A J Dilla Story Written By Hex Murda
Here Is A Story About The Late/ Great J Dilla Written By Detroit’s Own Hex Murda
James Dewitt Yancey
“J. Dilla”
Feb. 7, 1974 - Feb 10, 2006
I wasn’t sure I would ever tell anyone this story, but I feel like it needs to be heard. I wrote this 12 years ago for a blog I had, the Fuck A Blog, blog. I cleaned it up a bit, but not much. Before I start writing a bunch of crud & nobody knows who the fuck I am, I use to manage Black Milk, Guilty Simpson Elzhi, & Danny Brown. But before I managed those guys I was Slum Village’s road manager.This chronicles the first few days when we found out that the great J Dilla had passed.
It starts over a year ago, on Feb 10th, 2006. I was in Fribourg, Switzerland with Slum Village & we were eating pre-show dinner in the back of the venue. The European tour mgrs phone rings. Nobody pays too much attention, we just keep eatin’ & talkin’ shit. Howi (the EU tm) gives T3 the phone, & says “It’s Tim” (SV’s mgr). T3 listens for a minute, then gets a totally blank look on his face. Totally absent of any type of emotion. He hands the phone back to Howi & looks at all of us (me, El, & Dez) with a blank expression, not saying a word, his mouth forming a small “O”. Finally I spoke. “What, n—a? Who the fuck got killed THIS time?” He turned around to look at me. & said, “Dilla just died”. Nobody said a fucking word for a few seconds. Then Dez said, “Man, I gotta smoke.” T3 went in the back to use the computer, Elzhi sat at the table looking numb, & I went in the back to check on T3. Mind you, this is approximately 30-45 minutes before the FIRST date on this EU tour, I think it was about 12-15 dates. Howi asked me did we still want to do the show-no brainer-“YES”. There’s no way Dilla’s death was going to silence his music in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
The show must go on.
We walk on to the stage, the venue is packed. Dez is on the tables, I’m punching the buttons on the Instant Replay. (Dez already did A LOT of shit on the SV show, we took that off his plate) I hit the first joint–“GIANT” from the self-titled lp. 3 & El come out, killing it. It goes right into the next song, “SET IT”. At the end of the joint, 3 tells me to hold up. He addresses the crowd, & informs them that J.Dilla has passed form. The majority of these kids don’t even speak English. As I peered out into the crowd, I saw people wearing, “J.DILLA CHANGED MY LIFE” shirts & other types of Dilla & Slum memorabilia, some shit that I hadn’t seen in the states in YEARS. T3 asked for a moment of silence, & some dude yelled out in broken English,
“J.DILLA IS A GOD!” The crowd screamed it’s approval, T3 said “Hit it”, & the show went on. The ride back to the hotel was quiet, nobody said much of shit. Everybody alone w/ his own thoughts, thinking about a fallen friend. The tour instantly became a Dilla tribute tour of sorts.
The next day in Zurich, one of the opening acts had a painter onstage. He painted throughout their whole set, & left it onstage when they got off. It was a portrait of Dilla. He gave it to us. (You can see it in my pics on my myspace page). T3 flew to LA for the funeral & missed two dates, one in Belgium & one in Germany. Elzhi HELD IT THE FUCK DOWN, you hear me? & the crowds gave so much love, because they knew mufukas were going through SOME SHIT. A friend of ours from London flew into the Belgium gig to show support.
Imagine that shit. You’re halfway around the fucking world, heart heavy as a mufuka, doing what amounts to a one person SV show & you see this funny looking, funny talking,
scarf-wearing African dude in the middle of the crowd, w/ his hands up the whole night w/ a shit-eating grin on his face & at that moment he becomes the most beautiful person in the world. We talked, kicked it about Dilla & he told us he’d see us in London.
Those first few days were some FUCKED UP DAYS, I’ll tell you. A whole lot of internet, phone calls, red eyes & shit, you know? But the shit started to change. We incorporated a “DillaTribute” into the set. More & more fans were showing up wearing Dilla shirts & anyone who got a chance to talk to the group expressed nothing but love & respect for Dilla AND SV. But the wounds were fresh, niggas were still hurt, & the press didn’t give a fuck. I had to monitor all interviews and give a limit to the # of questions that could be asked about Dilla.
Dilla was ALWAYS the shit overseas, & his death drove the music media into a frenzy. How many times can T3 answer “How do you feel about J.Dilla’s passing?” What the fuck did they expect him to say? We could see people suddenly referring to Dilla as a “legend” or an “icon”, but he already was that to us. As a matter of fact, the day before he passed, me,T3 & Dez were in my room in London talking about Dilla & if the world & especially the U.S. would ever completely understand his genius. I swear to God, Dez said, “Man, nobody’s gonna really realize how sweet Dilla is until he’s gone.” We all agreed wholeheartedly. Foreshadowing for your ass, huh? Anyfukingway, tour ends, we come home.
There had been all types of J.Dilla tributes & memorials & shit while we were gone, so obviously SV wasn’t able to be a part of them. We didn’t mind though. Almost every night for a month we held our own J.Dilla tributes & memorials on the other side of the planet, & I believe those audiences needed to see SV & hear that classic Dilla shit just as badly as SV needed to give it to them. Therapy. After that first night in Switzerland, we never did “A MOMENT OF SILENCE” again. It was always a moment of NOISE & the crowd ALWAYS gladly complied.
You know, it’s sad that Dilla died. He had family, friends, & fans that really miss him. We’ll never hear a brand new Dilla verse or beat again, & that makes me sad as fuck. Then I think about all the impeccable music that he left behind for us to remember him by.
Dilla’s music didn’t die with Dilla, man.
It’s never gonna die.
Turn it up.
