Sermon produced, “Baggin Crack” through the sublime album closer “Walk Wit Me” is arguably the best track sequence on OB4CL2. Rae kicks the perfect flow over Alchemist’s gritty drums and trippy keys on “Surgical Gloves.” “Broken Safety” makes you wish Rae, Jada, and Styles would team up for a collabo album. Dilla delivers another soul moving beat on the emotional, Ol‘ Dirty Bastard tribute, “Ason Jones.” Tracks like “Have Mercy” and “Fat Lady Sings” portray the steep consequences of a life in the under world, adding a deeper, realer prospective to the crime rap content. The Dr. Dre produced, Lyfe Jennings assisted “Catalina” is both radio and club ready. Busta Rhymes‘ inspired performance on “About Me” is better than any verse he spit on his B.O.M.B.S. album. And the triumphant “Kiss The Ring” followed by the lyrically ridiculous “Walk Wit Me" wrap the album with an exclamation point.

Honestly what separates OB4CL2 from just about every other album is the extreme level of cohesive, artistic competition throughout. Every beat is doper than the previous at the same time every beat is doper than the next. Icewater and Scram Jones and Allah Justice and Necro brought just as much ruckus as Alchemist and Dilla and Rza and Dre. No one lets up. All did their duty in maintaining the vibe. The same can be said about each rhyming guest appearance’s lyrical performance. Everyone forces you to listen to them...even Cappadonna. The beats are live enough to listen to as background music. The rhymes are tight enough to compel you to run that ish back. The song transitions are near perfect - guiding the listener through a wave of sonic experiences, segued by classic Wu-Tang kung fu movie clips, of course. And most importantly, OB4CL2 improbably upholds if the not competes with the legacy of the original. Nostalgic and progressive. Simultaneously.

When so many different forces change and unite like an Obama campaign, you can’t help but want to know the story behind the creation of the opus. How did something this dope with so many different moving parts come to exist at all? What really went down during those 4 years?

I could nit-pick this album to death, searching for something wack about it. I could harp on minutia like the corny hook on “We Will Rob You” or the fact that after several discussions with my roommate, Maine, I’m still not sure of what’s going down on “Penitentiary.” Or maybe sit perched on my sometimes too high horse and slam the nearly all drug game content (which is rarely compelling these days), ignoring the ample amounts of artistic integrity and lyrical credibility included within.

But I hate to play myself. None of those things is enough to keep this album out of jPod rotation.

The unavoidable downside to OB4CL2 is that the rhymes, at times, are so coded in Wu-isms and 5 Percerter terminology that its difficult for the unfamiliar ear to decipher; to grasp what’s being said; to pick up what’s being put down.

But thats The Chef. Either you like it or your don’t. Either you ride or you walk.

The Company Man can’t fault anyone for being true to who they are. And OB4CL2 represents the best of who Raekwon is - one of the illest crime-storytellers of all time. Hip Hop’s Scorsese.[1] So salute, and toast to the best who done it. Its murder rap shit spit for the vets who love it.”

Rating: QQQQ.5

[1] True Story: My boy Yahnick showed up ticketless to Rae's sold-out album release party last week, hustled his way into the show for free, slithered his way past two different bouncers at two different checkpoints, and quickly swagged his way into Rae's inner circle. By the time we accepted our denial at bouncer #2 (shouts to Raven The Blazin Eurasian at Da Listening Session. Dope underground Hip Hop radio at its finest) and sprinted outside to intersect Rae before his Maybach escape from S.O.B.s back garage, Yahnick was fresh off an invite to roll with Rae to the after hours spot and dapping him up in the middle of The-Quotable's interview. It was there that he coined the phrase "Hip Hop Scorsese." Rae loved it. Props to TRL Management. Now thats relationship building.

The Quotable Reviews: The Renaissance

"And its up to me to bring back the hope / and feeling in the music that you can quote" - Q-Tip; "Johnny Is Dead"

Nearly a decade has passed since the the masses have sunk into a new, full-length Lp from the-artist-also-known-as Q-Tip.

And its not his fault entirely.

Three-years after the release of his craptastic solo debut, Amplified (uber pop-centered compared to the timeless material released as a member of A Tribe Called Quest), Tip's critically-acclaimed sophomore Lp, Kaamal The Abstract (2002), was shelved by Arista Records due to a feared lack of commercial appeal. Since then, Q-Tip has left Arista, guest-appeared on cuts by everyone from Jay-Z to R.E.M., toured internationally with newly-reunited A Tribe Called Quest, signed with Motown/Universal Records, hinted at forming a group with Common (The Standard), and still found the time to craft his third solo album, The Renaissance.

A busy man to say the least.

Its been a minute since Q-Tip's surfaced from the lab with new product for heads to O-D on. Much has happened in the world. Much has happened in his world. Whats on his mind? Whats in his ear? What does he have to say?

Come along and ride with us, as The Quotable Reviews: The Renaissance.

"So get it in your head / We gon' rock the dead. / Night of the living Emcees. / The weak ones fled." - Q-Tip; "Move"

From the onset of The Renaissance, Q-Tip, A.K.A. Kamaal The Abstract, makes it crystal that he's back, and returned with an evolved soundscape. Over the funky strings and light snare of "Johnny Is Dead", Kamaal reintroduces himself and tells us to "inform a friend / that your boy from the hood / is on that shit again." "Won't Trade" showcases that quintessential Q-Tip flow (slightly nasal, slightly monotone, somehow appealng) and wordplay as he uses hoops analogies to describe his attraction to the ladies and hip hop heads alike, while riding the base strings and sped-up soul sample to perfection. This track also sports one of the albums iller quotables:

"I train for the pressure. / It comes out fresher.
Equiped for the game / you know my name it makes me better.
I cheer for the home team. / Lets go for the whole thing.
The ballots that your holding. / MVP voting.
And I represent the sentiment that your emoting."

Q-Tip slides into relationship mode on the smooth "Gettin' Up", discussing the allure of reuniting with an ex. "Official" is a subdued, head-bobbing, scratch-heavy freestyle track which Tip rips lovely - kicking "percussions our weapons / drums are Smith & Wessons / Lyrics poppin off leaving deep impressions." From there relationship mode resumes with "You" (an ode to the realization that at the end of it all, it wasn't me...it was you), the Raphael Saadiq assisted "WeFight/WeLove" (where the two opine on loves ups and downs), and the funky, snare driven "ManWomanBoogie" (a musical metaphor for the spiritual connection between women and men).

The album's apex arrives with the J Dilla produced "Move." Clearly the Lp's standout cut. Tip spits cypher rhymes over Dilla's impectable drums and Jackson 5 sample ("Dancing Machine"). The beat switches 2 minutes and 49 seconds in as Kaamal reverts to a Rakim-esque delivery while reflecting on his path into rap lore ("And then my legend would grow on the A train line / where brothers would gather to see me, blowin' nicks and dimes"). Yep, clearly the album's standout cut.



"Plus a little bit more because you're choosing the prettiest / The wiliest, wittiest, on the low we the grittiest." - Q-Tip; "Dance On Glass"

The Liu Kang of the Loose Leaf page comments on Hip Hop's morbid state ("Who can make it up? / Dark Age is here in Rap") on "Dance On Glass." Norah Jones guest appears on the sultry "Life Is Better" where Q-Tip delivers the central theme of The Renaissance - "hip hop is here again...and its bangin'" - while giving shout outs to everyone from Kool Herc to Kanye West (excluding Lupe Fiasco. Not suprising after their recent dustup following last year's VH1 Hip Hop Honors). The tempo slows down on bass guitar-heavy, motivational, D'Angelo featured "Believe." "Shaka" is the closest Kaamal gets to bringing back that feeling of A Tribe Called Quest - carrying an early 90s vibe throughout. The Renaissance closes with the upbeat, soulful "Good Thang." Top to bottom, a pretty nice run.

"The formidable, unforgettable painting Abstract" - Q-Tip; Dance On Glass

All in all, The Renaissance feels like...well, a renaissance. Its apparent Q-Tip hasn't lost a lyrical step during his hiatus. The album is diverse, with a complimentary mixture of intropection, common man sensibilities (relationships rather than revelry), and fun freestlye cuts.



Perhaps whats most impressive and simultaneously most unfortunate is that Q-Tip produced nearly the entire album (excluding the ubiquitous "Move") himself. No doubt he's talented behind the boards and the album knocks most of the way through. But the problem with single-producer albums is the potential danger of sounding repetitive. For the most part, Kaamal stays away from the trap, but tracks like "Gettin' Up", "WeFight/We Love", "Official," and "Life Is Better" (although all dope) feel very similar - most noticeable when rocking on random and they happen to follow each other. A petty, pet-pieve of The Company Man. Plus, its been a while since I've listened to an all Q-Tip album, and unfortunately his trademark pitch is slightly less appealing than remembered. Not necessarily Freeway annoying. Just less appealng. Still classic though.

Front to back, The Renaissance is one of the better albums of the past couple years. Its a lean 13 tracks (only 2 verses on most), zero interludes, and maintains a solid lounge feel all the way through. Its the type of album that you'd appreciate more at S.O.B.s than MSG (smaller intimate setting as oppose to a stadium). And its versatile soundscape (you can clean to it, ride to it, enter mack-mode to it) signals the all important replay-value potential. The Renaissance will likely not break any sales records, but its a top-shelf Lp nonetheless. And most importantly for Tip, a more-than-worthy return. Hip Hop is playin' again...and its bangin'.


Rating: QQQQ.5