The Sample and the Source vol. 3: J Dilla and The Jackson Five

Tonight at Galapagos Art Space a few Stones Throw away from my joint in Greenpoint, a one-of-a-kind event is coming off that, to your luck if you're in New York, was not featured in the Village Voice, which I guess might still give a shot of getting in. That is, if you think a free event hosted by the reemerged Pharoah Monch with a Brooklyn Brewery open bar from 10-11 p.m. and some of the greatest hip-hop ever playing from the speakers has any chance of going under the radar. The event is Donuts Are Forever, a special event to celebrate the life and life's work of J Dilla/ Jay Dee, possibly the greatest hip-hop producer ever.

The amazing instrumental record the event's title references, Donuts, was completed by Dilla as he lay dying, using whatever minimal equipment could be moved into Jay's hospital room; although the beats may be his best ever, they are also simpler insomuch as they are a return to the bread-and-butter of hip-hop production, pure sampling. (Jay's trademark drum productions are nowhere to be found; either they couldn't haul the drum machines in, or he just didn't want to go out like that.) Simple, but beautiful; heartbreaking too, when you know where he was when he made this record, what he knew would be among his last acts of creation before the Creator came for him, much like Matisse's cutouts. I've listened to this record more than anything I've owned since I was 13 and first bought Midnight Marauders, and that record was what actually started me as a serious music listener.

The sample source of "Time: The Donuts Of The Heart" off Donuts is a Jackson Five track, "All I Do Is Think Of You"; it retains the melancholy of the track, but speeds it up in interesting ways, then finds an ill spot to just luxuriate (or perhaps, judging from the female voice in the background, bonestorm). Sure, you lose a performance by Michael of the sort that actually had people convinced he might be straight, and the bassoon touch in "All I Do..." needs to be heard, but I think this is just a great example of just how little a hip-hop producer needs to do sometimes to create a magic minute. The hip-hop producer, after all, is just the cousin of the DJ, and the DJ was born the first time cats like Kool Herc discovered the joy of playing the sweet spot of a record again and again.

The video below is mindblowing as well...a Korean punk rock band covering this very Dilla song. Read that sentence again.

Oh, and then look again at the shirt Jay's wearing at the top of the picture. And tell me where I can buy that.

Head out to Williamsburg if you can, especially since I can't be there. Rest in peace, James Yancey.

J Dilla- "Time: The Donuts Of The Heart"

The Jackson Five- "All I Do Is Think Of You"

"King of Pain" (The Police, Synchronicity)

I'm getting a little tired of Bill Simmons and haven't even watched The Grammies yet, nor am I sure that I will, but there was one line of his running diary of the dumbest show in music that I sort of loved.

"8:01 -- The Police kick things off with their much-ballyhooed reunion, which would have had me 20 times more fired up if this were 1995. I can't believe it took them 23 years to forget how much they hated one another. Most bands only need five or six. Better late than never, I guess."

If you actually care about awards, J Dilla rocked an entirely different awards show, among several other artists. (The list below is significantly edited from the source.)

Album of the Year: Band of Horses - Everything All the Time

Female Artist of the Year: Neko Case

Hip Hop Album of the Year: Spank Rock - Yoyoyoyoyo

DJ Album of the Year: Girl Talk - Night Ripper

Avant Album of the Year: Xiu Xiu - The Air Force

Artist of the Year: J Dilla

Live Act of the Year: Broken Social Scene

Song of the Year: Band of Horses - "The Funeral"

Record Producer of the Year: J Dilla

Music Video of the Year: Wolf Parade - "I'll Believe in Anything"

Album Art/Packaging: Hot Chip - The Warning

Record Label of the Year: Sub Pop

Live Music Venue of the Year: Bowery Ballroom
(J. Drimmer: Really?)

Music Festival of the Year: South by Southwest

Music Blog of the Year: Brooklyn Vegan

Magazine of the Year: Paste

College/Non-Commercial Radio Station of the Year: KEXP

Record Store of the Year: Amoeba Music, Hollywood, CA

Specialty Show of the Year (Commercial Radio): Sirius Left of Center - Blog Radio

Podcast of the Year: WOXY.com Lounge Acts

"Workinonit" (J Dilla/ Jay Dee, Donuts) [RIP, James Yancey]

Thinking of getting back into the studio for some shits and giggles (for those who have asked after it, no, I haven't found a permanent spot to put the Orlean Cooper EP Supervillain v. Petty Thief yet, but three songs are available off the MySpace page), probably with the stuff I've written using the amazing instrumentals of J Dilla's penultimate album as my template/beats. I found this old rhyme in my orange notebook and felt like posting it just for the hell of it. The tarot card deck mentioned is a major plot point in Gambit #1-#5, the comic book where I found/stole the name of my alter ego. The Chappelle's Show reference should be obvious enough. Remember, I didn't write this for me, I wrote it for him.

Here to acquire the inficio aquilus tarot deck
Now, do you take a personal check?
Overdraft at the bank, negative twenty cents
Better make the walls out of weak-ass cement
Like the ugly new Williamsburg architecture
I’d like to pose a conjecture.
Namely, completing the transaction.
Let’s take a cab to Brooklyn, baby and I’ll close your captions.
Always makes the tight-aggressive play
Don’t fuck with seven-deuce, she makes a bad lay
Goes with those who slay with their eyes
And them Suzanne Somers thighs.
She may be connected to Brighton Beach mafia
But what a lovely way to die, worth a try
Get in so hard it makes doves cry
And then she served us pancakes
Youngest brother like Eddie Murphy to Charlie
Can’t control the noise level, it’s a Harley
Quirky, called crazy and lazy, still is
But the younger man took your spot like you was Bruce Willis
Makes for better TV than the Electric Company
Put it in the tape deck, bump it into infinity.

"Music Is My Sanctuary" (Gary Bartz, Music Is My Sanctuary)

When J. Laakso first sent me Mark Prindle's Top 73 challenge, my first thought was...No. No, no, no. I hate making top 5 lists, am happy I sold my four dollar copy of High Fidelity (the movie) yesterday for five bucks, and gave up on music criticism largely because my belief that music taste is ALL subjective within limits. (That is to say, if I like jazz-funk fusion and you don't, that doesn't mean I suck or you suck, but if you have a collection consisting of nothing but what radio told you to listen to, you do, in fact, suck.) Top 100 lists do nothing but sell shitty music magazines and start semi-interesting conversations usually involving the relative values of The Beatles against Revolver that I'm just tired of. There should be no canon of rock, pop, jazz, or any genre, except maybe classical. There shouldn't even be a Western Canon in my view, which is why I didn't apply to Columbia, but that's another issue entirely.

But then I found myself looking at one of my CD racks and thinking, well, that one Thelonious record would definitely be there...

And no matter how I try to deny it, I've gotta put Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen in...

And these five Miles Davis records are all good for their own reasons...

And before I knew it, I had a list of 130 records.

To fit it as a Top 73 list, I arbitrarily removed The Beatles records since everyone loves them, basically, and reduced the list to one record per artist. This is still a flawed list, particularly in that I somehow forgot The Beach Boys and The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle, but when I finished this list, it was 3 a.m., and even now, I feel no need for corrections. This isn't a Top 73, anyway, which is why I refused to rank it. These are just 73 of my all-time favorites. Of the moment. No more, no less. But feel free to tell me how I've blasphemed against your false rock idols anyway.

Ooh, no Led Zeppelin either. I'd put either II or IV as my entry, if you care.

madvillain- madvillainy
miles davis- in a silent way
gang starr- moment of truth
dexter gordon- go
bobby hutcherson- montara
public enemy- it takes a nation of millions to hold us back
joni mitchell- the hissing of summer lawns
parliament- up for the down stroke
funkadelic- standing on the verge of getting it on
kool and the gang- light of worlds
krs-one- return of the boom bap
ultramagnetic mcs- critical beatdown
j dilla- donuts
organized konfusion- stress (the extinction agenda)
luna- romantica
the o'jays- back stabbers
roy ayers ubiquity- everybody loves the sunshine
talking heads- fear of music
todd rundgren- a wizard, a true star
jimi hendrix- axis: bold as love
kmd- black bastards
nas- illmatic
beastie boys- paul's boutique
a tribe called quest - midnight marauders
the roots- illadelph half life
wu-tang clan- enter the wu-tang (36 chambers)
curtis mayfield- superfly (OST)
common- like water for chocolate
de la soul- de la soul is dead
outkast- ATLiens
the delfonics- the delfonics
bob marley and the wailers- catch a fire
stevie wonder- songs in the key of life
thelonious monk- monk solo
michael jackson- off the wall
prince- purple rain (OST)
pavement- slanted and enchanted
elvis costello and the attractions- get happy!!!
sly and the family stone- there's a riot goin' on
neil young- after the gold rush
ben folds five- whatever and ever amen
ida- will you find me
james brown- live at the apollo vol. 2.
eric b. and rakim- let the rhythm hit em
the isley brothers- 3 + 3
steely dan- katy lied
war- the world is a ghetto
digital underground- sex packets
the velvet underground- loaded
fleetwood mac- fleetwood mac
tyrone davis- turn back the hands of time
otis redding- the dock of the bay
slum village- fantastic vol. 2
the pharcyde- labcabincalifornia
al green- call me
bill withers- still bill
chi-lites (for god's sake) give more power to the people
eddie kendricks- my people...hold on
dr. octagon- dr. octagoncolygst
radiohead- ok computer
U2- war
the clash- london calling
marvin gaye- here, my dear
the soft boys- underwater moonlight
tom waits- bone machine
the pixies- doolittle
the avalanches- since I left you
the cure- disintegration
the jam- all mod cons
the delfonics- the delfonics
mccoy tyner- the real mccoy
eric dolphy- out to lunch
earth wind and fire- earth wind and fire

"Workinonit" (J Dilla, from the LP Donuts)

People, there won't be any posts on the bliggity-blog until friggidy-friday, so don't aagidy-ask me about it no more for now.

(Man, I should stop this rediscovery of Das EFX thing as soon as possible. It's clearly iggidy-infiltrating...damn it, there we go again.)

One positive here though is I decided to make more music posts, including one right here- just click the title. It's not "Workinonit" itself, but Donuts being an album anyone with even a cursory interest in hip-hop could really enjoy, I decided instead to repost a demo of Black Thought of the Roots and Dice Raw working over this very instrumental. I still prefer listening to the beat on its own, but this track is surprisingly effective.

Rest in peace, James Yancey.