Category Archives: Blog Entries

And Look What Showed Up At My Door Today….

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There are a few major milestones involved in the completion of an album… The first, is finishing the production work on it – meaning all of the music, vocals, and mixing. The second, is receiving that audio back from mastering. The third, is approving the final artwork for the album. While the final step is obviously the album’s release date, the next big occurrence is receiving the physical copies in the mail. After a couple months of posting the cover art in various places and looking through the artwork via .pdf files, it’s still something about holding the actual CD in my hand. There’s something absolutely exhilarating about reading through your own credits once it is live and in print, no matter how many times you have gone through and proofread it already. It also marks the official beginning of the second process… Getting the music that you have been listening to and wearing out for the entire duration of the album’s starting point… to the public’s ears. So, you can just imagine the feeling I had when I came from the gym this afternoon, pulled in front of my house and saw this….
That’s right ch’all… Four boxes full of SunStorm CD’s. I actually didn’t know what it was until I walked right up on it. I was standing at the front door with a hand full of today’s mail. But best believe all that got pushed to the side for a minute while I stopped to reach down for my boxes full of music.

I’ll also say this, have you ever been so happy that you begin to lose your natural mind? Well, I’ll just say that when I got inside, stripped that packaging tape, and cracked that first CD open, the first thing I thought was,

“Maaaaaaan, I’m about to sell all of these right NOW!”


There was no concept of release date, and my mind completely deserted the fact that I was to sign all of the CD’s in three of the boxes to fulfill outstanding pre-orders so far. Sadly, logic had taken a leave of absense from my thinking process at the time. It wasn’t until I got an email from Aimee Flint (Dir. of Operations for +FE Music) reminding me to sign the CD’s and send them through ASAP that I finally brought myself off of my cloud of delightful ignorance. But today marks the beginning of SunStorm making whatever impact it’s supposed to make. I hope y’all choose to celebrate with me….

 

‘SunStorm’ lead single – “This Could Be the Night” Video Shoot

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Leading up to Wednesday, June 23rd’s events, I kept reminding myself, “Self… You know what? You’re about to shoot a damn video…. woooooow.” This wasn’t some “It’s So Cold In the D” lookin’ video where it looks like they shot the footage from their cell phone and all of the extras are family members attempting to outshine even the star performer by fighting for face time. More like a video shot with all intentions of pushing it to household entertainment networks with the possibility of me and close friends and family being able to check us out on TV. It was told to me that I needed only one outfit for the shoot…. Just ONE?! Sheeeeeeeit… I packed a suit with two different shirts, three tie options and a black fedora. THEN I had couple more button-down shirts with slacks and a gray fedora. Now, let’s get this straight, rarely do I EVER overpack when I travel, but if there was any one time that I felt I had the right and the obligation to do so, this was it (*humbled* I later found out that I actually did only need one outfit for the shoot… but dammit, you couldn’t tell me nothin’ during my preparation). Anyway, I had my $3 Megabus ticket to Philly and was ready to get things moving.

I arrived in Philly at about 5pm on Tuesday, the day before the video shoot was to take place. I was picked up from 30th St. Station and taken to the hotel only a few exits past the airport. I immediately changed clothes for the gym and realized my ‘overpackedness’ did not carry over into my workout regiment as I forgot the shoes that I workout in… Therefore, I was forced to run on the elliptical in my damn shelltoe Adidas. Let’s just say I broke that 30 minutes of cardio up into two 15 minute intervals as my feet began to scream for mercy… Ironically, I completely erased any future results of my workout by inhaling a strong Cadillac Margarita and chasing that with a well done cheeseburger… :-\ (Joint was GREAT too…).

Staying up late equated to me waking up later than I wanted to. I set the alarm for 8:30a and didn’t even end up crawling outta the bed until about 9:30a to texts and missed calls from those who I had personally invited to the shoot making sure that I had a few more familiar faces in the spot being as though I knew I wouldn’t know most of the extras. I knew that they were gonna be set to shoot Erro’s (Eric Roberson) part first at about 10:30a and being as though I have never even set FOOT onto a video set, I wanted to be around to take everything in. It wasn’t until I woke up fully that I realized…. “Shit, the NC crew a/k/a “my ride to the shoot” (Phonte, Big Pooh, Darien & Aimee) hasn’t hit me up yet!” So I hit Phonte up…… straight to voicemail. At that moment I thought that they must still be in the air. I hopped on Twitter and saw that Big Pooh was tweeting about their delayed flight from NC… Then I figured I could take my shower, grab some breakfast and actually enjoy it now …and that’s exactly what I did, and watching the clock in the process. 10:30a………………….11:00…………. finally at about 11:15, I hit up Phonte again and he said they were at the airport waiting on luggage. Perfect… now they can grab their luggage, come scoop me up real quick and we all roll out to the set…………….. 11:45………………… 12:30p………. Damn, they should have their luggage by now. I called Aimee.

Aimee: Tay, Pooh and Darien are headed up now.

Me: Ok, cool… they’re coming up to the room?

A: …….”No, we’re at the spot!
“UH oh” © Carl Lewis

M: Uhhhh…… I’m still at the room!

SHIT…. I grabbed my things and headed 6 floors down to the lobby and requested that they call me a cab because everyone was at my video shoot…. but ME. How hilarious, my first video shoot and I’m already two hours late to it. I got in the cab with the “late to your own funeral” analogy repeating in my head. The cab driver who picked me up from the hotel seemed real cool, but as soon as I got in and provided him with the address of where I needed to go I could tell he had a bit of a problem with that, uhhh…. literacy thing.

Me: I’m going to Center City…. St. James St.

Cab Driver: Uhh….Sss *blank stare at the GPS*

Me: Yeah, SAINT JAAAY-MMMESSSS STREET

CD: So that’s uhh, S…. uhh….

M: S….T…….. *waiting for him to complete the spelling*

CD: *looks back at me waiting for ME to complete the spelling*

M: ……..”SPACE”……… J……A

CD: I’m not too good with that spelling thing…

Uhhh… This I know.

Once the address was finally entered into the GPS, he was good…. Until it was time to turn right onto Locust St. We approached the Locust street sign, he slowed the cab down damn near to a stop and asked me, “Is that it?” Already understanding his issues with reading, I just blurted out quickly, “YES… THAT’S IT!” Lord have mercy, he had finally gotten me to my destination… It was funny because during the cab ride, I was reading a few tweets from people wondering where I was. I felt like I needed to walk into the spot with a t-shirt on that said “It wasn’t my fault!” or flyers to pass out explaining why I was showing up on set at 1:30p. Regardless, the “Superstar” jokes were automatically on deck upon my arrival… When I stepped into the club, I was thoroughly impressed visually. The still shots that were provided with the video treatment the night before did the spot limited justice. Big Pooh had just finished shooting his performance piece and folks told me how well Erro’s performance shots looked – that combined with a buffet of various PotBelly’s sammiches sitting over on the bar looking so delectable, I was already beginning to feel good about this video. But I was forced to be patient, so I did what came naturally… hell, I ATE. I also made sure to catch up and act a fool with everybody on set as I was informed that there were about three more shots to get before I was even needed… Soooooo, my being late was actually right on time! AND I showed up at lunch! *high fives my damn seff*

Finally, at about 3:00pm we were instructed to go ahead and start getting ready for the shot of myself, D. Brock, Erro, and Pooh walking into the club. I pulled my freshly dry-cleaned black suit out of the plastic and threw it on along with my silver shirt, black tie with silver stripes, and completed it with the black fedora. While waiting around about an hour or so, I was asked if I was an extra on the set of my own video twice, which I thought was great. For real, I probably could have made noise on someone else’s blog if I would have answered with, “Nigga… do I LOOK like an extra on this muhfucka?! I’m the damn star-rah!!” …now that I think about it, I actually would have thoroughly entertained myself with that one. But I didn’t, because the reality is…No one knows who the hell I am, much less what I look like. I could have had fun with the girl, gotten myself up and started to play an extra in the video, but we were short on time and things needed to keep rolling. Once our ‘entrance’ scene was set up, I felt like texting everyone I knew on some, “Ayo, we’re about to go on right NOW!” Once the actual recording process started, things felt pretty natural and I got the sense that it was finally my time. Once again, the director Matt Koza and his crew kept telling me how excited they were about the shots they were getting from us, which left me relaxed and more at ease. I had a few more quick scenes to shoot and it was a wrap for me… I left the set feeling pretty good and very accomplished. As a result I kept telling myself, “I have a video now.”

For the post-video shoot meal, we ventured over to Silk City and I conquered four rounds at the bar with Big Pooh and one of our homegirls. Once they seated all of us, we tore into some waings, quesadillas, fish sammiches, salad, and some of the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had out in a restaurant. Matter of fact, it was so good that I finished macaroni from two OTHER peoples’ plates outside of my own (greedy). It was a fitting end to such a productive day… So please, enjoy the results!! And a huge thank you to everyone who played an active role in making that day fairly easy for this video rookie…

Studio Campfire Stories: Platinum Pied Pipers “Stay With Me”

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The Summer of 2004 was a pretty interesting time in my life to say the least. I had just released my first ‘pro pressed’ album, Passion & Definition in July, was playing some shows here and there, meeting kats in the Detroit scene who I had been a fan of for years. I had also been let go from the Medical Supplies Sales job I held for a year, and as a result I became a full-time musician (until I moved East in 2006). I had some die hard supporters, thinking I was doing something… But looking back on it, I was just beginning to pay my dues hadn’t even really begun to get my feet wet musically. Anyway, with all of the new kats I was either meeting, running into, or working with around The D, I had yet to meet Waajeed. I always had people telling me, “Man, you gotta work with Waajeed,” yet, I hadn’t even met the brotha yet. Of course, with the way everything else was just kinda ‘falling’ into place, I simply assumed we would run into each other at a venue one night (which actually happened at the Carbon Lounge in Hamtramck… and we said ‘what up’ in passing). Oddly enough, it was actually my homegirl introducing me to his girlfriend at the time after running into her at Buffalo Wild Wings that did it – If I remember correctly, the two of them went to high school together. Weird? Yes… But, I happened to have a copy of Passion & Definition on me (as I always did back then) so I passed it to her to give to him. The next thing I knew a few days later, I got a phone call from Waajeed and we agreed to get up one day at his spot in Downtown Detroit just to meet up. And now that I think about it, that instance was probably the first and only time that I have ever gotten a call back from passing material along to someone… in HOPES of a call back. OH, I take that back…. I actually met 14KT, Buff1 and the rest of the Athletic Mic League the same way back in 2002. They called me back to back after I hit them with a copy of Zo! Presents… A Canvas For The Adoration of Music at an Athletic Mic League/Subterraneous show in Ann Arbor. So, I guess passing music along comes through every now and then, huh? Maybe…

Anyway, I ended up taking a trip to Jeed’s spot in Downtown Detroit and we chopped it up for a good hour or two about music in general… Including the hustle, the passion behind it, and the bullshit. We hadn’t planned to work on anything that day but I guess higher power saw things a bit differently. During our entire conversation, I was sitting at a suitcase Fender Rhodes just messing around on the keys until finally Jeed was like, “Ayo, you know what? Let me see if you’ve got something for this joint real quick.” I was sitting there with the “oh damn” face on as I was partially put on the spot… I’m good, no pressure, right? So he played the joint he was talking about and all I hear is a stripped down track with nothing but these swinging ass drums with this seductive voice on top of it. That was IT….

Me: “Who is THAT?”

Waajeed: “Tiombe Lockhart, a singer I’m working with for the new album.”

He then proceeded to explain to me the meaning behind his newly formed group, Platinum Pied Pipers and even broke down some of the album’s concept…. but I was all into this track that I was hearing. After listening through the song, I told him to start it over so that I could feel my way around what she was singing. By the middle of the song, I knew I had something as Waajeed said, “Aw man… we’ve gotta record that!” Right then and there, he started the joint over and I proceeded to record the bass part via the Rhodes…. and recorded another pass with just the chords and it became the foundation for this new song. Jeed was so hyped up about it, he started talking about turning it in to Ubiquity (Records) (PPP’s label at the time) and knowing that they would love it, etc…. I was kind of excited, but the music “industry” had already warped me so, even by 2004 that I wanted to see proof of things happening.

Sure enough, he turned that joint in and Ubiquity really took to it. Waajeed hit me up one day telling me that they were considering it as the first single. Word?… Whatever man, I’ll believe it when I see it…….. Well, a couple months later, I was in Record Time in Ferndale, MI flipping through copies of “Stay With Me” 12″ vinyl singles.

Funny how things happen when creativity comes into play. Even now when I hear this song being played in a venue, I always think back on how everything seemed to line up just right in order for it to happen and come through the way it did.

(Not So) Fun Fact: The crazy thing about this song that no one really knows about is Waajeed gave me a “Co-producer” credit on it. So if you happen to own one of the first pressings of the 12″, you may notice that it reads:

“Produced by Waajeed, Co-produced and keys by Zo!”

But Ubiquity wasn’t having it and they pulled the “Co-produced by” recognition and gave me credit for playing keys only… Despite their silly shit, Jeed and I still joke about this story to this day…

“Maaan, I met this dude…. two hours later we did ‘Stay With Me!'”

See?

Most of the time the best stuff never happens in accordance to our script…

Me and Waajeed in D.C., August 2006


Free Download from new album "SunStorm": Zo! feat. Sy Smith "Greatest Weapon Of All-Time"

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Taken from Foreign Exchange’s Website:

The official single for Zo’s SunStorm album doesn’t drop for a few more weeks, but we at +FE Music decided to give a little something to hold you over until then. Here’s “Greatest Weapon Of All Time” featuring our good friend Sy Smith, also taken from the SunStorm LP which drops 7/27. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!


Well y’all, the six-week plan is now officially underway. Here is first sample of the album that you all have heard me talk so much about. Sy came through and did her THING… I am this close to posting the story behind how this joint came about, but I’ll save it…. Not unless y’all want to read it. Anyway, enjoy this one and thank you for listening.

Me with Sy Smith @ Bohemian Caverns, March 2008

Ali “Ollie” Woodson (October 12, 1951 – May 30, 2010)

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Allow me to begin by stating very clearly that The Temptations are the greatest singing group to ever do it… period. My mother brought me up on a heavy dose of Temptations music, which left me completely biased when it came to the whole “Temps vs. Tops” argument (if you want to call it that) even as a 6-year old – There was never even been a competition in my opinion. The Temps had the vocals and five-part harmony down to a ridiculous science, their choreography was flawless, even well into the 80’s and 90’s, but the one major factor that allowed the group to stand so far apart from others was their ability to consistently enlist powerful and audience captivating lead singers. From one of my favorite lead singers of all-time, David Ruffin, to the incomparable vocals of Dennis Edwards, to Mr. Ali-Ollie Woodson…

In the mid-80’s, while my mother was putting me on to all of the classic Temptation records, she was also running the current Temptations albums on repeat. Whenever the Temps released a new one, she would pick up a cassette tape for the car and a vinyl copy for the record player in the family room. In 1984, I listened to their Truly For You album (“Treat Her Like A Lady”) up until 1985 when Touch Me was released… Then ’86 when they dropped …To Be Continued, which contained the single “Lady Soul” all the way up to 1987 when they put out Together Again (Actually, Dennis was the lead singer for this album, but Ali came back for their 1989 release, Special). Most of these songs are so embedded in my brain that even after not hearing the music for more than 20 years, I can turn it on now and recite most of the words. Needless to say, it always breaks my heart when we lose one of their members and in this case it effected me no differently. We have lost yet another extremely talented member of the Temptation family, not only vocally, but the brotha wasn’t too bad on them keys either!

Ali-Ollie Woodson, may you rest in peace… Your talents will be missed. Case in point… see below.

Studio Campfire Stories: YahZarah – "Shadow"

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The story behind the song that ended up landing on YahZarah’s The Ballad of Purple Saint James as track number twelve almost never even happened…

Normally and quite naturally, when I learn that family is in town, it’s always time for me to carve out a time slot in the schedule in order to get up and make sure we connect. I don’t care if it is stopping through their performance and showing love, having them come through the house, or even giving kats a spot to crash for the night. In this case back in July of 2008, YahZarah told me that she would be back in D.C. and we needed to get up and record. Come to think of it, we were wanting to finish a song that she demoed about six months prior. In order to maximize our time, I had some newer music that I wanted her to check out in hopes of her recording it for my new album (SunStorm didn’t even have a working title at that time). So she came through, and of course I wanted to let her hear the new joint immediately…BUT, I couldn’t remember what I named the session (file). Yahz was over on the couch waiting patiently as I went through each of these unnamed and randomly named Pro Tools sessions to try and figure out which one contains the music that I want to put on display. This process seemed like it took forever as I was feeling like I was wasting valuable recording time. So I proceeded to have my ole ‘extra-hard-on-self’ talk, which probably went something like: “Why didn’t you just pull up the damn session in advance so she could hear it, see if she wants to write to the music and be done with it??! You’re wasting time right now, bruh… You’re wasting a lotta time!” During this whole “positive” self-talk… er…uhh.. tirade, I happened to come across a session that had not been touched in a few months, so automatically I thought, “Well maybe this could be the one.” I was disappointed when it opened to display just one stereo track of solo piano. I pressed ‘play’ on it so that I could hear what it was and at the very least remember the title of the session for the next time I go scanning through my files. Once it started playing, YahZarah popped her head up from her Blackberry…

YahZarah: What’s that?!

Me: It’s some chords and progressions I was working on a while ago and just happened to hit record on it.

Y: What are you doing with it?

M: Nothing, I damn near forgot it was even on here…!

Y: Can you bounce that down for me so I can take it with me on CD?

M: You want this one??!

Y: Yeah

As I began to bounce this solo piano piece down , I realized that I had actually recorded myself playing a full song that I had composed one late night in my old apartment (the one I lived in when I first arrived to Maryland in February 2006). There were changes in the music and it was already fully formatted. I also discovered that it was not done to a metronome or a click-track. As the song played back during the bounce, I could hear Yahz humming a couple of melodies with each part. Hearing her maneuver these notes up and through the piano chords off the top of her head peaked my curiosity… Just what the hell is she gonna do with this free-form piano joint?! Apparently, I was not aware of who I was dealing with…!

A couple of weeks later, I get an early morning text message from YahZarah telling me to check my email because she had sent something through…. I opened the email and saw the attachment titled, “Shadow.” Hmmm, nice… But what music did she record to? (she took home a CD of about 3 new joints that day) I clicked the ‘play’ button and began to hear that there was some heartfelt saingin goin on in that recording session. The harmonies on the hook drew me in IMMEDIATELY as they continued to build upon themselves as the song progressed. Then, the opera-influenced harmonies at the end of the second verse?!!!!?!? I get goose bumps NOW listening to that part…so I’m sure you can imagine the very first time I listened to it. I had the “C’LAWD!!! SHE’S BLACKIN THE HELL OUT!!!” – face on. I had no idea she was going to transform my piano track into a borderline soundtrack piece to an epic movie… She had truly outdone herself.

When we talked about her recording process later on, she told me how easy it was to write to and that it was the first time in a very long time that she was able to “just SING” on a track. I took that as the ultimate compliment because as the producer/musician, the goal is to bring the absolute best out of the artists you work with. Just by her sharing that information with me informed me that I had accomplished my creative goal…

Talk about a “things happen for a reason” scenario… Wow.


The Ballad of Purple Saint James
is now available at iTunes and Amazon.com…


Download YahZarah’s “Why Dontcha Call Me No More”

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I took an overnight trip to Raleigh, NC in late December armed with just a change of clothes, a few toiletries, and my bass guitar. The mission: Play on a couple of joints for YahZarah’s new album The Ballad Of Purple St. James. Phonte picked me up from the airport, we made a couple of stops before heading right over to SoundPure Studios to meet up with Yahz and guitarist/engineer Chris Boerner. I had already done my homework on the joints, learned all the changes and nuances in hopes to knocking um out in a single take… Drummer Lil’ John Roberts walked in and was ready to work… BUT, first things first, we ordered some sammiches, ate, and we were finally ready to go. John cut his drum parts first and was ridiculously on-point – Hell, the brotha has already worked with a who’s who of kats, including regularly touring with the one and only, Janet Jackson. I was next up on the bass… A couple of takes later, it was knocked out.


Editing took place throughout most of the night and “Why Dontcha Call Me No More” was born…

Music (Class) Appreciation…

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I had a chat with a good friend of mine just last week about how silly it is for people to say things
like

“Aww man, you don’t know nuthin’ about that!You’re too young to know about that music!”

Exposure and education are two amazing components when applied, aren’t they?I guess if we were too young to know and learn about ‘old’ things, then history would be completely irrelevant, huh?Fortunately, I had the pleasure of being exposed to some excellent music growing up courtesy of my music-loving parents.But even with all of the music that was receiving rotation in my house, I am still getting put on to new older music by groups I’ve never even heard of and even some by very well-known artists.The learning process is one that is never-ending and one that I love and appreciate a great deal.So naturally as a music instructor, one of my main goals is to expose my teenage students to music they may have never heard if not for my class.There are days where I will sit with a class and just listen to music, but in the midst of listening I’ll sneak in an original song that has been sampled and see if the kids catch on to it.I had one of my classes last year so amped up after one of our “sample day” sessions that a couple of them said that they were, “Mad with hip-hop,” to which I had to clear the air by then explaining the art of sampling, why it’s done, and that it has been a part of hip-hop since day one.But these kids are getting exposed to different types of music and becoming much more knowledgeable in regards to the roots of current artists.



One group in particular that I have an extremely easy time exposing to my students is The Temptations.They have a movie about them that the kids have seen at least two or three different times on VH1 or TVOne, their catalog of music is not only classic but in many circles it’s damn near considered to be a standby.Their lyrics are simple, yet catchy, while the music is undeniable – It’s like, if one of their joints comes on and you aren’t singing along, bobbing your head, or at least tapping your foot, I would be forced to place a mirror under your nose to check and see if you are still breathing.I mean, who doesn’t have a favorite Temptations song?It’s no different with my students.I show The Temptations (1998) movie in my class every year whether they have seen it or not simply because they ask me so many questions during the course of the film.It definitely helps my classes feel more connected with not only The Temps’ music, but with their accomplishments and fully established legacy.So the fact that my 4th period came to me last month with the idea of wanting to play and record the 1971 hit “Just My Imagination” wasn’t very surprising to me – Actually, I was more proud of them than anything…

 

My fourth period class ended up understanding and playing that music so well that the video shown above was presented to the entire school as their “Ode To Motown” assembly for Black History Month.

The craziest thing about Motown music is that it is very deceiving. You listen to a song like The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and you may find yourself saying, “It’s a pop song… very simple.” Wellllll, not the case. Have you ever tried to play that bassline? Matter of fact have you ever analyzed the bassline for The Four Tops’ “Bernadette?!!” Wheeeeew!!! (James Jamerson)… All that to say, my first period class requested to learn how to play “My Girl”… sounds easy enough right? While “My Girl” may sound simple and straight forward, for a couple of kids who just started playing instruments weeks ago, I warned them that it may present a challenge. The piece that leads into the key change where The Temps are singing, “Hey heey heeeeeey!!” and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra brings the strings in is tough on a beginner because of the movements that must be executed on the instrument. But after two weeks of running the song into the ground, I was able to get them in front of the camera for one helluva take…

I think this exposure thing is working out for the better for these kids… Just my humble opinion. We will continue to build in class… and I’ll continue to update.

My Dilla Memories…

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I distinctively remember the first time that I heard Jay Dee, and actually KNEW who I was listening to (I owned a some of his music at the time but never put two and two together). It was The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’ (Remix)” back in Late ’95/Early ’96 and I was a senior in high school. My boy Dwight who was a classmate of mine at St. Martin DePorres HS (Detroit, MI), hit me up and was telling me about his trip to the record store that day. He and I would always catch one another up on the latest store run to see who could take home the most obscure, yet dopest finds. It was almost a silent challenge, competitive and rewarding at the same time because it was our way of discovering new music. Anyway, included in his store run was the maxi-single for “Runnin'”. So, he told me to check for the remix done by a cat named Jay Dee whom he had heard was from Detroit, which at the time was a pretty big deal. There wasn’t a lot of national exposure coming from the D around 95/96. So I was like, Bet! I’ma start keeping an eye on him for that reason alone. Things looked good from the break as I opened up my Labcabincalifornia CD jacket, read through the credits as I always do and quickly noticed that under all of my favorite joints I saw “Produced by Jay Dee”, “J. Yancey”, or “EPHCY Publishing”. Not too long after that, I heard about the Busta Rhymes’ “Woo Haa” single which contained the “Jay Dee Bounce Remix” and a “Jay Dee’s Other Shit Remix”. I happened to be in Record Time in Roseville when I heard the latter… It was purchased on the spot. THEN I bought the single for De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High” where he produced the actual song and the remix. Reading liner notes is what let me know that he was also a part of The Ummah as I would once again see “J. Yancey” show up in those writer’s credits. Well damn!! It looked to me like this dude was starting to build up a very solid body of work. So continued to keep my eyes and ears open for him. Then about a month before I went away to school, Tribe Called Quest’s Beats, Rhymes & Life was released and for a couple months it was ALL I listened to. When I heard “Get A Hold” for the first time??? That filtered bass kicked in at the end of the second bar and MAN I looost it… But a lotta folks felt that the addition of Jay to Tribe’s production team crippled their sound. …….NO. I never really understood the criticism that BRL and later The Love Movement received… I’m a big fan of both albums.
Sidenote: Hilariously enough, “Find A Way” from The Love Movement is the song that singlehandedly made me go and get a powered amp and a pair of 12″ speakers installed in my truck in 1998.

Sometime in 1997, while away at school I remember hearing from another one of my boys back home that Jay was in a group called Slum Village. So, fast forward to around the spring/summer of 1998. I just so happened to be messing around in the school library on one of my favorite websites at the time, Sandboxautomatic.com and came across a new 12″ by Slum that I hadn’t seen before on the site. The joint had “2U4U”, “Fantastic”, “I Don’t Know” and “Players” AND instrumentals for all of them (except “Players” if I remember correctly). I proceeded to click on the link where I could listen to a snippet of the songs…….. And that’s when I heard “Players” for the first time and DAMMIT, my jaw dropped to the floor, literally…

WHOOOOOOOOOA. What. In. The. HELL. Is. THIS?!!?!!??!!?!!???

Up to that point, I hadn’t heard anything that sounded like it. The simplicity of it and the way it utilized space. The claps, the almost “airy” texture of the song created by the ambiance of the “Claire” sample floating in the background… and that bassline?! BRUH…. THAT. BASSLINE. Look man, I was hooked. I was so hooked that I would head BACK up to the library after lunch, right before baseball practice, or in between classes STRICTLY to hop online, go to Sandbox and listen to that same 60 or 90-second snippet of “Players”. This went on for a few weeks until I actually bought the 12″. As a matter of fact, being as though I had no credit card of my own I had to use my boy’s card and give him the cash. That wasn’t an obstacle to me, I didn’t give a shit… I had to have that song (I still have that 12″ in the collection to this day). When those joints showed up two years later on SV’s Fantastic Vol. 2 (except for that OG version of “Fantastic”), I was ALL IN. “Conant Gardens” Dope. “I Don’t Know”. Yep. “Jealousy”. Solid… And then it happened again…. This time I heard “Climax” for the first time and that shit was simply a MASTERPIECE. I was so far in a zone when this song came on that I damn near ran my car off the road in my own neighborhood. How much does a song have to effect you to run your ass off the road??!!?! It was almost like I had found “the answer”. THIS is what I’ve wanted to hear music sound like… This is IT.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have worked with him on any music, but I did meet Jay on just one occasion in 2003. I’ll never forget it – February 14, 2003, it was the middle of the afternoon and I was in Barak Studios in Southfield, MI. As a matter of fact, we were ALL at Barak Studios that day. If I remember correctly, T3 from SV was in there, Young RJ, Black Milk, Phat Kat, Nick Speed, and Que D. Most of us were just hanging out in the lobby part of the studio cracking jokes, talking shit, whateverthehell… The door opened up and in walked Jay Dee with Karreim Riggins. I was just standing there, probably with a blank look on my face like, “Oh wow.” Here comes damn Jay Dee holding a bag of McDonald’s with this huge grin on his face. I’m pretty sure that at the time he had just gotten over being sick because RJ Rice (Barak Records’ founder) kept commenting on how healthy he looked. RJ was actually the one who introduced me to him… and anyone who knows RJ, knows that was a helluva introduction. …Be sure to read the following quote in your best “RJ” voice.

“Yeah mayne, this is Zo!…he plays keys for Slum! …….This nigga bad mayne!” © RJ

As I stood there giving Dilla a pound along with a “what up”…I started thinking to myself…Damn, this is the same cat who did (name your favorite joint here). Even with all of the accolades, the credits and the genius shit he was doing, he was as humble as anyone I’ve ever met – famous or not. 

February 10, 2006 was the same day that I moved out here to Maryland… It was an exciting time for me because I felt as though I was moving on to start building a new foundation on the East Coast. Little did I know, the word ‘transition’ would reveal itself as having a double-meaning.

After being on the road pulling a full U-Haul trailer for about nine hours on pure adrenaline and NO sleep whatsoever (yeah, yeah, yeah…unsafe, I know this), my phone started BLOWING UP at about 4:30p or so with all types of text messages and calls. I was in the middle of moving boxes and furniture into my new apartment in MD with my uncle, so I couldn’t get much of a break to even look to see what was going on. Finally, it just became too much and I stopped what I was doing to pull my phone out and see what it was that I was missing. I looked at the phone and saw that I missed about 7 or 8 calls and had 15 new text messages. Wow, I had only been gone from Michigan about 9 or 10 hours… Folks back home must be hitting me up to wish me well on this new journey! ….Wishful thinking. When I checked the first text, it read, “Did you hear Dilla passed?” Hold on….. what?? …The second wasn’t much different, “I’m hearing Dilla died, have you heard anything? Tell me it’s not true.” I was literally numb and thinking, “This has to be a rumor… Gotta be.” But it was only a couple months prior that Questlove posted some video clips on Okayplayer’s message boards of Jay performing overseas …….in a wheelchair, due to his health. And when I say that was some of the most heartbreaking footage to watch. The voice was there so it was definitely still him, but he was frail and almost a shell of himself – it hurt to see him perform like that. To this day when I hear “Baby” from The Shining album I think about watching those clips simply because Dilla doesn’t sound like himself on that track at all. He sounded tired and worn down… You could tell he was fighting to continue to create. Another thing, most of us as fans didn’t know how much his health had taken a toll by that point so the news hit us all over the head like a brick. BUT in the days after those clips were released here in the States, we were all assured that Dilla’s health was improving. So, I even thought back to those videos, “But credible sources have said that he was getting better…” I still didn’t believe it. ANYTHING to discredit this shit. Then almost right on cue, my phone started ringing again…. It was a friend of mine from high school. I answered the phone and I could just tell – I heard it in his voice when he started talking. I didn’t say, “Hello”, “What up?”…nothing. It was just,

Me: “Man, is it true?”

Response: *sigh* “Yeah man………………. This shit hurts.”

And he was right…. it did hurt. I mean, I didn’t even know Dilla like that. We never made music together …we never hung out. I had only met him the one time …but damn if hearing about his passing didn’t affect me like we came up together. Hell, it took me such a long time to get all the way into Donuts (which was released on his birthday, only three days before his death) because the album felt almost like a eulogy to me… damn near equivalent to “the end.” He was the only one of my musical heroes who I felt I could actually reach out to. He was a huge part of the reason why I could take Detroit music out of town with me and be proud of where I’m from. He was one of the dudes whose musical work ethic I patterned my own after. I wanted to work just as hard or harder to build up a consistent discography like he did. This is why I always say that music is one of the most intimate, emotional, and personal things you’ll ever experience because connecting with a person’s music is like connecting with a part of that person. When you create timeless music, to the music fans and listeners… you are never gone.

This is a celebration of life and music. We miss you, Dilla Dawg….

Rest In Peace …James “Jay Dee/J. Dilla” Yancey
(02.07.1974 – 02.10.2006)
My personal favorites list…

“Me & Those Dreamin’ Eyes Of Mine (Jay Dee Remix)” D’Angelo (1996)
“Get A Hold” Tribe (1996)
Word Play” Tribe (1996)
“Players” Slum Village (1997)
“That Shit” Tribe (1998)
“Don’t Nobody Care About Us” Phat Kat (1999)
“Look of Love Pt. 2” Slum Village (1999)
“Look Of Love (J-88 Remix)” Slum Village (1999)
“Let’s Ride” Q-Tip (1999)
“Eve (Jay Dee Mix)” Spacek (2000)
“Climax (Girl Shit)” Slum Village (2000)
“Nag Champa” Common (2000)
“Fall In Love (Remix)” Slum Village (2001)
“Without You (Remix)” Lucy Pearl (2001)
“Fuck The Police” Jay Dee (2001)
“Shake It Down” Jay Dee (2001)
“Let’s Take It Back” Jay Dee (2001)
“As Serious As Your Life Gets (Jay Dee Remix)” Fourtet (2004)
“Love It Here” Elzhi (2004)
“Move Pt. II” Oh No (2005)
“E=MC2” Jay Dee (2006)
“Won’t Do” Jay Dee (2006)
“Nasty Ain’t It?” Phat Kat (2007)
“Move” Q-Tip (2009)

New Joint with Julie Dexter… "Transitions"

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As good music fanatic, I’d certainly like to think that I do a fairly good job of keeping my ear to the ground and staying up on quality artists. Soon after I was introduced to Julie Dexter’s music in 2002 by a friend of mine, I ended up purchasing her Dexterity album from Amazon.com… To this day, I have “Faith” and “God Bless the Dub” on my iPod (I may have embarrassed her by showing her this. lol It was all in fun… and respect). So I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a lil hyped up when I received a call from her manager a couple summer ago inquiring about music. Of course I have material ready. Let’s run it…! Some months went by before hearing from him again, but when I did, I received word that Julie had written to one of my joints and was ready to record. She happened to be in town in June, came on by the house with her manager… and we got to work. The music was pulled up, tracked out and ready to be recorded on before she got there……. and only two hours later, we were finished and cracking jokes… well, I was anyway. Talk about EASY to work with… Preparation y’all, it goes a LONG way in the studio. Anyway, glad to finally have this joint out here to share with y’all….. Enjoy.