Charles Hamilton announces J Dilla as executive producer, father*

Rising Internet rapper, Charles Hamilton, released an image of the back cover of his upcoming debut album, This Perfect Life, on his personal blog last Friday afternoon. Besides unveiling the official tracklisting and the samples used on each song, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Cleveland-by-way-of-Green-Hills-Zone MC also attributes ‘Executive Producer’ credits to James Yancey, better known to the hip-hop world as the late J Dilla. Though this has caused a firestorm of controversy as to Hamilton’s relationship with Yancey, Hamilton assures fans that he indeed received the producer’s blessings the last time they spoke.

“I did a séance and Dilla’s walking around in my house,” says Hamilton in an interview with AllHipHop. “You can’t take away that paranormal aspect of it.”

It seems that the two were much closer than originally thought. A search of the Hamilton family residence in Cleveland turned up a box of handwritten letters underneath a floorboard in the corner of Mama Hamilton’s closet. The letters indicated a long-standing correspondence between Yancey and Mama Hamilton starting in the late ’80s.

Dilla sharks Oh No?

I realize I’m late to the J Dilla Jay Stay Paid party. At this point, it looks like the only way to get some dip for my chips is by scraping it off the bellybutton of the obligatory drunken, “Let’s do KEGSTAAAAANDS!” Asher Roth stan asleep in his own filth in the bread aisle underneath the drinks table. But enough autobiography.

I finally got around to listening to Jay Stay Paid for the first time today, a full two days (GASP!) after its release in stores and something like two weeks after it got leaked to the Internest. I might get around to reviewing it at some point, though it’d only be for the sake of writing exercise as anyone reading this probably already owns a “Dilla Gave Me Mouth-To-Mouth CPR” shirt or something to that effect (mine’s in the mail). So why preach to the choir, yknow?

Anyway, I came through only to mention that the track, “In The Night/While You Slept (I Crept),” sounds very familiar. More than just the title describing my extracurricular activities perfectly, I thought it sounded a lot like another track by Dilla’s Stones Throw brethren, Oh No (bka Madlib’s little brother, sadly [dude's got beats, don't sleep!]). Both the Dilla joint and Oh No’s “The Ride” have similar “Terminator”-type feels to them (to use Brandon’s term) and also, something about their key changes sound the same. I’m not trying to call either out for biting the other. I’m just saying …… one of them had to have bit the other, if they’re coming from the same camp. Oh No takes production credit for “The Ride” and I assume Dilla does for his too (no proper CD or liner notes yet, but it’s payday tomorrow!). Anyway, judge for yourself. Then go buy Jay Stay Paid and possibly help his moms out financially.

DOWNLOAD:
Oh No “The Ride“
J Dilla “In The Night/While You Slept (I Crept)“

Donuts Month: Airworks

Hella late, I know. I’m getting really busy thanks to a combination of the new Examiner gig, the start of this writing class I’m taking at UCSD Extension, wily ninja demons, and brightly colored drum pads. It’s hard out here for a pimp.

I was on again over at No Trivia last week but in a supreme act of laziness humility, it slipped my mind until today. Here are my two cents on the track “Airworks”:

The thing that sticks out to me throughout Donuts, that I seriously thought was on some next-level shit, was the way he sampled vocals. It’s like he figured that the best part of any of these soul songs, maybe the most painstakingly emotive sometimes, isn’t anything remotely concrete like drums or a drum break or a melody or even a full phrase. It’s just like a grunt or sigh or breath or some warbling slice of some note held out. This isn’t more pronounced than on “Airworks”, the title itself kinda alluding to the not-thereness of the vocals. Then the ill thing is that Dilla takes these pieces and pretty much disregards any notion that you’re supposed to smooth out the chops. He just lets it all hang like “Fuckit, yeah its a sample bitch, and whut?!”

Regular blogging to resume shortly.

WE THE BEST!!!

I did a piece on J Dilla over at Examiner that I’m actually halfway proud of. I intend not to engage in such Charles Hamiltonian levels of annoying, bullshit self-cross-promotion on the regular (I probably just hit you up on either Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter). But yknow, it’s Dilla. Above is a video that they probably wouldn’t allow me to post on Examiner because of the extraneous amounts of booty in it. I think I’ve figured how to differentiate between HaterPlayer and Examiner: all somewhat-explicit stuff and also all absurd posts will be reserved for HaterPlayer while Examiner will see only serious discussion and shit like that.

RIP James Dewitt Yancey
February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006

Donuts Month: The Diff’rence

I’m on over at No Trivia for Donuts Month, though I’m feeling way out-classed. I almost want to re-write my piece/s. Really, you should just ignore any bullshit I wrote and read what Brandon said:

I think Dilla’s using “Fruitman”s hyped-up healthy eating hook (“you will see, the diff’rence!!”) to again, remind friends, family, and everybody else that soon, when he’s gone, you’ll feel that lack. But by calling it “a difference” he’s making it less dramatic, almost discussing it objectively and finding some hope in that objectivity. “When I or anybody dies…”, Dilla’s saying, “it will be different. It won’t be good, it won’t be bad, it will just be different. You’ll see that difference.”

And that’s true after death. It feels awful and devastating and maybe for weeks, months, years after you sleep with the light on or drink too much or just cry a whole lot and it’s pretty bad, but it’ll be better because you’ll gain comfort and become comfortable with that lack—even if it totally sucks—because you’ll persevere and adjust and find some solace in time and life and see the world without your husband or mom or favorite beatmaker as not better or worse, just different.

Donuts Month Starts Today

Brandon took Metal Lungies’ Beat Drop idea and fucking Carl Lewis’ed the shit out of it.

As a tribute to both Jay Dee aka J Dilla, who passed away three years ago on February 10, and his instrumental opus, Donuts, which dropped three years ago on February 7, Brandon has invited some of his blogger homies to essentially a month-long jerk-off session over the album. Every day until early March, Brandon and company (including yours truly) will be talking about one of the 31 tracks that make up Donuts and tell you why it will change your life or at the least, why Donuts belongs on your “Top 5 Albums To Take On A Deserted Island” list. I didn’t contribute to today’s entry but best believe that I’m petty and egotistical enough to let you know when my shit does appear.

Now unsubscribe to all your other blogs for the month of February and start reading over at Brandon’s blog, No Trivia. Here’s a little bit of what you can look forward to. This made me look away from The Office like “Whoa”:

The tracks have life. That bears repeating, because instrumental music, barring the Ritalin-deprived stabbings of mathrock, tech metal and its offshoots, tends to seem ghostly. Music without voice very often sees disembodied and incorporeal, and my experience with Donuts has led me to believe that rapping and singing goes beyond having an aural pneumonic to distract listeners from the repetitiousness of music, it can ground it in something tangible, something of flesh, something to reduce the distance between the sounds and your mind. There’s a profound loneliness to sound without voice, which probably explains why soul samples became so prevalent during the decade. We desperately needed to feel warm and human, to escape the banality of life and fatigue of tragedies, and at his best, that’s exactly what James Yancey could do.

Here’s hoping heaven’s got an MPC.

Can’t You See

Today marks the anniversary of the death of a dear friend of mine. At first, I started compiling some great, maybe not-so-obvious, heavily-Rap-A-Lot songs about death or dealing with death somehow. But then a track from Jay Love Japan popped in my head and I realized that there is no better soundtrack for the occasion than J Dilla’s posthumous album.