De La Soul - Dilla Plugged In

J Dilla – Diamonds (The Shining Pt. 1)

DJ SPINNA – LITTLE BROTHER

James Yancy - Sound Suite Vol 2

Tracks / Slum Village – Fall in Love / Slum VIllage – Climax (Girl Shit) / J-88 – Things You Do / Slum Village – Look of Love (Remix) / Common – Come Close (Remix) / Slum Village – Untitled/Fantastic / Busta Rhymes – Enjoy Da Ride / Jay Dee – Shake it Down / Busta Rhymes – Show Me What You Got / Frank-n-Dank – Okay / Busta Rhymes – Genesis / Que D – Kilo / Slum Village – The Hustle / Q-Tip – Things U Do / ATCQ – Busta’s Lament / Pharcyde – Y? / Slum Village – Eyes Up / Busta Rhymes – Turn Me Up Some / Slum Village – Hoc N Pocky / Slum Village – Go Ladies / Erykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know / Slum Village – Are You Ready / Da Enna C – Now / Faith Evans – You Used to Love Me (Jay Dee Remix) / Common – Thelonious / Slum Village – 2U 4U / Common – Nag Champa / Slum Village – Players / ATCQ – Find a Way / Das Efx – Microphone Master (Jay Dee Remix) / Slum Village – Estimate / Slum Village – Pregnant / Slum Village – Fantastic / Phat Kat – Don’t Nobody Care About Us / J Dilla – Won’t Do / Busta Rhymes – Woo Hah!! (Jay Dee Bounce Remix) / Slum Village – The Look of Love (Pt. 1) / Jay Dee – Pause / Jamiroquai – Black Capricorn Day (Jay Dee Remix) / Jay Dee & Flying Lotus – Fall N Love (Tribute)
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A Great Way to Start the Weekend

Since EOP posted some of his Jay Dee joints last week, here's mine.

J. Dilla – Still Shining Documentary Trailer

Got 'Til It's Gone: The Legacy of J Dilla

This is a wonderful write up on Dilla posted by Pitchfork


Photo by Roger Erickson

One of the most omnipresent producers of 2009 was a man who had passed away in 2006. Starting in January, when Massachusetts underground favorite Termanology released his free mixtape If Heaven Was a Mile Away (A Tribute to J Dilla), 2009 was riddled with reissues, compilations, and homages to the work of James Yancey, aka J Dilla. Three of the most lauded East Coast hip-hop albums of the year-- DOOM's Born Like This, Mos Def's The Ecstatic, and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Vol. 2-- drew from Dilla's catalog. Three volumes of the Dillanthology series-- an attempt to open entry points into the man's vast, still-growing production portfolio-- were released. And Jay Stay Paid, a collection of scraps and outtakes wrangled into a star-studded mixtape, alluded to a deep well of archived work.

And while plenty of rap and R&B artists have absorbed his influence-- from fellow Detroit resident Black Milk's excellent Tronic to Kanye West's production on Common's Finding Forever-- his influence isn't limited to hip-hop and neo-soul. Flying Lotus picked up on elements of Dilla's style for his 2006 debut album 1983-- underwater basslines, stripped-down snare-tap percussion, bristling synths, textural hiss-- and has been boldly mutating them into a new strain of b-boy IDM ever since, culminating with this year's expansive Cosmogramma. He's at the vanguard, but he's not alone; artists on L.A. labels like Brainfeeder, Alpha Pup, and Proximal Records have hit creative paydirt by siphoning Dilla's ear for rhythmic suppleness through electro, dubstep, and ambient funk. The future of underground hip-hop is starting to sound a lot like the heavier, more blown-out moments of Jay Dee's once-alienating circa-2002 psychedelic experimentation, manifested through analog-pulse interpreters like Alex B and E.SupeR. And for all the jokes about 1980s nostalgia and bro-ishness that've been pinned on chillwave, some of its best practitioners-- Javelin, Washed Out, Toro Y Moi-- bear the distinct imprint of Dilla's latter-era productions, drawing off the truncated loop-warping of Donuts to craft their own emotionally evocative interpretations of lo-fi, sample-based indie pop.

This inevitably brings us to a skeptical question: Why Dilla? Yancey's death during a peak period of creativity has led to a lot of attempts to extend a relatively slept-on legacy-- an ironic development for an artist whose most high-profile remixing job was of Janet Jackson's "Got 'Til It's Gone". His story has a lot of indie-lifestyle appeal, too: a fast rise defined more by sonic innovation than personality-cult gimmickry, a rule-breaking stylistic shift that mainstream fans and major labels rejected, and an artistic rebirth with a popular underground label. Compared to Timbaland and the Neptunes, his peers in forward-thinking hip-hop, he was less prominent and less trendy. This semi-outsider prestige was heightened by his tendency to shun the celebrity spotlight. And even with his revered status, there's still plenty of opportunities to oppose conventional wisdom in Dilla's defense, allowing contrarian claims that the last two A Tribe Called Quest albums were underrated or that Common's Electric Circus was ahead of its time.

But those are relatively superficial reasons, at least compared to Dilla's true appeal. His immaculate sense of rhythmic interplay and carefully built atmospherics were what put him in the upper echelon of producers in the late 1990s, and his creative restlessness and experimentation were what kept him there through the 00s. He was never content to wring every last drop out of one of his stylistic phases, opting instead to move on once he felt he'd hit a particular zenith. This left him with a body of work that was a succession of distinct yet naturally progressing phases, exploring and evolving where other great producers were merely content to inch forward or simply maintain. And that's how he managed to be such a distinct influence on so many artists, whether they were traditional hip-hop heads, farsighted futurists, or home-studio 4-track operators.

For the full article and audio, Click HERE
Posted Via Crate Kings

AG & JD - Dunkin Donuts Mixtape

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
Posted Via Droptops and Stacy Lattisaw Tapes

Robert Glasper feat. Zynzelay - Dilla Shine

Robert Glasper is a very talented brother and Zynzelay voice is pure magic over the track. Enjoy

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2pac - Do 4 Love Prod Dilla

I feel force to make this post, there has been so much talk about Dilla around the net this week due to his Birthday. What kills me is the fact I have yet to see anyone acknowledge the track Dilla produced for Tupac. Even in the linear notes Dilla is note given the proper credit. Im done venting now enjoy the track

Reminisce With M.I.S.S.: J. Dilla

This is a really dope post I found over at Chief of Affections CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Posted Via Chief of Affections

Jaylib vs. J Rocc

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Jaylib Vs. J Rocc (MP3) LINK FIXED
29 mins., mixed by J Rocc

The year was 2003. J Dilla and Madlib had just wrapped up their album Champion Sound, recording as Jaylib, with Dilla then still in Detroit and Madlib doing all his work from his bomb shelter studio in Los Angeles. J Rocc - who would later become the third member of Jaylib, on the turntables for each of the shows the guys did together - put together this mixtape of Dilla, Madlib and Jaylib songs, as well as some of their sources, essentially telling the story of this group.

We had some promo copies of this CD floating around for a while that year, then took the Jaylib section and pressed it on a 45, which was released as the bonus 45 with Champion Sound. Both the CD and 45 are long out of stock.

The photos were taken by B+ of Madlib in his studio in L.A. and Dilla in his in Detroit, and also came up with the concept for this packaging: a cutout photo sleeve with a second sleeve inside, juxtaposing the photos of Madlib and Dilla.

Posted Via Stones Throw

. Dilla "Jay Stay Paid" Due June 2nd; Featuring Doom, Black Thought, M.O.P., Raekwon, Mobb Deep, & More

By now most everyone is familiar with the story of musical legend J Dilla. The quiet, prolific producer collaborated with everyone from Eryka Badu to Common to Janet Jackson to Prince. Dilla was just beginning to capitalize on his cult status when he sadly passed at age 32 due to Lupus-related complications. Jay Stay Paid is a 28 track collection of unreleased Dilla beats mixed and arranged by Pete Rock. While mostly instrumental, "J$P" also offers a few guests vocals from artists that Dilla worked with or admired including Black Thought of The Roots, MF DOOM, Havoc of Mobb Deep, M.O.P. , Raekwon and more.

Curtailing any notion of jumping on some sort of Dilla bangwagon, Jay Stay Paid was executive produced by Dilla's mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes) along with the musical supervision of Dilla's only real musical idol, Pete Rock. "It wasn't rushed and it wasn't haphazard," explains Ms Yancey. "This album combines what he did in the beginning of his career, what he did in some of our early hospital stays, which was very deep, and some stuff pulled from old floppy disks & DATs. Its mind blowing...this is like the missing links to Dilla's legacy."

The format of the album plays like a radio show with Pete Rock as the program director. With regards to Pete's involvement, Ms. Yancey gets very excited, "Dilla wanted to pattern himself behind Pete. His dream was to become as close as possible to what Pete stood for. Pete meant everything to him. Dilla would have just been flabbergasted! " Pete's sentiments were the same toward Dilla, "Dude was amazing. He just kinda came outta nowhere and the more you heard his beats the better they got. He may not be here with us, but it's all good we're going to keep his music alive and well."

In the late 80s, Dilla founded the seminal rap group Slum Village and put Detroit hip-hop on the map, while the 90's saw him playing a major role in the production team The Ummah with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad doing extensive work on Tribe Called Quest's last two albums. (Press Release)

Tracklisting:

1. KJay FM Dedication
2. King
3. I Told Yall
4. Lazer Gunne Funke
5. In The Night (Owl N Out) – While you slept (I crept)
6. Smoke feat. Blu
7. Blood Sport feat. Lil Fame of M.O.P.
8. caDILLAc
9. Expensive Whip
10. Kaklow (Jump On It)
11. Digi Dirt feat. Phat Kat
12. Dilla Bot Vs. The Hybrid feat. Danny Brown & Constantine
13. Milk Money
14. Spacecowboy Vs. Bobble Head
15. Reality Check feat. Black Thought
16. On Stilts
17. Fire Wood Drumstix feat. DOOM
18. Glamour Sho75 (09)
19. 10,000 Watts
20. 9th Caller
21. Make It Fast Mega Mix (Unadulterated Mix) feat. Diz Gibran
22. 24K Rap feat. Havoc of Mobb Deep & Raekwon
23. Big City
24. Pay Day feat. Frank Nitty of Frank n’ Dank
25. See That Boy Fly feat. Illa J & Cue D
26. Coming Back
27. Mythsysizer
28. KJay and We Out





Originally posted on www.hiphopsite.com

Suite For Ma Dukes (VIDEO) ****MUST SEE****

I saw this video and Im just speechless, like beyond belief, people who know me KNOW I ALWAYS have something to say


Suite For Ma Dukes - Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and a 40 piece orchestra Live @ The Luckman



There was magic brewing on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles ton February 22nd the kind that puts a love spell on everyone who walks into its path. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and his 40-piece orchestra managed to set the entire Luckman Fine Arts Plaza afloat on Sunday night with Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes, their gorgeous re-imagining of J Dillas best known works. Surprise guests filtered in throughout the night, including Common, Talib Kweli andPosdnuous from De la Soul. Dillas inspiring mother was a beacon throughout the performance, small in stature but mighty in spirit.

If you listen closely to the music, the possibilities are endless
Ma Dukes (February 22nd, 2009.)

The energy onstage was infectious, and the audience was just as emotionally invested in the performance as the musicians. One could feel the grand swoops and shimmering intricacies of the music just by the motion of Atwood-Fergusons hands. When Dwele came out to do Angel, he had to stand back in awe for several moments to take in the beauty of what he was about to sing over.

In true Dilla fashion, one classic begets another, and we got to see that progression take place right before our eyes.Diana Moreira led us through the bossa nova lilt of Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfas Saudade Vem Correndo,containing the famous hook Dilla sampled into the Pharcydes Runnin. Minutes later, the orchestra changed tempo and transformed the bossa nova mood into Dillas inspired jam with vocal contributions by Amp Fiddler, Bilal andShafiq Husayn of Sa-Ra. Bilal then sang Reminesce and brought the crowd to the verge of rapture.

The night rounded out when Posdnuous surprised everyone and did his verse of De la Souls Stakes is High, and then brought on Talib Kweli to do Doves verse. The chorus which included OhNo, Alchemist, Illa J, Frank Nitty, Rhettmatic, Ma Dukes, J Davey, Houseshoes sang out the refrainLove, Vibration - eventually turning the mic over to the audience to sing along. An encore of Slum Villages Fall in Love left everyone with the sweet high that only falling in love can bring about.

People will be talking about this majestic performance for years and blessed are the ones who were able to see it bloom firsthand.

New Dilla Dropping June 2nd

Executive produced by Dilla’s mother, Ms. Yancey AKA “Madukes” on Nature Sounds June 2nd 2009!!

By now most everyone is familiar with the story of musical legend J Dilla. The quiet, prolific producer collaborated with everyone from Eryka Badu to Common to Janet Jackson to Prince. Dilla was just beginning to capitalize on his cult status when he sadly passed at age 32 due to Lupus-related complications. Jay Stay Paid is a 25 track collection of unreleased Dilla beats mixed and arranged by Pete Rock. While mostly instrumental, "J$P" also offers a few guests vocals from artists that Dilla worked with or admired including Black Thought of The Roots, MF DOOM, (Havoc of Mobb Deep), (Pharoahe Monch) , (Blu), (Pacific Division) M.O.P. , and more.



Curtailing any notion of jumping on some sort of Dilla bangwagon, Jay Stay Paid was executive produced by Dilla's mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes) along with the musical supervision of Dilla's only real musical idol, Pete Rock. "It wasn't rushed and it wasn't haphazard," explains Ms Yancey. "This album combines what he did in the beginning of his career, what he did in some of our early hospital stays, which was very deep, and some stuff pulled from old floppy disks & DATs. Its mind blowing...this is like the missing links to Dilla's legacy."

The format of the album plays like a radio show with Pete Rock as the program director. With regards to Pete's involvement, Ms. Yancey gets very excited, "Dilla wanted to pattern himself behind Pete. His dream was to become as close as possible to what Pete stood for. Pete meant everything to him. Dilla would have just been flabbergasted! " Pete's sentiments were the same toward Dilla, "Dude was amazing. He just kinda came outta nowhere and the more you heard his beats the better they got. He may not be here with us, but it's all good we're going to keep his music alive and well."

In the late 80s, Dilla founded the seminal rap group Slum Village and put Detroit hip-hop on the map, while the 90's saw him playing a major role in the production team The Ummah with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad doing extensive work on Tribe Called Quest's last two albums.


Originally Posted on www.naturesounds.com

RIP DILLA DAWG

J Dilla Month/Happy Birthday Tributes

Dilla a.k.a Jay Dee - My Tribute 2009 from Andy Brown on Vimeo.

Originally posted on Crate Kings

The Battle for J Dilla's Legacy (Vibe Mag.)

I just feel the need to post this, because James Yancey aka Jay Dee played a huge role in my life. From the albums that he produced tracks on and even when he performed. I remember being in high school driving to take the SAT, Common's album Like Water for Chocolate was playing, I remember saying to myself, why am I taking this test I wanna make music. RIP J Dilla



Vibe Magazine, February 2009
www.vibe.com

THREE YEARS AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH, J DILLA'S BEATS AND REPUTATION LOOM EVER LARGER OVER HIP HOP. BUT FOR HIS MOTHER - WHO NURSED THE VISIONARY PRODUCER THROUGH A CHRONIC ILLNESS AND HAS WATCHED HIS ESTATE LANGUISH IN LIMBO - THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES. BY KELLEY LOUISE CARTER

There's nothing Maureen Yancey wouldn't do for her children. But as she sits in the basement studio of her only surviving son's Los Angeles home, she struggles with the one thing she hasn't done since her firstborn, James Dewitt Yancey known in hip hop circles as Jay Dee or J Dilla - three years ago of complications from lupus. She just can't. She didn't do it when the ambulance arrived at the nearby house Dilla shared with. Common, and she didn't when they failed to revive him from cardiac arrest. She couldn't even bring herself to do it when she picked out which baseball cap she'd place by his coffin.

"When he left, I had an awful void," she says calmly. "I didn't grieve like you always think you'd grieve. I always had a joy and the strength to help others to get through it. But..." her voice trails off, hands smoothing down her jeans. "I haven't cried yet."

Still, the memories came flooding back when she flew from Detroit to visit the city where her son was buried at age 32. "I rejoiced in the fact that he wasn't sick anymore," she says, "and that he'd done what he came here to do. I do believe that. His purpose on earth was to come here and give us the music that he had in his heart and soul."



The equipment that surrounds her is Dilla's, the same gear he used to create the deceptively simple, unspeakably beautiful music that solidified his reputation as one of hip hop's greatest. As Busta Rhymes put it in 2007, "He wasn't just a producer, he was the best producer."



Many of her son's friends - Common, Busta, Erykah Badu - still call regularly, and keep her son's music in rotation. Q-Tip's latest single, "Move" (Universal Motown, 2008), was built around a Dilla beat, and her other son John Yancey, a rapper known as Illa J has released the powerful new album, Yancey Boys (Delicious Vinyl, 2008), which was produced by his big brother.

Meanwhile the 60-year-old woman everybody calls Ma Dukes faces health problems of her own, and financial challenges as well. Although numerous memorials and "benefits" were held in his name, the proceeds didn't change his family's life. Dilla left two daughters - Ja'Mya, 7, and Paige, 9 - to provide for, a sizeable IRS bill, and unresolved legal issues surrounding the use of his beats. Ma Dukes says she has never received money from her son's estate and that her plans to establish a foundation in his name were quashed by the executor of his estate. Somehow, she was not reduced to tears even after Dilla's attorney informed her that she had no legal right to use her own son's name or likeness for commercial purposes. Not even to support his family.



IN HIS NATIVE DETROIT, DILLA WAS THE MAN. The soft-spoken beatmaker was a pioneer of the Motor City hip hop landscape that struggled to gain national recognition before Slim Shady put the D on the map in 1999. Though he remains anonymous to the masses, Dilla is considered a demigod by his hardcore fans. His distinctive drum sounds and grimy, organic sound palette revolutionized hip hop production, and echoes of his innovative use of samples can be heard in the work of Just Blaze and Kanye West. "He can do a Primo beat better than Premier. He can do a Dre beat better than Dre, and he can out-rock Pete Rock," says fellow Detroit producer House Shoes. "But none of them could duplicate a Dilla beat. Much respect to those three. They were pioneers. But that's the fucking truth."

Dilla grew up in the Conant Gardens section of Detroit's Eastside surrounded by music. His dad, Beverly Yancey, played piano and upright bass. "My mom and dad had a jazz a cappella group, and they'd sing in the living room for hours and hours," says Illa J, 22. "It was really laid-back and nonchalant. While that was happening, my brother would be downstairs in the basement doing his thing."

By the mid-1990s, Dilla was getting calls from some of the hottest stars of the day. He produced tracks for The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and Q-Tip, with whom he founded the production collective The Ummah. Yet despite these high-profile projects, Dilla shunned the limelight. His love of music eclipsed any concern for dealing with industry politics. "He wasn't antisocial," says Illa J. "He was just quiet. That comes from our dad. A lot of his personality rubbed off on my brother. It was all about the craft for him. He didn't care about all that other stuff."



When Tribe's Beats, Rhymes, and Life (Jive, 1996) was nominated for a Grammy, Tip invited Dilla to the award ceremony. "I was like, 'Yo, this is a good opportunity for you, you should just go.' He was like, 'Hell no, I ain't going. Fuck that!"' recalls Q-Tip, laughing at the memory. "I said, 'You got nominated for a fucking Grammy. You are going to go.' He said, 'I ain't got nothing to wear!' But he went. He was so mad and disgruntled and angry about that. He was much happier doing it his way. That's who he was. He didn't really want to fuck with none of that. And I don't blame him."

DILLA REALIZED SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH HIS HEALTH IN JANUARY OF 2002. He'd just returned from Europe and thought he had a bad flu. Sick to his stomach and complaining of chills, Ma Dukes took him to the emergency room at Bon Secours hospital in suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. His blood platelet count should have been above 150, but it was below 10. Doctors told his mother they were surprised he was still walking around.

He tested positive for lupus, an autoimmune disease that can be fatal. To make matters worse, Detroit doctors diagnosed him with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, aka TTP, a rare disorder that causes blood clots to form in the body's blood vessels.

Despite his degenerating health, Dilla packed up his stuff and moved out to Los Angeles, where he lived with his friend and frequent collaborator Common. He set up a studio and got to work. But very few knew how bad life was for the soft-spoken prodigy. He poured himself into his work, doing his best to forget his health problems. Ma Dukes says there were several close calls. When she left him alone once, Dilla fell down and bumped his head. Because she refused to leave Dilla's side during his last days, she and her husband lost their house. She tried to file for bankruptcy to save the family home but didn't get back to Detroit in time to sign the necessary paperwork. "I wasn't leaving my son," she says."We lost the house. But I wasn't concerned. It didn't bother me at all."



At summer's end, 2005, Dilla found himself in a hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, the same hospital where The Notorious B.I.G. and Eazy-E died. He'd lost the ability to walk and could barely talk. His own body was killing him, and there was little to be done about it.

Sensing that death was coming, he told his mother he needed his equipment in the hospital with him. Ma Dukes asked his friends from the L.A.-based label Stones Throw Records to lug his turntables, mixer, crates of records, MPC, and computer into his room. When his hands were too swollen, Ma Dukes would massage his stiffened fingers so Dilla could work on the tracks, letting his doctors listen to the beats through his headphones.



Sometimes he'd wake Ma Dukes up in the middle of the night, asking her to help move him from his bed to a reclining chair so he could work a bit more comfortably. His only focus was finishing the album. Donuts was released on Stones Throw on February 7, 2006, his 32nd birthday. Dilla died three days later.

"It was crazy to hear all that soul," Illa J says of one haunting track called "Don't Cry." "I got to be in the right mode to listen to it. It's emotional for me. I can feel my brother talking to me through the music."

THREE DAYS AFTER DILLA DIED, HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER, PAIGE, TURNED 6. "That was a low blow," says her mother, Monica Whitlow. "To have to tell my baby that before her birthday was the worst. We didn't get to say goodbye." The 29-year-old, who knew Dilla before his career took off, still lives in Detroit. She emphasizes that their relationship was never about money. "To have him back here, breathing and living, that's worth more than money any day," she says. "But it pisses me off, everything that's going on with this estate. It's ridiculous 'cause it's been three years, and my baby has not seen anything from this estate. Nobody has granted James his final wish."

Although Dilla's will stipulates that all assets be divided among his mother, his two daughters, and his brother, the executor of the estate is his accountant Arty Erk, and as back-up, there's his attorney, Micheline Levine and then his mother. Ma Dukes says she grew so frustrated that communications broke down between her and the executor. Erk explains that payments from the estate were delayed because Dilla has an outstanding tax debt in the "healthy six figures." He says he is negotiating a payment plan with the IRS and that a petition has been filed with the probate court in order to get family allowances paid to Dilla's children.

The other major issue facing the estate is that so many people are using Dilla's beats without permission. Dilla would often create beat CDs and hand them out to friends.



"It's been difficult to police," Erk admits, adding that he's at the tail end of litigation with Busta Rhymes. "An album was released by Busta on the Internet called Dillagence without authorization," Levine explains. "And, of course, we're now unable to use those tracks and exploit those downloads. Everybody downloaded it for free." Attempts to reach out to Busta were not returned.

Ma Dukes counters that Busta paid Dilla for those tracks years ago. "He got a raw deal," she says. "Busta didn't take anything from anybody." Ma Dukes says she feels bad that her son's friend had to go through such rough treatment by his estate.

The same scenario has played out several times since Dilla's death. The estate has settled "four or five" similar cases, negotiating what they believe is fair market value for the beats. "A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork with things that he did for them," says Erk, who took out an ad in Billboard magazine in April 2008, notifying people to stop using Dilla's material. The estate also sent out cease-and-desist letters to various entertainers as well as people throwing events in Dilla's name-including his own mother, she says. "Her dream was to open a camp where kids with lupus could have normal lives," says Joy Yoon, an L.A. journalist who interviewed Ma Dukes shortly after her son's death and later offered to help her raise funds for what was to be called the J Dilla Foundation. "But then she said she was put on hold by the lawyers."

Ma Dukes insists she will go on with her plans for the foundation, establishing it in her own name. "It's been over two years, and they're talking the same crap," she says. "I don't have a Ph.D., but I know how to use a phone and talk to somebody and make arrangements. It's just not an excuse. They have no respect for the fact that I had anything to do with bringing him into this world."

Meanwhile, she has voiced concerns about Dilla's will itself, which he signed on September 8, 2005, nearly six months before his death. "I don't even know if he really knew what he was signing," she says. "I don't think he would have signed anything if he'd known it would be like this now." She has hired an attorney who is also representing her son and Paige's mother, Monica Whitlow, who says that legal action is "in the works."

"His estate is fucked up," Q-Tip says. "I know the lawyers are saying that he had certain tax issues and all that stuff. But you were getting paid to represent him when he was alive, so it shouldn't be any of that. Ma Dukes ain't getting nothing, and the kids ain't getting nothing. It's a horrible thing."



During the last year of her son's life, Maureen Yancey tested positive for lupus. She says she's not worried about dying and has accepted the fact that she and her husband must now live in a rental property in a neighborhood she describes as "a war-torn zone." What keeps her up at night is her grand children. "I just want the girls to be taken care of," she says. "That's all."

In response to a petition filed by her mother, Joyleete Hunter, Dilla's youngest daughter, Ja'Mya, has begun receiving money from the estate, and Erk says Paige should start receiving payouts sometime in early 2009. "Oh really?" says Whitlow. "That's new information for me." She has had few conversations with Erk and says that when she informed him she was working with Ma Dukes' lawyer, he warned her, "This is going to get ugly." But she remains undeterred. "I gotta speak up for my baby 'cause I been quiet too long," she says."He hasn't seen ugly. I can show him ugly."



In the meantime, Ma Dukes says please don't cry for her. "It's really rough for everybody out there. But prayers help," she says with a sigh."Pray for my strength."

Termanology "If Heaven Was A Mile Away (Tribute To J. Dilla)" Mixtape

DOWNLOAD HERE

Madlib's Dilla Tribute Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 CD to be released February 10

When Madlib followed J Dilla’s now-classic Donuts with an instrumental concept-album of his own, a series was born. “Beat Konducta,” the alias he often scribbled on the beat CDs he handed to friends and potential collaborators, left the realm of the unknown and entered the record-buying public’s conscious as Madlib’s latest nom de plume. His unedited CDs often wove quirky narratives, served as obsessive listening material to those lucky enough to hear them, and became raw working material for Madvillain, Jaylib, Ghostface, De La Soul, Talib Kweli and Erykah Badu.

The concept of the Beat Konducta series was simple: put Madlib’s raw beat tapes into album form – one by one on vinyl, with two volumes at a time appearing on sporadically released CDs.

The first two volumes of Beat Konducta, Movie Scenes, were a soundtrack to a movie that existed only in Madlib’s mind. It’s score ranged from Blaxploitation soul to African-psychedelia, from Tropicalia to moody progressive rock. The second installment took its listeners on a tour of Bollywood, circa 1975. Beat Konducta In India paid sincere tribute to musical giants largely unheard of by Western ears. And kept the funk levels up all the way.

Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute to... is a 42-track piece dedicated to the late J Dilla. Madlib and J. Rocc – arguably Dilla’s closest musical compatriots during his time spent in Los Angeles – lovingly remember their friend and reflect on his boundless influence. As was the case with Donuts and in keeping with the Beat Konducta’s all-embracing musical bent, this album does not settle into one groove for too long. The result is a transfixing, sometimes jarring, and always soulful homage to the man Madlib crowned “King Of The Beats.”

Madlib's homepage
Madlib's myspace page

****Taken from Stonesthrow.com*****