J Dilla is often known as the ‘producer’s producer’ for the fact that most of the big-name hip-hop producers - such as Pharell Williams - name-check him as their favourite producer.
J Dilla produced most of my favourite hip-hop tunes and acts, ranging from The Roots to The Pharcyde to De La Soul to Slum Village. Also, when he passed away from a blood disease, he left behind a philosophy and style now rare in hip-hop, a mindset of just doing something for the love of it.
As I get older, and wiser (I hope!), I’m learning more and more that things come easier in life when love is involved. If you love what you’re doing, then you will excel at it. J Dilla wrote some of the most incredible beats ever made, because that was what he loved. Even when he was on his death bed, he was still making simple beats on drum machines and what not, as that was who he was.
I hope I find my true calling in life, that something that you never want to stop doing until the day you drop dead.
This is my ultimate J Dilla track, featuring one of my favourite singers, D’Angelo, and Common. Everything about this song makes me fall in love with it; it is sublime.
“People laugh at me because I am different, I laugh at everyone else because they are all the same”. J Dilla
J Dilla feat. Common & D’Angelo ‘So Far To Go’
