Dawson's Ink

There’s an article that appeared in the February 25, 2006 edition of the Detroit Free Press, written by journalist Kelley Carter, that details the last days of James Yancey, better known as J Dilla, or Jay Dee. The wonderfully written article walks us through his pain as he battled an incurable disease that started with flu-like symptoms, and left him with both kidney failure and possibly a form of lupus. It gives us all we need to know about the Motown native, and how he valued his privacy and his music above all else, and about how his mother stayed with him through high fives and low moments. It tells us about his his determination, about his wanting to spend his 32nd birthday at his Los Angeles home and not stuck in a hospital bed, and his wanting to live to see the release of his final album, Donuts. He did both. He died three days later.

Today, he would’ve been 36.

Today, on his birthday, we celebrate a life that was taken too soon by illness and disease. We celebrate the beats that made all of us nod our heads to the point of near concussion. We celebrate his entire body of work, even as he worked long after his body had shut down on him. Today, February 7th, as you think of Janet Jackson’s “Got Til It’s Gone,” and Slum Village, and Q-Tip, of Common’s Like Water for Chocolate and Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah Part I, and the fact that they were all blessed with production from Jay Dee, nod your head like this. Make it count. And think of the superlatives that come to mind as you listen to a J Dilla beat: Phenomenal. Beastly. Dope. Funky.

Today, as you do all of that, please celebrate a man and his music. Personally, I won’t choose to focus on his illness, but rather his ill beats, like the one below he gave to the Cali collective Pharcyde, and their hit, “Runnin’.”

James Yancey, you were a bad, bad man. Happy Birthday.

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