SHUTTING DOWN OPERATIONS
thank you for all who has stumbled upon this blog and read it.
but it is time to part ways.
One Can Only Imagine To Do This…
via: pitchfork
“In 2006, the project that affected me the most was Dilla’s swan song. Though I didn’t understand it at first. I was thinking it was about how Kanye’s the new kid on the block and he’s bringing soul samples back so Dilla was trying to say, “Nope, my dick’s still bigger than yours, son.” But it all seemed to make sense towards the end. I got to talk to him three weeks before he passed, and I was like, “Yo, what was on your mind with Donuts?” He said, “It’s a message.” I was like, “Hm, OK.” Once he left, I started to clearly see all the subliminal messages. Like “Don’t Cry”, and him mangling the shit out of “Johnny Don’t Do It” by 10cc on “Waves”— that’s a message to his brother John:
I saw him about three months before he passed and he couldn’t even talk and I couldn’t walk in the room. We weren’t prepared for that. But what was even crazier is when I walked in the house, I heard music. I’m like, “He’s working on shit!” And I see him and he’s in a wheelchair and hooked up to a machine. It was just baffling to me that that part of his brain had not expired. His sense of rhythm and all that stuff was still the same. At first, I thought he was going to get through it.
But then he gave me his prized possession record, and that really scared me. It’s a very rare Brazilian Stevie Wonder EP. He said, “This is for you.” And I was like, “Why? You’ve had this for so long.” I didn’t want to take it because it seemed too final. His mom came up behind me and put it in my hands. I just walked out of the house and didn’t know if I should start bawling or just accept it. He didn’t want to live like that. His mom told me he made his last beat— which was a very unusual flip of Funkadelic’s “America Eats Its Young”— and told her, “I think I’m ready.” He laid on the couch and, two hours later, he expired. I’m obsessed with whatever I can get from Donuts.” - ?uestlove
The Roots’ new album reminded me of the hip-hop that I like. I loved the real drum heavy lines, not the fake electronically enhanced drum shit. How I Got Over is the closest thing to the Roots’ best album; Things Fall Apart. It has the old raw hip-hop feel to it with smart and thought provoking lyrics. And in addition to that they had Blu on two of the tracks. I first heard Blu back in late 08, he had an album out with Exile and it was called Bellow the Heavens. Ever since then I’ve been hunting down his mixtapes and singles. And what I conclude was that the dude can really rhyme, he also had the ears for beats.
Where I’m going with this is that these people are greatly influenced by the late great J Dilla. And this recent Pitchfork interview with ?uestlove really showed how much J Dilla have touched people’s lives. I mean the dude had so much passion and soul in his frail body that it’s just remarkable. Reading ?ustlove’s quote gave me the chills. J Dilla is a name that’s not highly regarded by the main stream audience. But his influence on Common, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, Madlib, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, De La Soul, Flying Lotus, and lot more artists whos names we do know is unparalleled. J Dilla changed lives.
He’s gonna be a household name from rap enthusiasts. Not for those main stream kids that like only the hooks, choruses, but real lyricist rap enthusiasts. Blu already have a good body of work under his belt but most of his stuff are harder to find cause nobody seems to know him. But since you’re gonna read this… Get to know him. Youtube, wikipedia, google him. He’s the Lupe Fiasco of LA, that’s a fair comparison. but i can’t decide for you if he’s dope, so check him out, but I think he’s dope and a lot of real rap fans would agree on that.
Blu > Drake, especially in lyrical content.
