Thank You, James Yancey
Author: dompee | February 23rd, 2006

My hero-worship of Dilla started with a record review of the second Pharcyde album. The opening track, “Bullshit,” signaled their switch to a more mature, elegant “Tribe” sound—mirrored by the group’s choice of white suits for the album cover. I grabbed the liner notes and immediately took notice: “produced by Jay Dee.”

Not only did Delicious Vinyl lead with one of his beats (“Runnin’”) for the first single, but also for the second, which was adapted into possibly the best hip-hop video ever. Who knew those droning chords would be the perfect accompaniment to Mike D’s backward bike ride through Hollywood?

He’d remix another single, “She Said,” the 12-inch of which stayed on my turntable for a solid week—and provided me with the first of a hundred or so “Oh Shit, James Yancey!!!” moments. With six tracks total on Labcabincalifornia, Dilla became the lead architect of the Pharcyde’s funky new melancholy sound. And this is more or less how I fell in love with hip-hop again, 13 years after it started in earnest (for me, anyway) with “Sucker M.C.’s.”

In a genre populated by some of the least musical “musicians,” James “Jay Dee” Yancey stood out as a bonafide hip-hop virtuoso. Itching to explore other instruments beyond my 1200’s drew me to more of his work. His programming belied more than a working knowledge of drums, and those basslines (oh those basslines…) showed his great grasp of melody. This marriage of street sensibilities and sound musical theory is why Dilla could collab with French electronica act Daft Punk and Janet Jackson one week, Common and fellow Detroit rapper Royce Da 5’9” the next.

The Roots’ drummer Questlove recently claimed on his Myspace blog that Dilla was D’Angelo’s inspiration, at least in part, for Voodoo. Imagine that! (To understand D’Angelo, peep “Tell Me” off Fantastic, Vol. 2 and listen to how Jay deconstructs “Jonz In My Bonz.” While you’re there, peep how James Brown is manipulated as a guest vocalist on “I Don’t Know.”)

Tragically, he would die three days after the release of his new instrumental album Donuts—also three days after his 32nd birthday.) Many of us will naturally rue the fact that the rest of the world never quite caught onto our ambassador. But luckily we have “Welcome 2 Detroit 2” to look forward to, as well as the inevitable flood of unreleased material.

And his influence is far and wide. He perfected the “drunken” drum style—snares and claps meeting “late” on the 2 and 4. (My unofficial research says this is the most widely co-opted production technique of the last five to six years.) He was adored in Japan and Europe, and although American audiences at large weren’t enamored, his sound helped to define the new East Coast-centric aesthetic. (To say nothing of an entire R&B sub-genre.)

Basically Mr. Yancey—thank you for helping hip-hop grow up. We are all in your debt.

And thank you Imani, Bootie Brown, Fatlip and Slim Kid Tre.

Pizla, 2/23/06

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